A 2 hour flight to Phuket from CM and off to the port for a boat to Koh Yao Noi. It takes 45 minutes in a newish looking boat. On the list it said 300 baht (£7) for speed and 200 baht long tail. Speed it was.

3 big engines on flat calm water. 15 people on board. Almost 60 miles an hour, it flew, smooth and fast past some of Thailands most iconic water landscape. Dense jungly Karste mounds pushing haphazardly out of the sea, bathed in a ghostly haze. Only needs James Bond popping up with his jet pack….

The island is really small. Only one seven 11, a market and a few Thai village shops. A handful of hotels, guesthouses and restaurants. It’s predominantly a Muslim island, there are several mosques and we happen to be right next door to one in our bungalow.

The owner of the bungalow is a charming young woman called Cha. She comes to chat every morning and brings water, fruit and good cheer. 5 times a day they do a call for prayers, even the one at 5am is not a problem. The Iman has a lovely gravelly voice and I find it quite soporific, and go straight back to sleep.

We have friends just arrived on the island, 25 minutes up the coast on a road which is slippery mud, steep inclines and drops, deeply rutted, boulder strewn and so precarious that even the locals don’t like to travel on it! I just close my eyes and hope for the best. Chris is very good on the bike thank goodness! It’s lovely to see friends, we had been counting down the days until they’re arrival and it’s been well worth the drive.

They are staying on a private hillside leading to a beach and in the gardens they have the smallest of the hornbill birds, called oriental pied hornbills. They are everywhere on the island and numerous. So are monitor lizards, monkeys, and an assortment of wildlife. The resort is remote and almost (we got there) inaccessible! It’s very exclusive and gorgeous. Grateful to share it with them. It’s called Paradise and it is…

The boys went scuba diving near Pi Pi Island for the day.

We girls stayed on the beautiful tropical beach with a bottle of Prosecco, lovely

The bungalow we are in is right next to a rubber plantation and surrounded by lush jungle with banana and coconut palms and all sorts of tropical plants. The cicadas, hornbills, insects, birds, geckos all kick off at sunrise and sunset. It’s a rising crescendo sounding like electrical humming then squeaking and chirruping like an eclectic animal orchestra with random soloists joining in, frogs and tokay lizards (which shout their own name and sound half dog, half frog!) and goodness knows what! Layer upon layer of sounds, it’s mesmerising and really quite loud. It goes on for ages twice a day.

It has rained most days. Tropical rainforest rain, heavy with lots of thunder. First comes the wind…We got caught out on the bike and were absolutely drenched in seconds. Lots of ‘ows’ as we were peppered with rain that felt like bullets. It does cool everything down quickly, it can get really steamy.

The island has lots of rubber trees, pineapples and fishing boats, it is very rural. The people fish and some look very poor. There are lots of Burmese working the rubber plantations and the restaurants. The islanders have suffered with the lockdown like many tourist spots. At least they have many natural resources and they all grow vegetables and have chickens. Strangely not many dogs but hundreds of cats and we seem to have the only dogs on the island, 5 dogs which latterly have been sleeping under our bungalow. When the Iman sings so do the dogs..they are very sweet and good natured. The islanders don’t seem to like dogs so if the dogs think you might like them they get really giddy. This one almost takes off with its helicopter tail.

We are leaving on Friday, taking the boat to Krabi and then a bus to Surat Thani where we stay the night. We then travel 5 hours on a train to Prachuap Khiri Khan a Thai beach resort very close to Myanmar to meet up with friends from Chiang Mai. It has been fun.

The flower festival in CM is our favourite event, always the first weekend in February at the end of the cool season. Sadly this year there will be no parade which is our very favourite part. We loved watching all the decorated floats, marching bands, kids, everyone in their National dress in a parade that lasted at least 4 hours and was great fun and a real spectacle. There will still be a beautiful floral display not just in the park where it’s normally held but now in another venue as well near the Town Hall outside the city next to a very large lake. There was no flower festival last year at all so we should be grateful.

