You don’t have to go far from home to have an adventure – especially around here. Having arrived back from The Fort late last night, we had a few hours this morning to get packed for our first overnight cycle tour from The Cottage. By midday, we’d checked the tyres on my classic 1994 Halfords Apollo, (squishy but rideable), got a few essentials packed into the tiny panniers, and were ready to set off.

It felt super exciting to be setting off on a journey into the unknown, from home and under our own steam.

After a brief start on the road, we were soon established on the cycle track down towards Bangor, which has recently been linked to near us by travelling through some old railway tunnels under the village of Tregarth.

The psych was high as we enjoyed the smooth, flat tarmac…

A strong southerly wind and slight downhill gradient took us rapidly through some old woodlands and under plenty more railway bridges. Then suddenly, we reached the seaside in the form of the Menai Straits at Bangor Boat Yard.

The ‘City of Learning’ was packed with obstacles, mostly in the form of people and a market. We wove our way through the various bits of bike lanes and across town, making the station with ten minutes to spare.

Having reserved the only two available bike racks, we wheeled ourselves onboard and forty-five minutes later, wheeled back off at the Port of Holyhead. The holidays were on! As you cross the bridge over the harbour from the station, there is some coloured perspex on the sides of the bridge which makes the water look a tropical turquoise colour. With that and the funky bridge design, it all felt very holidayesque.

It was only a short ride west to the coast and we took our first stop at Porth Daffach to soak up some rays and watch some kayakers.

From there, we followed the coast road past several little bays and some nice houses to Trearddur Bay. Recent storms had washed sand right up over the promenade which made for some heavy going for a while. It was busy in the bay, so rather than call in for a reminisce where we got married, we carried on to the far headland and had a snack looking out over the bay.

The sun stayed out making it reasonably warm for the time of year. We were revelling in the fact that we were away and on a self-sufficient journey. We chuckled at our ‘non-pro’ kit too. So far the bike was holding up well; the panniers (given to me circa 1995 by Mr Davenport), had remained in place and my helmet (bought a couple of days ago from a bargain bucket in Tesco for £2.00) remained very comfy. It felt good to be ‘back on the tour’….

Our destination for the night was the little village of ‘Four Mile Bridge’, where the tide was high and the views over to home and the mountains of Snowdonia looked fantastic.

While checking the GPS, I made a slight blunder with timings. I read that the time was 3:35, when actually I was looking at the ‘time travelled so far’ section. Thinking that we’d got ages until sunset, (and in the absence of any nearby cafes), we popped into a nearby pub called the Anchorage.

And ordered a Guinness to celebrate the day! Given that the sun was beginning to set, we were a little confused at the time of day, so re-checked and realised my mistake.

Luckily, we were only a few peddle turns away from the luxury and comforts of a tiny boathouse bedroom. The perfect stopover for a night on ‘the tour’…

Day one was complete at a very respectable 30km of cycling.