Day 5, and I am not so lucky as yesterday, with rain all morning (but hopefully dry in the afternoon). Therefore, the morning is devoted to getting fat with dolce far niente (“sweet doing nothing”) and an early, and earthy, lunch. Still, at at 12:35 the fattening ends and I am on the bike again. I decide to go back to the Llyn Peninsula, but without being dependant on the Satnav.

Criccieth is nice but nothing to cause any great enthusiasm, and I must say the same of all the other places along the coast (Pwllheli and Abersoch come to mind); honest: nice little towns, but there might be a reason why this part of Wales is not an AONB. Once in Abersoch, I decide to ride towards Caernarfon on the other (west) side of the coast. The roads are nice, and the frequent view of the sea makes the ride interesting, if not nearly as glorious as around Betws. At some point, something really absurd happens.

There are roadworks with the usual alternate one-way traffic. However, this is not the usual one-way, regulated by a red light. Rather, a guy with a car works as a “ferryman”, or, if you want, “traffic escort”, probably to prevent the untold massacre caused by vehicles driving at the astonishing speed of 20mph along a one way lane. I think already at this point that this might be the most useless job ever devised by a wasteful local administration. However, the guy does not do even that. Once arrived at our end of the roadworks, he takes out his smartphone and begins to happily read on it, writing messages and the likes. In the meantime, very scarce traffic keeps coming from the other side, completely without escort and therefore, no doubt, causing untold dangers and the untimely death of, I don’t know, one or two squirrels and countless ants of various species. The scene, worthy of a piece of Ionesco, goes on for, and I kid you not, 14 (fourteen, quatorze, quattordici, vierzehn) minutes. To my surprise, no one honks. Being in Rome, I do like the Romans do and refrain from honking, too. After said 14 minutes, the guy decides that he has been on the phone, reading and texting, for long enough; therefore, he pulls a u-turn and “escorts” us in safety to the other side. I will never know whether he stopped and allowed himself another 13 minutes of happy browsing, but I tell you this: you pull such a stunt in Italy, your balls will be handed to you in no time by the angry drivers first, and by your superiors later. But again, when in Rome…

With blood pressure still not entirely normalised, I arrive to Caernarfon. The place is dominated by the old castle, and around it there is a village of some attractiveness, inviting to a short stroll. However, I want to also see Conwy, the main destination of the day, before another ride in the Amusement Park and getting home at a decent hour, and do not stop at Caernarfon.

The road to Conwy is fairly uneventful at the beginning, but it becomes really spectacular as you approach the town from the sea. In Conwy, I first ride on the famous bridge with the postcard view of the castle, then make my way back, find a local parking at the “back” of the castle, and go exploring the pleasant old village on foot.

Luckily, I was allowed to park the bike without having to wait for the ferryman…

I am tempted to buy some local sweet, but the fattening exercise of the morning persuades me not to exaggerate. Instead, a stroll through the local street convinces me that this would be a good place to buy a small holiday house, as it has everything: coast, historic merits, and a rather strategic position for motorbiking; placed as it is between Anglesey and the AONB, but not too far away from the motorcycling beauties of Shropshire.

Conwy Castle

A nice little town at the foot of the castle

Coming back, the road is a hoot: Betws-Beddgelert-Porthmadog-Harleck, with a piece of A470, then the excellent road to Bettgelert via Capel Curig, then food shopping in Porthmadog before coming back via Harleck in a beautiful road in the middle of a nice forest, in the beautiful twilight, truly a ride to remember. Alas, tomorrow that same road will have a less present surprise for me, but I don’t know it yet and ride back to HQ without a care in the world, and very happy (ferryman aside) with the day. Completely happy? Well, no, because at the end of Day 5 not one Moto Guzzi has been sighted. Not one, young or old, new V7 or even newer V85TT.

Still, 182 miles today, and a beautiful day on the bike; which is a lot after the rain in the morning.