We arrived early for the flower festival at the Town Hall it’s on for 15 days. At every event now your vaccination certificates are checked and your temperature taken.

We came back later in the day for the sound and light extravaganza on the lake, fairy lights everywhere.

The original venue, the park inside the city was on for 3 days. We went early again as rain was forecast. There wasn’t a parade but there were beautifully decorated floats outside the park, the floral aroma of millions (literally) of flowers, lingering in the warm still air. The skill shown was outstanding.

Inside the park was just as beautiful, hordes of workers had spent 2 weeks planting and building the tunnels and features. We kept going for sneaky peeks through the netting…

As we were there so early the bonsai, bromeliads and all the other exotic plants were still being judged in the competitions.

Glad we went early. The heavens opened. Coming from Manchester we think we ‘know’ rain but this was biblical in it’s intensity. The noise of the water ever increasing, the black grey sky lit up by lightning and soon after booming thunder vibrating through your body, rolling through the mountains. At least they won’t have to water anything for a while.

We are leaving CM today and heading south. White sands and azure water for the next month, meeting friends, can’t wait.

We’re off on an Elephant hunt. Not a Victorian style hunt but a ‘shower them with love’ hunt. When the pandemic started and Thailand closed down to tourists a lot of the elephant camps had to close so some mahouts walked the elephants back home to their villages, some many miles away, it took them weeks. Many have not returned. About 30 minutes out of CM in Mae Rim north of the city there are a quite a few touristy elephant camps. We have passed them a few times and seen only one elephant. Their deep musty aroma once in your memory is unmistakable.

Animal welfare has improved immensely in CM mostly because of pressure from western tourists. They objected to cages on elephants backs for riding, the hooked stick the mahouts use as control and these things are now better. Not all of Thailand is like this. In the ancient capital Ayutthaya, near Bangkok, we visited a few years ago and they had elephant parades, hooked sticks, cages for riding….

It was all Asian tourists that wanted this, 4 people riding on a cage, asking the mahouts to make the animals do tricks. I wasn’t happy at all.

The best ethical Elephant Camp in Thailand is close to CM and even now has a 2 year waiting list to visit or volunteer (you pay handsomely to volunteer). All 75 elephants are free to roam within her land and the woman who runs it is very famous and admired for her work, her name is Lek Chailert. Would love to visit it’s called Elephant Nature Park. All the resident nellies have been rescued from logging and abusive, sad situations all around Northern Thailand. There are lots of videos of her on YouTube.

It’s normally on the way back from Doi Inthanon, Thailand’s highest mountain, that we see elephants in a place called Mae Wang. We ask the mahouts if we can take a picture and say hello. The last few years it has been after they have finished with tourist groups, later in the day. We especially like an elephant called Vasi, she’s so sweet.

We drove to Mae Wang, heart of Elephant country. Lying in a valley with a broad flat sandy river meandering under bridges and through densely forested areas. It’s very pretty and pretty wild!

We passed a couple of empty corals fearing the worst. Then a couple of miles further on we could smell them before we saw them. We drove in and were invited in to feed the elephants some bananas. This wasn’t where we were expecting to see them.

It had changed ownership from when we’d last called in there, friendly and professional. They had a coffee shop and restaurant overlooking the river with rafters passing beneath us, great spot and good name. It’s called Coffee with Elephants. Behind the coffee shop was another coral with a mother and calf. Took some sneaky photos.

Further into the mountains our favourite elephant, to our delight, was in residence. So we knocked on the mahouts dormitory door, nothing…. 5 minutes later he turned up on his bike and when asked said yes we could take some pictures. He went and got an enormous bunch of bananas and we got to see Vasi.

We were so happy, my heart melts when I see her. We’re sure she remembers us, maybe wishful thinking on our part, we did have food! If you blow up her bristly muddy trunk she responds with dreamy looking eyes then blows back. If you had a hat on it would be gone. It’s a very joyful game. She likes to touch you and is very playful.

Chris got a full face snotty snorkel kiss, he couldn’t have been happier. Happy, happy. It’s always a real treat to get so close to them, we would have felt really glum if we hadn’t seen her and all the other nellies. It’s always a highlight of our trip.

