Mackrel Fishing and Anglesey Exploring

I'm just back from taking a group of ten international students on a weekend camping trip to Anglesey. Great fun, but exhausting! The team was made up of students from Nigeria, Germany, Oman, France, Qatar, Switzerland, Russia, Pakistan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. For many, it was their first time camping and only their fourth week in Wales, so it made for an entertaining mix! After a hilarious time pitching the big 5 man tents, in the dark in a windy field, we eventually got to bed on Friday night. Saturday dawned clear but cold, so we took a walk from camp to warm up before breakfast. Some, who were used to temperatures in the high 40s, looked a bit shocked as it was only 5 degrees when we got up!

In the afternoon, we took a fishing boat from Beaumaris, through the Puffin Sound. 

It was choppy ride out, but lovely heading back in the calm evening light. 

I didn't catch a single fish, but luckily the lads did, as we were due to be eating fish for dinner on our arrival back to land. The captain showed us how to gut them and the lads got stuck into the gory work, throwing the guts overboard.

The mountains in the distance looked great in the evening light as we sped home.

Chased by seagulls eager for some free food!

Back on land, we got the BBQs lit straight away and all got to try some hot mackerel.

As well as a burger (which I'd got as a back up in case we didn't catch anything!).

We were due to surf on Sunday, but the sea was flat calm. We opted for a coastal walk instead which was a good way to see the views, while chatting about all the amazing places the guys were from.

We finished our route at Cable Bay, then nipped onto Holy Island.

We stopped off at South Stack and a few other 'landmarks' along the way. If you look closely there was a couple climbing on Red Wall...

I arrived back home in an explosion of wet tents, surf kit, camp kit, hiking kit and a whole lot more - it looked (and at times felt) like I'd been away for a month!

A happy finish to the day was opening the new book that I've made, which had arrived while I was away. It's a collection of photos that I took over the last year - over 200, to document a year in my life. It really has been a heck of a year, with pics from all over the world!