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| Llynnau Mymbyr Lake |
Our route lead us up and through a wooded area with a clear path that was a nice gradual incline, although Mrs F did make a comment about all the hard work she had done at the gym to prepare herself now seeming quite a feeble effort with the hard work actually needed! As we made our way up and gained height, the cloud and fog became thicker and was slightly harder with navigation, but Mr F stopped a couple of times to ensure we were headed in the eight direction. The terrain underfoot changed too with the path disappearing more into a grassland area with stepping stones, which again, disappeared as we headed up the grassy slopes which Mrs F always finds really hard...
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| Making our way Through the Forest |
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| Good Job the Path Was Visible! |
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| The Gradient Increases |
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| Mr F Having a Check of his Satmap |
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| The Path Disappearing |
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| Up The Grassy Slopes |
As we neared the summit of Moel Siobad, there were more paths and rocks again (a clear sign of reaching a high summit!) eventually the grass disappeared entirely and had to make our way over rocky terrain until we reached our destination and number 3 on the Nuttals list, Moel Siobad. Mr F had wanted to climb this for so long and gutted the visibility was zero. After we had touched the trig, we headed to a mightily impressive wind shelter for lunch. There were four other women in there and occasionally joined in conversation with them, before we then headed off ourselves...
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| Nearing The Top |
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| Wind Shelter |
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| Mr F Showing The Way To The Summit |
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| Mrs F Trusting Mr F Knew Where He Was Going |
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| And He Did Indeed! |
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| Zero Visibility |
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| Can Just About See Other People! |
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| The Boys Loving It Regardless of the Views 😊 |
Once we came out of the shelter, we took a left, whereas the group of women took a right. Mr F made a comment about the direction they were headed but thought nothing of it. Mrs F however knew we were heading back the exact same way we headed up but the terrain and certain points of reference were different and asked Mr F a few times if we were going the right way, to which he assured we were. However, after quite a way into this dedicated direction, Mr F realised we should have gone the same way as the women did which was indeed the same path we took on our way up. We were a good couple of miles away from where we needed to be and on a steep slope, which meant we had to make our way sideways to joint the right path which was an absolute killer on the ankles and Mrs F strained her right foot making the trek. Mr F quickly became quite frustrated at going wrong and then was quite difficult trying to make our way back over as there were a few obstacles in the way. He sat down with his head in his hands trying to make out on his Satmap where we were compared to where we needed to be without going massively off track. At this point Mrs F was going to ask if he might cry - a long standing joke in the family, especially with our nieces, from when he actually did cry when we had to call mountain rescue out (see 2014, April entry!) But she read the room and thought better of it!! After considering our options, we decided to just keep heading in the direction of the path we should have been on, which was annoying but the best we could do without steering too far off course. The path we needed was above us so we were running along the bottom of it and heading in the right direction, it was just more difficult...
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| Mr F Leading The Way Off The Summit... |
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| ..Mr F Realising We Went The Wrong Way |
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| Our Faces Following The Realisation!! |
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| Our Sideways Trek With a Moment of Clearing Cloud |
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| Mrs F, 'I told you so!' face! 😆 |
As we made our way sideways and down, there were fleeting moments of the cloud clearing and were able to take a photo of our surroundings, until we neared the bottom where we had clearer views with the cloud lifting. We had a sit down at some point so Mrs F could put a tubigrip strap around her aching ankle, but didn't have one small enough with her, so just toughed it out and carried on. We eventually joined up with the path we should have been on, although we were near enough at the forest by then and looking back at how easy it would have been coming down was a tad frustrating, especially as we made a point of saying that coming back will be quite quick and easy 😏 From that point, the route back was in reverse of coming up. As we neared the Plas y Brenin National Outdoor Centre, we noticed a group of people that looked like they were having climbing training with a rope attached to a tree and running to another tree and lots of climbing gear around, most likely part of the centres training courses. We also noticed a very obedient dog who was guarding all the rucksack further down!
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| Looking Back at the Beast of a Slope We just walked across! |
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| Clearing Views |
Today was definitely a 'let's have a drink!' day. So as we were walking right past the bar at the
Plas y Brenin National Outdoor Centre, we sat outside and had a much needed pint (and a half for Mrs F) of iron filled Guinness...and it was very much welcomed!
