Moelfre, Anglesey and a Bit of Plane Spotting

After a recent bout of Covid left us both feeling rubbish for a week, we decided to have change of scenery and a blast of sea air. Packing up Zagan the motorhome, we headed for Anglesey, after having recently stopped there for two nights on our way back from touring Ireland. We have toured Anglesey in our campervan in the days before we were OurTour. But as that was over a decade ago, neither of us can remember very much about it, so it was like visiting somewhere new.

Searching Park4Night I highlighted a few places to stop, then remembered it’s the school summer holidays – peak season and by the sea in Blighty? What were we thinking? I opened the Camping and Caravan Club ‘Out and About’ App and typed in Anglesey. Up popped three Temporary Holiday Sites (THS) on the island, one of which was open for the whole of August.

We’ve used THSs several times in the past. They’re the main reason we continue our membership of the Camping and Caravan Club. THSs generally open during school holidays and offer ‘no frills’ camping. They are usually just a field and provide grey and black water disposal, fresh water and bins as a minimum. A quick text to the site warden confirmed they had space for us at the THS next to Dafarn Rhos Campsite in Moelfre (N53.356991, W4.260791), so satnav was programmed and Zagan loaded up. Four hours of traffic-free driving later, we arrived.

Pulling onto the site we were greeted by Jackie, one of the site wardens. Her caravan had an awning stuffed full with beach toys and camping essentials for sale, and a smaller tent next door was choc full of sweeties – child heaven. After paying our £12.80 per night in cash, Jackie showed us to our pitch and we were surprised to find that the site not only had the usual facilities, but also several electric hook up points at an extra £5.50 a night. There were also portable loos and showers (tokens were needed for the showers).

Being only a few hundred meters from a fantastic beach, you could quite easily set yourself up here for the entire month and use it as a base to explore the island. It would certainly be a lot cheaper than the campsite next door which was around £40 per night (for two adults) with hook up, or £46 if you wanted a sea view.

We took a walk down to Lliwgy Beach, it was the busiest beach we’ve seen in a long time. Families had great set ups with windbreaks, tents, stand up paddle boards and of course festival carts to drag it all from the car to their patch of sand for the day. The sea was very shallow for a long way out and on the beach were a couple of places doing food, some loos and of course an ice cream hut. It was £8 to park there for 12 hours, which made our THS seem even more of a bargain.

After exploring the area we retreated back to Zagan to chill out, before heading back to the beach at sunset. Everything was much quieter and we walked a little way along the coastal path to watch the sun set over the bay. A lovely way to start any trip.

The following morning we headed out for a run along the coastal path. We both headed in the direction of Moelfre with Jay setting off about 20 minutes behind me. After stopping several times to chat with locals, look at the views, monuments and read information boards (any excuse to stop really!), unsurprisingly Jay caught me up before I’d even reached the village.

Once in Moelfre I explored the lifetboat house and the memorials outside the sealife centre. Here I read about the ‘Royal Charter’ steam clipper which was anchored in a storm in October 1859. Both anchor chains were broken by the storm and the ship was smashed onto the rocks on the path I had just run along. The ship was coming back from Austrailia and had a lot of gold miners on board. Over 400 lives were lost, some possibly due to not wanting to let go of the gold they had on them, all just 50 yards from safety. One of the folks I chatted to told me that some people in the area got very rich following the wreck as gold washed up on the shore, and gold has been found as recently as 2012. I was tempted to send Jay out in his wetsuit and snorkel, just in case!

My morning run chats were worth it, as I got lots of tips from locals about things to see and do in the area. In the afternoon we walked about a mile from the campsite to an ancient burial tomb, an old chapel and an ancient village. The only sign they were there was a small signpost at the junction to the campsite (overshadowed by a much bigger sign for the beach) and a couple of metal gates in the hedges to give access to the sites.

The burial tomb was thought to date back to 2500BC. Having visited a site in Antequera in Spain where they explained how dolmens like this were created, I’m always in awe at the amount of work that must have gone into not only positioning the rocks, but getting them to that field in the first place.

Looking around, you could see why this field was chosen, with sweeping views across to Snowdonia and Yr Wyddfa on the mainland. We rounded the day off with a sunset paddle at the beach and that night we both slept like logs.

I’d posted a photo over on our Instagram saying we were heading for Anglesey, and Pjmonsar got in touch to say that RAF Valley was having a family day on the other side of the island and that they tend to put on a bit of an air show for it. Jay had been talking about going to an air show for a while, but we initially discounted it as we’d paid for three nights where we were. Waking up we decided to go for it, after all the other side of the island was only just over half an hour away.

We left our camping chairs and table on our pitch and set off to Rhosneigr which is a seaside village which happens to be at the end of the runway for RAF Valley. As usual we had done no planning, so didn’t have a clue where to park or what we were going to see. At one point I had to jump out of Zagan to see if we would squeeze under a low railway bridge – the sign said 9′ 6″ and as far as we know Zagan is 9′ 5″ but we’re not sure if that includes that satellite dish. With our hearts still racing from inching under without a scraping sound, we breathed a huge sigh of relief when we spotted a huge field that had been turned into a car park for us plane spotters.

As we happily paid our £5 to park for the day, we were told that the golf club had opened its doors so folks could go in for food, drink or to use the loo. We didn’t need any of those, but couldn’t have been better placed right at the end of the runway.

Chatting to other folks in the car park who had been a few times before, they suggested that the sand dunes either side of the runway were a good viewing spot, so we packed some snacks and headed over there. As it was still a couple of hours before it started, we got front row dune seats – although we did regret leaving our camping chairs back at the campsite.

Rumours went around the watchers in the dunes about start times, what we going to be flying and when. In the end we had around four hours of on and off planes, helicopters and parachutes. Jet engines flew by, by-planes looped overhead and we didn’t have a clue what most of them were.

No one knew which direction things were coming from, so it was all eyes to the horizons between displays. From the roar of the Eurofighter Typhoons taking off to the screaming of an F35 flying overhead and the hum of a spitfire dancing across the sky, we had a fantastic day. Thanks for the tip Pjmonsar.

As our planned trip to look around Moelfre was changed to a day at the air show, we made a point of stopping off as we left the THS this morning. We had a walk around the village and spotted a large field in the village overlooking the sea which was an empty campsite. Looking at the access road, it must be for tents only as we’d never get Zagan down there, but we were very surprised to see it so empty.

Our next destination was chosen due to its proximity to a Parkrun. We’re about 3km away from the start, so will have a good warm up to get there. Fingers crossed for nice weather on Saturday morning for the Nant y Pandy Parkrun.

Ju x