A few years ago we drove the bike from CM to Lampang. It was a nightmare journey on a busy 3 lane superhighway with double sized trucks thundering past feeling very vulnerable on a small bike. We had found out you could put the bike on the train so enquired at the main train station in CM. It seemed easy. Train leaves at 6.30am, arrive an hour earlier bring your passport. 600 baht for bike and 45 baht each for train fare. We got up at 4.45 drove to station and they said you need your green book which is the log book. We explained it was a rental bike and they said NO cannot. Plan B was either don’t go or take a different route. We decided to take the bike the scenic route. Leaving at 6 it was teeth chatteringly cold as we drove up to the next mountain, Doi Suket. We passed the hot springs, it was tempting to stop! We thought we could stop for a coffee after an hour or so, nowhere was open. We passed a big group of elderly Thais with wobbly push bikes loaded with luggage going camping, the roads so steep their legs were pumping furiously one of them with an actual kitchen sink…

The road was amazing. More twists than a Chubby Checker summer and deserted. It was cold but we pressed on driving up steep hills and deep twisty drops. We eventually found a coffee shop in a coffee growing area. Growers were raking out the freshly harvested beans on big tarpaulins and all by the roadside large low tables were full of coffee beans in their varying stages of drying out.

The unmissable smell of woodsmoke lingered in the air and the smell of roasting coffee tantalising. Warmed by the dark, strong nectar we carried on.

We play ‘what’s that smell’ in the mountains. Dry leaf smells, herbally aromatics, food cooking, medicinal, animal, citrus it changes around every bend. The roads have ochre coloured steep mountain banks with tree roots, bamboo and saplings on the side of every road with deep gulleys to stop the water in the rainy season washing the road away. In these banks are holes, some inhabited with birds, occasionally snakes and spiders mostly funnel webs but sometimes tarantulas.

Chris likes to have a nosey about. He found a tarantula in its nest and when he put a stick just near the hole the spider came out like an angry jack in the box…..made me jump!

We came to a viewpoint and you could see for miles over several mountain ranges as far as Laos, misty mountain tops and valleys just rolling away, endlessly.

It was a 3 hour journey and when we eventually dropped down into the verdant green valley, the vista opened up and the suns warmth penetrated our many layers the heat bouncing off the long open roads.

The valley grew corn and rice, workers in the paddy fields had big bundles of rice plants in their hands which they threw into the water, perfectly positioning the rice like dart players. Big smiles all round.

There was a teak temple in the village, very simple

We found our bungalow accommodation and dropped off our rucksack. It had a perfect view of the big ridge where we were headed to Wat Chaloem Phra Kiet, the temple of the floating pagodas. One of the most impressive temples in Thailand.

We set off across the rice fields and eventually found the temple road. About a third of the way up was a ticket booth and a very friendly thai girl advised us what to do. Her name was Nut who was with her brother Dao visiting from Lampang. We bought a ticket which included a ride up a very steep road in a pick up truck. Chris and Dao sat in the back with 6 visiting friendly monks and we sat in the cab at the front, not allowed to sit with the monks. They drop you off and then there is a 840 metre walk up to the top. If you go, do it in the morning before it gets too hot..it was steps all the way up.

The temple comprises of a golden pagoda, a prayer hall and white stupas that sit precariously on limestone pinnacles like Christmas decorations. Huge gongs and bells rung out, the monks having fun ringing everything, giggling and enthusiastic. Whenever we crossed paths they wanted to chat.

The view from the top was amazing, you could see for miles. We stayed with our new Thai friends who were good fun and spoke good English. The ridge itself is limestone karst, some of the rock is sonorous, if you hit it with metal it rings like a bell.

We headed into the small town and found a noodle soup shop. Tom yam with extra dumplings which was really tasty. We then returned to our room for a shower. Later on, ravenously hungry (it was all the exercise) we went looking for somewhere to eat. It was a disaster, nowhere was open. We drove round and round the small town, the villagers were looking at us suspiciously, almost dragging the kids away as we had been circling like Apaches on a mission! We ended up buying fried chicken and sticky rice off a roadside vendor and returning back to the room. We never imagined you wouldn’t find anywhere to eat in Thailand but there were no tourists and obviously little money. We’d been spoilt by CM.

