Around the Great Orme by sea kayak (& Monk’s cave)

A trip around the Great Orme at Llandudno with plenty of wildlife and a couple of bonus treats: some sailing and a hike up to the Monk’s cave. Good weather, warm and with a light to moderate wind from the south. Setting off from the Lifeboat station we could just about sail on a reach to the north east tip of the Great Orme. Unfortunately my mate’s sail rigging broke but I wasn’t getting a great deal of assistance so it didn’t matter at the time. We saw a couple of Porpoises on rounding the end of the Orme and it wasn’t long before we came across some seals. The sea was thick with Compass Jellyfish.
As we reached the north west end of the Orme conditions were good to be able to land the boats and hike up to the Monk’s Cave. It had been some time since I did this previously but we managed to find the best route. Most of it is easy but there are some tricky bits where you need to scramble over the rocks. Also there are some slippery bits; this is not the place to have an accident! The cave was interesting and it looked like some fixings had been put in place to aid access from the land (for climber standard).
After a relaxing lunch on the beach at West Shore, we set off back around the Great Orme. To begin with there was almost no wind at all but on rounding the first corner a following wind was an immediate invitation to get the sail up. A fun kilometre of kayak sailing was to follow until the north west end was reached.
Back into Llandudno bay the wind had strengthened from the south. I headed directly to the shore and into wind to try and get an angle to bear off to the Lifeboat station, but still couldn’t really get enough angle to benefit from the wind.
An excellent day’s sea kayaking and thanks to Graham for the company!

[@ktm660smc6]

Nice calm day for your cave exploration !

[@Fishaholicboy]

These cliffs are stunning! Would love to kayak with seals too