"OUT there in the cold water, far from land, we waited every night for the coming of the fog, and it came, and we oiled the brass machinery and lit the fog light up in the stone tower" - The Fog horn by Ray Bradbury

Saturday:

Well, The weekend passed very quickly, however it turned out just great.

On Saturday as I have mentioned before we decided to visit the South Stack Lighthouse in Holyhead, Nort-Wales. Holyhead is a huge island near to Anglesey, which is also an Island in North-Wales. There are two bridges connects Anglesey to the Mainland (One bridge for the cars, and one for the trains).

The South Stack lighthouse was located on Holyhead, and the funny part, that the lighthouse had its own island to stand on :-) (Just to imagine, from the mainland uk, you step on an Island - Anglesey - then on another one - Holyhead - then on another one where the lighthouse stands)

We bought train tickets with Arriva Nort-Wales trains, it cost to us 40 GBP return for 2 persons, which was ok. On the way there we had to change trains in Llandudno Junction, then from there we arrived to Holyhead. The city itself was not big, however it was important, as the ferries were departing from there towards Ireland/Dublin.
As we arrived the weather was not the best, it was kinda cold, and gray clouds everywhere, but it was clean, with no rain at all. We went to the city center, and started to ask around how we can get to the Lighthouse, but everybody told us, it was a very long way to walk. An old woman even stopped a local bus for us, and pushed us on board, but the driver told us he does not go towards the lighthouse. So we decided to take a taxi. We went back to the train station and got a taxi for 7GBP to the lighthouse in one way. The ride was indeed long, however by car it only took around 5-10 minutes.

We had to buy tickets for the lighthouse, which was additional 4GBP each, but that was ok. Imagine the whole place as you are standing on the top of some kind of hill/mountain, down below you see rocks, cliffs, and thed sea is waving at the bottom, hitting the rocks, with enormous strength and voice.

 The height was about 60 meters, so it was pretty scary, as there was strong wind, and no fences, barriers anywhere, just only signs: Dangerous Cliffs. From this point where we were, could see the South Stack island wih the Lighthouse. Not far from us, there was an observatory for birds, as there were a lot of different types of them, rare species, living around, and having their nests there. Some of the nests was even monitored with CCTV, and showed on a screen in this observatory.

 In order to get to the Lighthouse, we had to climb up a little bit on this mountain, to reach the stairs leading down the hill towards the suspension bridge of the south stack. 400 steps were down the hill until the small bridge. Of course the wind got stronger, so we were really affraid to be blown off :-)

Unfortunately as we were approaching, there was fog starting to cover the area, and we could hear, as the 85-110 decibel voice turns on, the FOGHORN of South Stack.

Just to compare how loud was it: The soundpressure above 85 can be dangerous, 120 Db can cause tympanum rip, 163 Db can break windows.

As we were walking down the stairs, the fog got thicker, and started to cover up the whole area. It was really horroristic. The only way to the island was through a suspension bridge down below there were beautiful rocks in the water. We went accross to the island, and went to the Trinity house where a member of the staff let us go up and climb to stairs in the lighthouse tower.

  We were quite unlucky, as the fog got worse, and we could not see so much from the top of the tower, however I was able to see a bulb which gives the light. It is amazingly small, and only 150W power. Of course this light is much bigger thanks for the glass optic, which was made in the mid 1800 years. As the staff said, if the weather is better, you can even see dolphins, and seals around, and rarely whales approaching too. Unfortunately the weather didn't get better.

 We left the lighthouse then and went back the same way through the bridge. The 400 steps were much bigger deal now :-). The wind was the same the fog covered everything, however it was something in this situation.

It was cold, windy, fogy, but still beautiful. We had a thermos flask with us, filled with hot tea, so at the middle of our way up the hill, we sat on a bench and drank hot tea, and watched South Stack. After that when we got to the top of the hill, we went in the only restaurant there (South Stack Kitchen), and had hot vedgetable soup, and a capuccino, waiting for the fog to disappear, but it just didnt happen, so we decided to get back to the town after a while.

We called for a cab, and in about 15 minutes, we were back at the train station. Unfortunately had to wait about 2 hour 45 minutes for out train to leave, and as everything was closed for the day, we just we into a caffe, and had another capuccino, and stayed for around 2 hours there.

We catched out train, and by changing at Chester, we arrived to Manchester at 23:00. Getting the bus from Piccaddily Gardens, took us another hour to get home. We were tired, exhausted, but totally worthed it, and decided to go back again, when the weather will be better. 

"And if they did not see our light, then there was always our Voice, the great deep cry of our Fog Horn shuddering through the rags of mist to startle the gulls away like decks of scattered cards and make the waves turn high and foam." - The Fog horn by Ray Bradbury