The centre is literally a 10 minute walk from the cottage so wasn't a long walk back from there. We left the cottage at 10:04 and was at the centre with Guinness's in hand at 3:14pm and back at the cottage at 4:07pm, so not bad considering we had a good couple of miles out of our way to navigate. We had a very welcomed hot showers and lasagne and chips. Mrs F felt quite tired and was falling asleep just after 9pm, so we took ourselves off for an early night ready for what turned out to be a mammoth day the next day!
DAY 2: Y GARN - 3,107FT
FOEL-GOCH - 2,726FT
MYNYDD PERFEDD - 2,664FT
CARNEDD Y FILIAST - 2,694FT
CARNEDD Y FILIAST NORTH TOP - 2,365FT
We woke up to a sunny morning. Our planned route today ticked off 4 Nuttalls and whist in the vicinity, went to visit Y Garn again as it was literally on the way. We had to get up and out as we had to park along the road where Tryfan is and parking gets fall quickly in spaces along the A5 road and in the free car parks. We were out at 9:08am and where we needed to park a 15 minute drive up the road and was already packed with cars!! As it was a nice day and a Sunday, there were a lot of people out climbing various nearby mountains but the most popular one along here is Tryfan. We drove up to the road which was full and the free car park which was also full and onto the Visitor Centre...which was full! We needed to start out walk by the Visitor centre so couldn't really park too far away as it would have made it an even bigger day walking back to the car at the end of the day, so we headed back to the free car park directly opposite llyn Ogwen lake. As we drove towards it, Mrs F prayed a quick prayer, asking the good Lord for a parking space....and the Lord provided!! Literally, as we drove past there was one free space, which was quite remarkable as we said that it's highly unlikely for a space to become free since most people will be making their way up a mountain somewhere...praise God! 😇
Our planned route, now coloured in red to mark as complete - number 11 is Y Garn and 14 is Elidir Fawr, which we did when we completed the Welsh 3,000 Challenge (see 2024, March 2023 entry)
Once we were parked and prayed before we set off, asking the Lord to be with us today as we always do before we set out an a hike, we made our way down towards the Visitor Centre where we took a route we have taken a few times before, taking us on a very enjoyable and easy route along stepping stones which gradually incline up towards Y Garn. It was quite warm, so Mrs F delayed her base layer in record time shortly after setting off!
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| Tryfan From theA5 Road |
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| In Our Happy Place and Ready To Go! |
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| Tryfan Over To The Left |
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| Walking Past llyn Idwal lake |
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| Mr F Using the walking Pole Pointing to our Route |
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| Pen yr Ole Wen |
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| The Steps That Kept On Going |
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| Getting Quite warm Now! |
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| Looking Towards Our Aimed Ridge |
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| Love This Atmospheric Photo 😍 |
As we made our way up, there were moments where the wind was quite strong so the hood was up and down along the way dependant whether or not we were in the windstream or simply in the sun without it. The route is really quite aerobically challenging as it's simply one step after another literally all the way to just over 3,00 feet to Y Garn and with the sun beating down it added the exertion. The day before Mrs F had waterproof trousers on and her legs were sweating so much as it wasn't at all hot but looked as though it could rain, so today was glad to be wearing lighter ones!
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| Almost Up On The Ridge |
As we neared the ridge, we could see a big cloud rolling in over Tryfan and the top of Y Garn and along the ridge where we were heading. Once we had reached the ridgeline we turned left where we were just a short distance from Y Garn so well worth ticking this one off for a second time, before turning around and heading back the other way towards and first unconquered one of the day, Foel-goch...
