Porthmadog; Friday, 29 April, 2011

I had spent the night in Birmingham as I wanted to get the early train from there out to Porthmadog, so at a little after 8am I found myself on the train at New Street station heading for Wales.

The first part of the journey across the West Midlands and then across Wales wasn’t the most interesting train ride in the country, but as the train ploughed on further into Wales the scenery got progressively more stunning.

I had to change trains at Machynlleth which in itself was a stunning location. The train ride from there on along the Cambrian coast being continuously stunning virtually the whole way. I arrived in Porthmadog a little before 1 and quickly made my way round to the hotel to check in, drop my stuff off and head out again.

First stop was the Welsh Highland Line station to purchase a ticket for the only train of the day to Caernarfon for the following morning, and then a wander back up to the national rail station to catch the train back a couple of stops to Harlech.

Harlech is home to a stunning castle and I had a long wander around this and the village before walking back down to the station and catching the train another couple of stops along the line to Abermaw/Barmouth.

Abermaw is a pretty little coastal resort with wide sandy beaches, sand dunes and the stunning hills of Snowdonia coming almost down onto the beaches. I had a wander around the town and the beach for a while before it was time to start making my way back to the station and the train back to Porthmadog.

Everything was going fine until we reached Tygwyn station where things went a bit wrong. The level crossing had failed and as the road is very fast at this point the train couldn’t just creep across in case something came over the hill at speed and slammed straight into it. Eventually, after 40 minutes of waiting they were able to stop the traffic and let us move across.

By the time I got back into Porthmadog it was starting to get dark so I grabbed some dinner from the Tesco by the station and headed back to the hotel.