Wales Coast Path Logistics

by Alan Cole · Friday, May 20th, 2016

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, now that I’ve gone past the end of the Cambrian Coast Railway line on my Wales Coast Path run project I’m now relying on bus services instead of the train. This means that the logistics of getting back to where I’ve started from each time are getting a little more difficult.

End of the Line

The train line ends in Pwllheli. Last weekend I ventured beyond this with a 30 mile stretch along the coast path from Pwllheli to Aberdaron. I parked in Pwllheli, made my way along the coast path to Aberdaron and then had a two hour wait in the sunshine for a bus back to Pwllheli. My next section will take me from Aberdaron out past the furthest west point of the Lleyn peninsula and up onto it’s northern coast to Tudweiliog which is around 18 miles or Nefyn which will be around 27 miles.

Juggling Buses

With this next section in mind I started looking at buses that would go from Tudweiliog or Nefyn to Aberdaron. I did find one bus, the 8B that seemed to go to all the right places.

Bus Timetable 8b

Unfortunately it didn’t seem to go at the right times. The way I read it if I want to get from either Nefyn to Aberdaron I have to leave at either 8:30 (but only during school holidays!) or at 11:33 (Mon-Fri but not Wednesday). Worse still, it doesn’t seem to actually go to Aberdaron at all on a Saturday. That wasn’t going to work, so it was back to the drawing board.

I did think that maybe I could park in in Aberdaron and after my run along the Coast Path get buses from Nefyn to Pwlhelli and then Pwllheli to Aberdaron but that’s even worse.

The second bus, the 17 from Pwllheli to Aberdaron isn’t too bad. It runs quite regularly every day.

The number 17 bus

But the timetable for the 8A from Nefyn to Pwllheli is just silly.

The 8a Bus

It only runs on a few days and then only a couple of times on each of those days, none of which were any good to me… Back to the drawing board again.

A Solution

In the end, Anna came up with an idea that I think will work. Instead of Parking in Aberdaron I could park in Pwllheli and get the first number 17 bus of the day from Pwllheli to Aberdaron (timetable above). This leaves at 7:05 and gets me to Aberdaron at 7:42. From there I can do my run along the coast path. Once I’ve finished I can then get the Number 8 Bus back to Pwlhelli. This bus goes from Tudweiliog, through Nefyn to Pwlhelli. So, not only will it get me back to my car, but it means I can choose on the day whether to stop at Tudweiliog after 18 miles of coast path, or continue on to Nefyn. This will depend on the weather, the time and how my legs feel by then. The Number 8 bus runs fairly regularly throughout the day as well, and seems to go every day of the week too.

Number 8 Bus

An added bonus of this plan is the fact that there is a nice Costa Coffee shop in Pwllheli so I’ll be able to pop in there before driving home. It does mean getting a bus before and after my run that day but it should work out well.

No one said that running around the coast of Wales would be easy and I didn’t expect it to be, but its the logistics that are more difficult than the actual miles on the Coast Path. It all adds to the adventure though and make it more fun!