We slept well, the kind friendly owners brought us coffee at 8. We decided we would take the same road back through the coffee growing area and beautiful mountain roads but leaving later in the morning when it wasn’t as mind numbingly cold. We stopped in a very trendy coffee shop on the way back before returning to CM. It was a 200 km round trip, that night we slept like babies

The air is surprisingly clear, the mountain is in full crystal view. It’s normally this time of year the haze appears from a combination of road pollution and the burning of the fields in the mountains, but it’s not started yet. We decided to go up and over the mountain. The road is beautifully smooth with outrageous cambers and jaw dropping turns. We dodged sleeping dogs on the roads swaying on the little bike beside eye watering, boulder lined vertical drops. Fortunately the road is still quiet, not many tourists or their demonic vehicles, tour buses and local taxis. It’s exhilarating. We pass our once favourite temple half way up

and drive past the blingy main temple on the top. We have visited this temple many times.

Suddenly feeling the chill on the sunless roads, the trees like green giants cutting out any light lining the route up to Bhuping Palace, the Kings residence in CM.

The roads narrow on the approach as we pass the Kings helicopter pad and we stop for a hot coffee outside the palace and let the full adrenaline rush of the journey dissipate. We avoid the palace which we have also visited often and go to the lookout over the city. We are at 1676 metres.

There is a Hmong village a few miles further on. A sign says something in Thai on the road, which we ignore and end up after a short while on a dirt track, they are redoing the road surface. I hate off roading with a passion, Chris is in his element dodging big wagons and road workers with inches to spare, ridged wet craters, no barriers on this road just endless drops to oblivion, AARGH. This road seems suddenly busy with cars, tyres perilously near the edge overtaking concrete mixers and other vehicles on a narrowing road. The turns in the road so sharp there are signs to sound your horn before continuing. Getting too old for this……We arrived at a coffee shop in the village overlooking coffee plants and cherry blossom in a deep valley, trying to drum up the enthusiasm for the journey back. AC/DC springs to mind..Highway to Hell.

The trip back was much easier, hallelujah

The sky is very clear at night. The alignment of the planets, a once in our lifetime occurrence is in full clear view. The next time this happens is in 130 years. Chris took a few pictures. Here are a few shots of the moon and some of the planets. Jupiter with some of its moons all in a line and Saturn. Fabulous to see.

It gets to this point in our travels when we both get a bit a bit bored with standard Thai food twice a day. We were invited with friends to a new Japanese restaurant. It had everything on its menu. Sushi, sashimi and an endless list of foods I had never heard of. It was exquisite.

Now the New Year holidays are over it feels safe to travel further afield on the roads again. The road deaths over the holidays are shocking mostly from drink driving. We are planning a road trip and an overnight stay in Lampang province to see a spectacular temple high in the mountains and enjoy the amazing scenery and roads Northern Thailand has to offer. To be continued…

New year in CM. We went out early for a simple Thai meal and then came back to the balcony at the hotel, loaded with drinks and snacks to enjoy the festivities from our lofty position looking towards the mountain. Fireworks started early, spasmodically, but at midnight the firework display was immense. Huge balls of colour, the sonic bangs slicing through the warm dark night, one after another all over the city, a psychedelic explosive extravaganza. Fantastic.

A trip to the Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden was on the cards and we left early, wearing jackets in the cool morning air. It takes 30 minutes, I get in for free now, I’ll take all the concessions I can get! The park is 6,500 acres of prime forest, the gardens immaculate and the grass manicured like a bowling green, flower beds as far as the eye can see. We head straight to the glass houses which were slightly disappointing compared to previous visits but then nothing is as it was….I think the gardens have been closed until recently but I’m sure it will return to its former glory. Still amazing. My favourite glasshouses are the bromeliad (air plants) and the cacti.