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| Looking Along The Ridge We're About To Walk |
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| Mr F Heading to Y Garn |
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| One More Looking Down at Our Route Going Up |
The walk out was really quite windy and right in the middle of the ridge was a small 2-man tent with a young couple inside (Fair play!) We were making really good time however and this was largely to do with the ridge being quite level and the wind giving us an extra push. As we got closer to the push for Foel-goch, the flat ridge turned into heading up a steep grassy incline with a few faint scree paths around. From Foel-goch to Mynydd Perfedd, there was a dip down to a gap down a scree slope off of Foel-goch and up onto a grassy path that we could see quite clear from far off. We always make really good time when heading off one summit and directly onto another with these kind of ridge walks and always look back and say 'We were just up there!' It's a real sense of achievement with a little hint of pride! 😊
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| Flat Walk Out Foel-goch |
Heading Down The Screes Off of Foel-goch with clear paths ahead leading up onto Mydydd Perfedd. Sometimes it can be a little bit sol destroying when you can see what's ahead of you, knowing that's what's next! It's often worse looking at it than it is when you're actually on it! As Rocky Bolboa says 'it ain't so bad!' 😄
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| Looking Back At Our Scree Slope Down |
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| Different Angle Looking Back at Foel-goch |
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| Mynydd Perfedd! |
The thing that always spurs you along is the though of lunch at the top and that's just what we had did and very much earned. Mrs F always like to check with Mr F if there is a wind shelter on top just to manage expectations, which if the answer is yes, will often give a n extra boost and incentive to get up there!! So far we had conquered 3 mountains just over and just under 3,000ft and doing really well for time and aches and pains, praise God. Another reason why the wind shelter was quite welcoming is to have a break from the wind, which we couldn't hear as much when in the wind shelter but knew that as soon as we stood up we'd be hit by it! On one hand you don't want to leave a wind shelter when in those conditions but then on the other hand you get cold quite quickly sitting still after being hot from hiking to get there. But we always have to leave, so we layered up and headed out turning left through a little rock field with Carnedd y Filiast in the distance we could just about make out through the cloud...
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| Enjoying Lunch in the Wind Shelter |
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| The Boys Loving It But Slightly Out of Practice! |
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| Carnedd y Filiast Up Next |
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| Looking Back At Our Wind Shelter |
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| Bracing Ourselves From The Wind! |
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| Dangerous Drops In The Cloud! |
Not many photos were taken as we made our way towards the last two with the wind being quite harsh and focusing on not being blown over the side and our steps ahead, but as we went on, the wind died down and the sun came out feeling really quite warm. The walk itself was easy enough with no real obstacles, apart from the odd boggy area we skilfully navigated ourselves through. After we had ticked off Carnedd y Filiast and Carnedd y Filiast North Top, we were then in another wind shelter trying to work out the best way off from there, as we had quite lot of height to drop but didn't want to be too far out of way if we drop off in the opposite direction of where we needed to be heading for the car. So we studied the map and could see a couple of options, but what we didn't know is how accessible any of these options were once had committed ourselves to that route and the contours looked quite close together, meaning everywhere was a steep way off. One option that looked like the best one was to head off down towards what looked like a green path heading along around a lake below, which Mr F could also see on his Satmap, but how we got down there was another story. Mrs F went off to see if there was a way off and believed she found one; a slightly steep scree path that lead down to a flatter area but then what was beyond that point couldn't be seen. She waited for Mr F to catch up for quite a while and after calling out for him and not getting an answer, slightly panicked at the thought of him mysteriously going missing, so just started to make her way back but the could see him slowly making his way over the brow. He had been looking at the map to see if there was a safe way down...
Mrs F showed him her proposed route off and Mr F straight away categorically refused to go that way! Considering we have made our way off of much worse, she was quite surprised that he wasn't up for it and as much as Mrs F put her case forward, we didn't go that way but went down a different way, traversing around a longer (and Mr F would say safer) route where we could at least see what was ahead of us. Albeit this made the walk back longer and as we made our way along towards the mysterious green path we'd seen on the map, we realised we had to make our way through awful bracken which we both hate as it grabs and holds onto you! When we got to the wall at the bottom we were faced with a wall and barbed wire, keeping us out of the quarried area. Mr F walked back along the wall to see if we could get over what looked like a broke part of the wall, to which we could. The green path turned out to be a flat grass path running along between the query and the wall, so was clearly meant for feet. We eventually walked past Mrs F's proposed route down we could see looking back up and she still maintained it would have been ok!!
