What am I up to, without my donkey, you might ask. Or you might not ask – who cares? Well, I’ll tell you anyway. I am walking around Anglesey in fits and starts, trying to find ways of entertaining myself. I am learning the Desiderata (you know, the one that goes ‘Go placidly, amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in walking without a donkey’) off by heart – I’m halfway through. When I am done I’m going to start on Rudyard Kipling’s If. Any suggestions for the poem after that are gratefully received in the comments below.

I am camping solo, the other day I almost camped on top of a badger set under a fragrant elderflower tree, until a quick google confirmed that they would probably not be happy about it, might have TB, and the pile of black and white tufts of fur seemed ominous.

I jealously watched a man having trouble checking a horse’s hooves – ahh, Chico used to try lazily to kick me in the head just like that…

Without hooves to check, corrals to build, fields to find, etc etc, I am reading a book! What luxury! It’s The Horse Whisperer, picked up in Holyhead YHA. I thought it might give me some tips…

I saw our route up the Lleyn peninsula – nice to look at journey-done rather than hills-to-come – and rounded beautiful Newborough warren, one of Europe’s largest dunes. At Newborough there was so much beach that I practiced walking along with my eyes closed but discovered that I have a significant natural list to the left, when after 268 steps I walked into the sea.

Where I have walked from, and…

…where I am walking to. I have never been in the middle of so much sand. Views left and right were similar…

The Anglesey Coastal Path circumnavigates this island with little round badges nailed up at every turn, and on the OS map a row of green diamonds. I needn’t think for myself, i just follow the path, munching up the diamonds like a Pacman gliding across the landscape.

I’m halfway round, so now I am heading back to the old boy with every step. Reunion is on the horizon. Meanwhile he is living it up at Moelyci, a social enterprise hillfarm. People are visiting him, and he’s apparently hanging about near the garden end of his field. They’ve got an open day next Sunday, so anyone in the Bangor area who fancies meeting Chico (not to mention enjoying Moelyci’s music, stalls, sheepdog demonstrations, pick-your-own fruit etc), come along.