The walkway which is the longest in Thailand follows the tops of the trees with a view of all the surrounding mountains and jungle. It’s named after the Flying Drako Lizard only found in CM. You need a head for heights standing on clear glass and an enormous drop….great to see some of the indigenous Thais, the Akha out and about in their colourful national dress and state of the art mobile phones!

The zoo in CM is at the base of Doi Suthep in the foothills. I know zoos aren’t ‘fashionable’ or very eco but this one was started for all the right reasons many years ago, looking after injured animals from the surrounding jungle and forests. They were looked after by tribal Thais and it got bigger and bigger. The Thai King gave a large chunk of land to the state and it is one of the best zoos I have been to, mainly for its natural surroundings, warmth and huge enclosures for the animals. It’s a great 3-4 hour walk and you can buy food and feed the animals, it all helps. It’s very reasonable (compared to the UK and Europe), £3.50 for 2 of us. My favourites are the binterong, red panda and the fenic fox. I also had a long conversation with a couple of parrots and was attacked by an aggressive pheasant much to Chris’s amusement.

The coffee in Thailand is second to none. It’s grown extensively in the mountains especially in Chiang Rai in the North and coffee shops are everywhere.

An organic coffee costs less than £1, I have become addicted to Iced coffees and have at least 2 a day. There is real skill with the preparation and presentation and we especially like a young guy whose family grow the coffee organically and roast it, he serves it from a roadside hut with a glass of water and a charming likeable manner. Costa and all the other ‘known’ coffee shops could learn a thing or 2 from these guys.

Huay Tung Tao reservoir is about 15 minutes out of town. It is 100 baht to go in as a foreigner or 20 baht as a Thai. I keep trying to tell them I’m Thai but they won’t have it….people fish, there is a zip line if you need an adrenaline boost and long lines of cute reed thatched huts just hanging on the waters edge.

You can have food and drinks brought to you as you dip your feet into the cool waters with a view of the green, lush mountains. You can stay in huts overnight and there are still huge straw animals which have survived the rainy season surprisingly, always good for a photo op, grrr

Travelling in times of covid is tricky as you’ll know if you have been abroad in the last 12 months. Thailand is not easy at the best of times. It took a full day of booking flights and insurance before you could apply for a visa and permission to travel. Booked tests in the UK and hotel for quarantine in Bangkok. Lots of paperwork to do but not impossible

We flew to Doha and then to Bangkok. Getting off the plane the heat haze bounced off the concrete prickling the skin. Different aromas and food smells pervading our nostrils, my tastebuds were twitching in eager anticipation. We’ve arrived. You have to wear a mask everywhere now, it’s still the ‘land of smiles’ but now ‘smiley eyes’ Even the customs guy said ‘welcome’ We were picked up and taken to our quarantine hotel. The traffic in Bangkok is really crazy like a 70’s video game glad I wasn’t driving..we passed the PCR test and stayed in a nice hotel.

We jumped on the sky train the next day to the airport and back to Chiang Mai. Woo hoo.

Little has changed in our small Thai village, things here are fluid anyway but luckily all our favourite places and friends have survived. First things first, iced coffee and food glorious food.

Hotels and condos are all much cheaper some 50% less than they were 2 years ago but that will change as it gets busier. Our hotel is now £125 a month, free coffee and bananas, linen changed and room cleaned weekly. The only problem was a new steak restaurant had opened and they thought that angle grinding, welding and hitting metal at 2-4 in the morning was ok as they were moving in. They are also part of a band who also practiced from 2-5am and they got very drunk and very loud. We decided we couldn’t stay any longer. The owners were devastated as we were but no one would say anything to them. It’s the Thai way, they don’t like or do confrontation so sadly we had no choice, we hadn’t slept properly for 10 days and I was starting to get into full on killer mode! On the plus side we moved to the other side of the village and are now in 3* luxury and exploring new places. It’s £56 a week, not quite blown the budget…

We have rented a new motorbike it works out at £2.25 a day we bought new helmets as the ones the rental company supplied fitted like a bucket on a stick! Now we’re ready to rumble.

