Saturday 14th June - Sunday 22nd June 2008
A lovely week with a mixed bag of weather and activity.
A lovely week with a mixed bag of weather and activity.
Our first walk was up Arenig Fawr (854m), it was a route suggested by Trail magazine and because this area is so quiet we had to do a fair bit of navagation as the paths weren't clearly defined. At one point we were scrambling over boulder strewn steep hillside. The summit of this hill (picture above) has a monument to a lost WWII aircraft and the American crew who were all killed when it crashed into the hillside, there are still bits of debris scattered around.
On the tops of the moorland on the ascent we came across a series of small tarns, these were beautifully secluded and one of them was 'alive' when we walked near it - I scooped my hand in the edge and discovered it was full of tadpoles! We saw small birds (wheatears) which were nesting amongst the rocks and also saw two buzzards quite close. We didn't see any other walkers!
Midweek we had a night of storms - wind and rain woke us up. We decided to still go out walking despite the rain and managed to find a series of short walks around Corwen which we tagged together. The first jaunt was up a small hill called Pen y Pigyn - there is a small monument on the top to Edward VII (Prince of Wales) and great views down the Dee valley. We then went across the valley and up another small hill called Caer Drewyn, this is an ancient hillfort dating from 600BC - it was quite amazing. We returned via a valley ramble and although it was a soggy kind of day we really enjoyed the views and the countryside as the hedgerows were full of wonderful wild flowers.
On Thursday we decided to tackle a BIG walk and Tryfan was our aim. We had a leisurely breakfast then set off. We decided to do a scramble route up Bwlch Tryfan and then up and over 'far south peak'. It was blinking awesome! I had always wanted to reach the summit of Tryfan and have never done such a long and sustained scramble route before.
The views from this route and the top were just fantastic and we really felt that we'd achieved something. The weather was kind to us all day and just as we reached the roadside where the car was the rain came! There was one of the best rainbows on the journey home I'd ever seen - it appeared to be lying on top of the fields, weird but lovely.
On Friday we rested our weary legs and had a day at the seaside, first stop was Dolgellau (a small market town) for some lunch, then on to Barmouth - this is where the mountains (Cadair Idris) meet the sea.
On the tops of the moorland on the ascent we came across a series of small tarns, these were beautifully secluded and one of them was 'alive' when we walked near it - I scooped my hand in the edge and discovered it was full of tadpoles! We saw small birds (wheatears) which were nesting amongst the rocks and also saw two buzzards quite close. We didn't see any other walkers!Midweek we had a night of storms - wind and rain woke us up. We decided to still go out walking despite the rain and managed to find a series of short walks around Corwen which we tagged together. The first jaunt was up a small hill called Pen y Pigyn - there is a small monument on the top to Edward VII (Prince of Wales) and great views down the Dee valley. We then went across the valley and up another small hill called Caer Drewyn, this is an ancient hillfort dating from 600BC - it was quite amazing. We returned via a valley ramble and although it was a soggy kind of day we really enjoyed the views and the countryside as the hedgerows were full of wonderful wild flowers.
On Thursday we decided to tackle a BIG walk and Tryfan was our aim. We had a leisurely breakfast then set off. We decided to do a scramble route up Bwlch Tryfan and then up and over 'far south peak'. It was blinking awesome! I had always wanted to reach the summit of Tryfan and have never done such a long and sustained scramble route before.
The views from this route and the top were just fantastic and we really felt that we'd achieved something. The weather was kind to us all day and just as we reached the roadside where the car was the rain came! There was one of the best rainbows on the journey home I'd ever seen - it appeared to be lying on top of the fields, weird but lovely.
On Friday we rested our weary legs and had a day at the seaside, first stop was Dolgellau (a small market town) for some lunch, then on to Barmouth - this is where the mountains (Cadair Idris) meet the sea.
It's a wonderful old fashioned seaside town with a railway running right along the coast, wide sandy beaches and a natural harbour.Saturday dawned rainy again and so we went off to do a local walk over lots of boggy moorland. The first half of the walk was nice and interesting with lots of wild flowers to see. Later, even using our navigation skills, it got frustratingly difficult to plot any decent route as the ground was boggy and rough. So, despite the weather at least we stretched our legs. The caravan site put on a Hog Roast on Saturday night but it was a bit of a wash out so we ate up and dashed back to the caravan to watch a footie match!
Sunday was our departure day and the weather was to scupper our plans again - gales forced us to stay put most of the day and we only managed to get away at about 5.30pm. A very windy drive home, but we had a surprise when we discovered that our wine gums had been stolen by a mouse in the car! Despite looking all over for it we never found the mouse, only the half eaten wine gums and a lovely little nest of shredded paper on the back seat (little bugger!).
