Chester Services on the M56, not the most romantic place for my first illicit meeting with Mark. I’ve done it solo, as a pair and even as a foursome and some of you will know that Fourplay is quite a regular theme, but a threesome, well that’s new to me. I’m always up for something new!

Jeremy and I are slowly moving north, making our way around the Lleyn Peninsula. A conventional relationship, but that conventional friendship is about to change, as Mark a loquacious Mancunian is to join us as we make our way around the Wales Coast Path. He had taken in all that Jeremy had told him about our wild camping trips… walking for miles along a desolate coast, camping on wind swept cliff tops, surviving overnight storms to then walk, wet, weary and windswept until our legs gave out.

The reality, of course, is somewhat different. Neither, Jeremy or I are adverse to a sudden change of plan, where a stay in somewhere a little more luxurious than a one man tent can materialise and this trip was just one of those occasions!

We met up on the first day, as always, with every intention of camping under the stars, in reality when we looked for a suitable wild campsite, we couldn’t find one so we booked an AirBnb. Mark was a little disappointed as he’d spent £50 on a brand new tent and had, unfortunately, bragged to all and sundry that he would be camping under the stars no matter what the weather… he obviously doesn’t know Jeremy and me very well!

The Premier Inn where we stayed the first night before we started walking was 6km from our start point , but both Jeremy and Mark wanted to start from our hotel in Porthmadog, rather than take a taxi to the where we finished last time. It didn’t bother me, but an extra 6km on top of 19 is a fairly considerable increase! The weather forecast for the day was so, so, but the rain kept off for the morning and unlike last time there were no distractions as the path was devoid of any humanity other than ourselves, so the new sociable me, had no one to talk to. Therefore, Progress was good and Mark appeared to be enjoying himself. The weather deteriorated, considerably in the afternoon and the promised rain arrived and Mark’s disappointment of not sleeping in a tent wained with every step.

We ended up staying in the Premier Inn again at the end of the first day rather than the AirBnb, I won’t go into why, as the fault was partially mine and partially the owner of the AirBnb’s. So I’m not going to rant about a bad experience as AirBnb has served me very well for many years.

The next day we took one car to the end of the days walk and then moved on to the beginning with the other. To say that the day started a little damp was an understatement. February turned out to be one of the wettest months on record and North Wales seemed to get more than its fair share! The walking, although damp was for the most part flat and easy and Marks baptism was not one of fire, but just gentle glowing embers as we walked just above the tide line on the beach. As the day progressed the weather improved and our last two or three kilometres were in glories sunshine and the damp wet two days were suddenly transformed into two days of glorious sunshine… memory has a habit of forgetting the pain and remembering just a sunshine, I believe they call it typed two pleasure!

Did Mark enjoy the walk? I assume so as he’s booked to come on the next trip in May… maybe, just maybe, we’ll use our tents or even our bivvy bags!

Can I just say that this has been posted two months after we did the walk… the May walk is nearly upon us!