Llanfendigaid Adventures, Day 6.

Sadly our last day was to be our only day of bad weather, but even so the morning was not too bad only turning to rain in the afternoon.  Despite this being our 14th visit to Llanfendigaid none of us had ever walked up the hill behind the house so while Heather ran felt-making classes, Helen, John and myself made the pilgrimage.  It is a steep little walk and on a good day the views would be superb, but today with rain coming in it was very misty.  It will be an excellent spot for early morning and sunset shots in two years time.  Interest was maintained on the way down by the third lamb rescue of the week.  They make a habit of getting the wrong side of the fence from mum and then getting their head stuck in it trying to push through in panic.

Later, Heather Thomas and myself belatedly made the ritual trip into Aberdovey for lunch. Unfortunately it had now started raining so after lunch we had a quick mooch round and then repaired to Twyn to the honey ice cream shop.  Well, why not!  The afternoon was spent relaxing and doing some packing before our early departure on the Saturday to get Beth and Alejandro to the airport.

What a wonderful week.  Roll on two years time.

Llanfendigaid Adventures, Day 5.

On the Thursday a group of us opted for an ascent of Snowdon, despite having a forecast of low cloud and freezing temperatures on the high tops.  In the event we did well, with cloud only on the very summit, although it was bitingly cold on the top.  Becki was the inspiration for the trip.  She is an extremely talented runner and was keen to run up.  My days of running up mountains are behind me, unfortunately, but Thomas, Beth, Alejandro and myself were keen to walk up in support.  Becki wanted to run the main tourist route so we were away early, parked up opposite the station in Llanberis and soon heading up the first steep road section with Becki running on ahead of us.  The walk went well; steep at first and then the gradient easing slightly past the Halfway House, before ramping up seriously again below Clogwyn Station and then easing again when we reached the final summit ridge.

We met Becki, running strongly on her way down, at the foot of this steep section.  She had made the summit in 62 minutes and the round trip in one hour 39 minutes for the 10 miles.  We weren't hanging about, but took 5 hours over it!!  At this point there were fabulous views of Lyn Du'r Arddu and the formidable cliff of Clogwyn Du'r Arddu or Black Cliff.  This remote bastion is thought by many to be one of the best rock climbing cliffs in the country and first ascents of many of the climbs were made by Joe Brown and Don Whillan's, among others, at the time the hardest climbs in the UK.  

I had forgotten how steep the path was after Clogwyn Station and it found me huffing and puffing like a broken down traction engine.  Although this was the tourist path and there were plenty of people on it, it was relatively quiet until the Snowdon Ranger Path and the Pyg and Miner's Paths joined on the summit ridge along with that from over spectacular Crib Goch.  It then became like Blackpool Prom in the summer.  We had views down onto the Pyg track and it was heaving, reminding me why I tend to steer clear of Snowdon.  My favourite route is The Horseshoe via Crib Goch and Lliwedd and the Watkin Path from the Nant Gwynant Valley on the Beddgelert side of the mountain is usually relatively quiet.

After the traditional selfie on the summit we had a quick bite to eat and then, before we froze too much, headed back down, meeting Becki at the same spot as we had done on the way up - she was heading back up to meet us!  We enjoyed watch the manoeuvres of a chinook helicopter in the valley below us for a while, but were disgusted to find two plastic bags full of empty sandwich packets just abandoned by the side of the path.  Just who do people thing is going to clear it up.  Fortunately we were able to leave it in a bin at the Halfway House.

An excellent day topped off with pots of tea and looking at the winners board for the Snowdon Race in the Royal Victoria Hotel.

Llanfendigaid Adventures, Day 4.

Day 4 had to be the Talyllyn Narrow Gauge Railway which starts its journey on the coast at Twyn and travels up into the hills to Nant Gwernol above Abergynolwyn, passing through Dolgoch and it's magnificent waterfalls.  Opened in 1865 to carry slate from the quarries high in the hills at Bryn Eglwys, it became the first preserved heritage railway in 1951.  It is still a favourite with all, not just the children and over the years James and Thomas collected many name plate badges of such famous locos as Peter Sam; the fictional Skarloey Railway written by the Rev W. Awdry was based on this line.

During the day we say several red kites, this part of Wales being close to their original stronghold in the UK and i was pleased to hear a pair of choughs calling as they felw over the hose in the late afternoon.

Llanfendigaid Adventures, Day 3

Day 3 began as usual with dawn on the beach as normal.  Nothing different, but just a joy to be there with fabulous views over to the Llyn Peninsular which looked like a fleet of battleships floating on the horizon.  After breakfast the Rothwell and Pickwell wrinklies set out for a walk around the Rhaeadr Ddu waterfalls and abandoned goldmines from the village of Ganllwyd just north of Dolgellau.  The path wanders up through the forest past several picturesque falls before reaching the main waterfall.  This cascades in two stages and is different each visit depending on the rainfall.  On one memorable occasion in August 26 years ago we had been camping at nearby Brithdir and had had 48 hours of solid rain.  We decided to visit the falls and they were awesome.  Instead of two cascades there was just one mighty fall more reminiscent of Niagara than a Welsh waterfall.  We were unable to get any closer than the bridge over the river.  On this day, however, we walked up beside them and on into the upper forest, before completing a circuit over the open hillside and past the old goldmines. 

In the evening we enjoyed yet again our traditional beach BBQ, although the food was cooked up at the house.  We members of the advance party went down to beach to collect driftwood, of which there was plenty, to get a good fire going.  Later everyone else came down and hot dogs and burgers were enjoyed until the sun began to sink in the west.  This is something all of the middle generation remember with great fondness from their childhood trips here in the 1990s, although some of the current crop of young ones will be too tiny to remember it.  Those holidays in the great rambling house with the deserted rocky beach back in the '90s were straight out of Enid Blyton's Famous Five adventures.