Wat Umong, just 10 minutes out of the city, dates back to the 13th Century and consists of a range of old ruins, meditation tunnels and a large unpainted stupa. The temple complex also has a monastery so there are always monks walking almost gliding around, circling the stupa in prayer. It’s the most peaceful and tranquil of places, with a huge shimmering lake set in a forest full of chirruping birds and wildlife. Bliss.

We have walked the monks trail to our favourite forest temple half way up the mountain, Doi Suthep which overlooks the city, it’s called Wat Palad. It takes about an hour to walk up. When we first found the ‘secret’ temple 8 years ago it was slightly rundown and overgrown and lovely for it. It’s now had a lot of work done and for me it’s losing its charm. As we were leaving about 8 tour buses arrived, can’t really call it the ‘secret temple’ anymore…things change, progress apparently!

The walking markets are quiet, great for us but not the stall holders.

Also visited Jing Jai farmers market.

The temple we visit in the mountains is completed and looks fabulous.

We have done our favourite tour on the motorbike drinking in the Thai sounds and life just cruising around the mountain. We bought sweet oranges off the roadside vendors 60p a kilo which are now in season and we are absolutely delighted to be back.

Happy New Year or as they would say here ‘sawadee pe mi’ 🙏

We have enjoyed our summer in North Wales and are now in our last week. We took a trip on the bike to Barmouth in mid Wales. We originally were going to stay a couple of nights but accommodation is very hard to come by or very expensive so just a day trip until later in September.

Barmouth is about 30 minutes past Harlech. As you approach there are big flat sandy grassland areas between the cliff faces and the road with enormous caravan sites, cheek by jowl as far as the eye can see. Driving into town it’s reminiscent of Rhyl: dodgems and waltzers, ice cream parlours and fish and chip shops. It improves immensely when you get to the beach. It’s a deep wide sandy beach with sand dunes, and it’s one of the prettiest beaches I’ve seen in Wales.

The harbour at the estuary opening is overlooked by Barmouth Bridge.

Barmouth Bridge, or Barmouth Viaduct is a Grade II* listed single-track wooden railway viaduct across the estuary of the Afon Mawddach near Barmouth, Wales. It is 820 metres long and carries the Cambrian Line. It is the longest timber viaduct in Wales and one of the oldest in regular use in Britain. It was closed due to repairs.

We sat on the beach with a sandwich and coffee watching the kids having donkey rides and jumping around on the trampolines. The accents were more Birmingham and the Midlands unlike Abersoch which has more visitors from the north west.

The town is a typical happy seaside town. Lots of cafes, bucket and spade shops and many a dippy hippy emporium selling incense and Indian happy pants. I liked the vibe.

Beautiful 3 storey stone houses back up to the cliffs, it has obviously had money in its past. There are plenty of coffee shops and places to eat, moules frite on the harbour doing a roaring trade.

We stayed a few hours and then decided to ride up the estuary towards Dolgellau. The scenery was lush and green with beautiful houses hanging on the edge of the water, tall trees and rock formations hiding the immense view. A red kite landed in a tree as we passed, glorious. It’s a very pretty part of the world.

Our garden has been abundant with fruits this year. Gooseberries, rhubarb and black currants. Lots of pies, compotes and crumbles adding to my expanding waistline. There are damsons at the bottom of the drive but you have to be quick or the passing fruit pickers nab them all. The apple trees have suffered a bit this year with intense heat then lots of rain (too late).

We have found more slow worms in the garden compost heap and a clutch of snake eggs, undoubtedly grass snakes.

Chris has been filming but we haven’t seen them hatch yet. We had lots of baby rabbits…but no longer, the culprit was a fox who showed up on the films, they were disappearing by the day. Life is cruel..

As the water has been warmer I have been swimming, not usual for me in the Welsh waters. We have been in a couple of times and it’s been fun, certainly makes you feel alive…

Just a recap on Bear Grylls and his island. He now has his ramp in place and the big construction barge has been towed back to Milford Haven a 48 hour journey. He always arrives by helicopter for his summer holidays. We saw him leave the island with his 2 children on his Sealegs boat and someone took a picture of him collecting his Waitrose shop from a van near the harbour. He obviously doesn’t just eat leaves and berries…..

