After dropping down to Fairbourne in the afternoon there is a long road walk, primarily at sea level, albeit a very small rise at the end as you make your way to the campsite. There is a chance of turning some of it in to a beach walk from Barmouth if the tide, weather and terrain are in alignment. If I have a good pace across the hill section, I might make elevenses at Fairbourne, failing that lunch in Barmouth. With a fairly grey start to the day I don't think there will be much opportunity for photography as the forecast is for showers.
The area around the estuary is known for sightings of Harbour Porpoise, Bottlenose Dolphins and grey seals. The right-hand side of the promenade is lined with tank traps or 'Dragon's Teeth' as they are known locally, left over from WWII. The Fairbourne Minature Railway, opened in 1895, runs for two miles on the promenade to the end of the peninsula where it terminates at the Barmouth Ferry station where it meets up with the ferry that crosses the river. Using the ferry to travel to Barmouth saves local people from either a long walk over the bridge or an even longer drive to the road bridge further up the river.
It was possible to walk on the beach on very firm sand until just before Llanaber, where the railway crosses over the Wales Coast Path to take position just above the sands. Now with an in coming tide, I did not want to take the chance of being cut off on the beach, trapped by the railway at my back. Cutting inland, from Llanaber I had a pretty unforgiving road walk in the cold wind by the side of A496 until Plas-canol. I was some height above the beach here and could see down through the caravan park that there was an underpass below the railway line giving access to the beach and dunes area. It seemed worth a bet that as the railway moved back in at this point that I could walk the top margins of the beach and so it proved.