St Hywens church in Aberdaron advertised ‘Evensong, Rachmaninov by candlelight’ it sounded appealing so we went.

We entered the church to be greeted by the friendly female vicar taking the service. As it started the candlelight and the beauty of the 12th century church came into its own, it was very atmospheric.

The quietness of the congregation, the soft lilt of the vicar’s voice and the music sang by a Russian military choir was sublime. I’m not religious but felt soothed, almost meditative. Very pleased we made the journey it’s a beautiful, simple church in a spectacular location. The vicar explained that all through the centuries older, dying monks made the pilgrimage to Bardsey island to die and to be resurrected. You could feel the history of the building in your bones

We have done lots of this…

And this. It’s been fun

Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (1888-1978) was the visionary architect of Portmeirion village in North Wales. He inherited his fathers house, Plas Brondanw, sitting high above Porthmadog in 1908.

He served in WW1 and was awarded the Military Cross. He was an advocate of rural preservation and helped establish many National Parks, drawing the boundary for Snowdonia national park. He was closely related to Owain Gwynnedd, Prince of North Wales and returned to his rightful kingdom from Northampton where he was born.

The gardens at Plas Brondanw are not very big but beautifully formed. The turquoise colour which is evident all over Portmeirion is also in the gardens.

His eye for classical form with arches, long passageways with a sculpture on a plinth, ponds, long borders and fruit trees, pleached high hedges, something taking your eye on every corner.

Everywhere you turn is something in the distance pulling you in. If you love Portmeirion, these gardens are a must. A jewel in his crown. If you do go, there is a castle folly on a trail outside of the gardens up on a hill, which is well worth the climb. It has an outstanding view and could be easily missed. There is a fantastic quarry garden on the trail back down.

The gardens are 45 minutes from Abersoch. There is a cafe and if you buy something the parking fee of £2 is returned, at time of writing, entrance to the gardens is £5. We went with friends, Trish, the Bowdon version of Clough Williams-Ellis, was entranced by his clever use of planting and vision and I can easily see a turquoise moment coming on….

His classical yet quirky style is very evident in this beautiful house and gardens. As he was working on his gardens in the 1920’s he was looking for the perfect spot for his big project. He found and acquired, for £5,000, a run down hotel on a balustraded terrace on a local hillside. He had been looking world wide for a site yet found the perfect spot 6 miles from where he lived. It sat on a harbour surrounded by an overgrown neglected wilderness overlooking the Dwyryd estuary. It became the magical kingdom of Portmeirion.

Portmeirion is just past Porthmadog. I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. The entrance fee is £15 or you can buy a yearly pass for £30, a bargain. The large castle like restaurant at the entrance has a deal. If you have 2 courses for £25 you then get free entrance to the main site.

It’s fairy tale like entrance, all chalky pastels and arches, turrets and statues is a complete sensory overload.

He started building the site in 1926 and it took him over 50 years to complete.

He was a great recycler and salvaged interesting artefacts and structural bits and pieces from old buildings and demolition sites all over the country. The colonnade in the centre was from a 1760’s Bristol bathhouse.

The mermaid railings which are all over the site came from the Liverpool sailors home.

I love the fact it is so eclectic with Siamese dancing Apsara’s on unbelievably high Ionic columns, life size chess boards, a building that looks like a cathedral all weaved together into a mystical pastel hued kingdom of joy.

A boat that had been sunk in the estuary was cleverly reinstated on the edge of the harbour.

Frank Lloyd Wright the famous American architect came to visit him in 1956 and interestingly was also of Welsh heritage, his mother’s family had emigrated to the US in the mid 1800’s. They met at Portmeirion after he had been awarded an honorary doctorate from Bangor University. I was blown away by the photo of them both together. He died 3 years after visiting aged 91.

To understand the true measure of his accomplishments you just need to look at how often it’s on TV programmes, film sets, music videos and how much its loved. Some of it is well built and other parts of it are glorious fakery. If ornamentation, quirkiness and colour is a crime in architecture then he is guilty as charged. For the many thousands who visit and love its escapism, colour and humour he will never be forgotten. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and will come again when it’s quieter in the autumn. If you do come make a picnic, take your time. Or buy lunch there are cafes and places to eat. Bring your walking boots for the forest walk or walk the coastal path. Stay and soak up the atmosphere, there’s nothing quite like it.

Country life once said of Portmeirion “a pirates lair, drawing together romance and baroque with little bits of Italy, Cornwall and Wales too” If you have never visited you really must make the journey, it’s magical and he was without doubt a true magician.

He died in 1978 aged 94. 20 years after his death some of his ashes were loaded into a marine rocket and it was launched in a New Years Eve firework display over Portmeirion and the estuary according to his wishes. Now that’s the way to go……

Harlech Castle is a grade 1 listed medieval fortification which was built by Edward1 during his invasion of Wales between 1282-1289. It’s an hour’s drive from Abersoch. You follow the coast road past Criccieth and through Porthmadog. It’s a fast quiet road and it was a spectacularly good sunny day, an amazing blue sky and full ocean vista. In the distance the fairy tale like Port Merion clinging on the hillside all, turrets and pastels. That’s on the visit list too. Awesome. We went on the bike and arrived for our pre booked slot of 11am.

It is a very steep and windy road up to the castle.The entrance fee is £7 and is very well organised with lots of very helpful, friendly staff on hand. It has parking, a cafe within the grounds and the ubiquitous gift shop.

The castle was built in 1272 by Edward1, the King of the castles ( he built most of the castles in Wales) and it took 6 years to build and cost £8,000. It sits on a rocky crag high up overlooking the dunes with the magnificent Snowdonia range of mountains as a backdrop and looking right back at Abersoch over the bay.

You can walk the top ramparts and see where all the rooms and different floors would have been with the fireplaces. There are the four corner turrets, a well, a room full of stone cannonballs (ouch) and big open spaces.

At the entrance are four towers with the arrow slits and killing corridor where they poured the boiling oil and fired their bows once you got in..but you didn’t leave!

There is, just outside the castle walls, a very, how shall I put this, interesting modern statue. From the high ramparts I thought it was a cow with a human figure on his back but no, not quite…when we came out of the castle and looked at the statue it was an emaciated horse with a man, no arms or legs with a dead body sort of draped over the back of the horse and human limbs where they shouldn’t be. It was unusual and gruesome but historic..

The town of Harlech is really narrow, squiggly roads and quaint tiny houses and shops all intermingled. Some were at an elevation a mountain goat would struggle with! One of the roads has the title of the steepest road in the UK. It was a hot sunny day and the numerous ice cream parlours and cafes were doing a roaring trade.

The song ‘Men of Harlech’ was written in the 1460’s here during the longest siege (7 years) in British history between the Lancastrians who held the castle, from the Yorkists. The song described the events that took place. It was an interesting day out we enjoyed the castle and the town.

Plas Glen-y-weddw is a Victorian gothic styled mansion house near the beach in Llanbedrog, the next bay up from Abersoch. It was built in 1857 by Sir Love Jones Parry of Madryn and was never lived in, it was built for his wife but eventually just housed all her art.

It has a spectacular Jacobean style staircase and beautiful stained glass

It is now an art gallery with an in-house cafe and bakery and some accommodation set at the back of the house. It’s set in beautiful grounds. We went to an open air cinema showing of Grease a few years ago with the sea in front and mountains in the background. I was really surprised that Chris, having known the area for 40 years, had never been before. The gallery houses ever changing exhibitions of local and well known artists in many formats. Traditional art, ceramics, wood exhibits it’s eclectic. In the summer they have outdoor concerts, art workshops, craft fairs and other activities, it’s well worth a visit.

Cakes look and are scrumptious, perfect fuel after a walk along the wooded paths overlooking Llanbedrog beach.