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| Carnedd y Filiast Summit...Not Much of a View! |
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| Heading to the Wind Shelter of Carnedd y Filiast North Top |
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| Customary Look Back at Our Route Off |
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| Mrs F always Loves A Water Photo |
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| Not Sure What This Is!! |
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| Carnedd y Filiast North Top |
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| Small Pile of Summit Stones |
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| Looking at our Route Off Carnedd y Filiast From The Wind Shelter |
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| Mrs F's Proposed Route Off! 😲 |
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| Mr F Finally emerging From The Wind Shelter |
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| Our safer traversed Route Off |
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| The awful Bracken! |
Eventually, the path ran out and we were then back on bracken, a narrow path pushing us quite close to the barbed wire fence and looked as though there was a path back over the fence further up from where we were, but as we were a little lower we couldn't actually see what was up there, but looked to be an opened area to walk along instead. Mr F went up to look and once assessed and happy, Mrs F followed. After a little further, there was the most random quite new gate with a footpath sign pointing to the way we had just come from and would love to know exactly where that path is and where it leads to! Just beyond the gate out of no where we were in middle of the quarry! There was a sign that said we could make our way back to civilisation through a permissive path leading through the quarry, but there were a couple of paths and wasn't overly clear, so we spend a little while working out which one to take and where we were on the Satmap etc. By now, it was actually really quite hot; the cloud had really cleared and Mrs F had to bust out her new visor to stop her getting burnt, it was a real sudden change of conditions as much as our surroundings!
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| Heading Into The Quarry |
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| Map Showing The Permissive Path Out |
The path was a steady downward windy gravel path through what we know now was Bethesda Slate Quarry, Bethesda being the nearby village or Penrhyn Quarry. There was a man in what looked like an office just after the gate and was tempted to ask which way we should go but once we moved and could where we were heading on the Satmap we were all good. It was like nothing we had walked through before and even walked directly under a zip wire from Zip World that was based within the quarry, with the zip wire running literally just above us and could see four people at a time zipping down in a superman style laid down way. As we made our way along the twisting road that looked like a race track, obviously to brake up the steep gradient for cars, there was actually a race track that ran along the outside that looked like a buggy track. We saw a couple of Zip World jeeps g by and Mrs F was tempted to hitchhike her way down at this point!!
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| Mr F Setting Off Through The Quarry |
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| The Zip Wire Station |
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| Beautiful Vies With Clearer Skies |
As we neared the end of the quarry road, we saw a lone sheep that was tucked in the side of the track, clearly lost and miles from any other sheep and clearly unaccounted for, poor thing. It was by now in the later afternoon and Mrs F belly was rumbling. So she eat the remaining half of her snickers, putting the whole lot in her mouth and not actually being able to chew it properly as a result without eating like a camel, much to Mr F's disgrace! Once we were off the quarry track, we took a right turn and made our way along a forest track. At first there were still signs of there being a quarry nearby with slate piled up and there were even some sculptures of various things. This went on for about 2 miles before we were then in a beautiful valley with newborn lambs all around, since we were visiting in the thick of lambing season which was great for us being volunteer sheep farmers, especially during lambing season. We were in our element with such beauty around us, the sun shinning and little bubbas running around with their mamas. We even came past a hut outside a farmhouse along the track with a Boarder Collie sheep dog guarding the little lamb that was inside. The lamb was clearly a bottle-fed lamb (pet lamb) as she sucked on Mrs F's finger, with the dog keeping very close dog-eye, Mr F she was getting a bit anxious of getting close to the lamb and when we left she looked in the barn to make sure her lamb was ok like the good guard dog she was and lovely to see 🥰
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| Mr F Pointing To Where We Had Just Been Past The Quarry |
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| A Lot of Slate Around |
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| Heading Into The Beautiful Valley |
Warning, lots of lamb photos coming up...
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| The Little Bottle Fed Lamb |
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| Her Guard Dog |
We were then on the road that really just kept on giving and by now, Mrs F's heel on her feet were really hurting as tarmac walking is the worst thing for her plantar fasciitis and almost on tiptoes! As we were on the path that was like the never ending path from Labyrinth, we could see a steep section in the distance. a) it was quite far in the distance but couldn't see how we would end up over there with it being so far away and b) it was steep!! But yes, it was the route we needed to take and slightly confusing as we couldn't see where we would eventually end up. We did however discover a little hidden gem of a road where you could par if everywhere was full, albeit a little further out of the way from the visitor centre but there if desperate for a parking space.
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| The Never ending Road!! |
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| Mrs F Was Hurting!! |
The path eventually lead us directly to and past the visitor centre, but there was still a fair walk back to the car from there and didn't realise we had just racked up 13.5 miles, no wonder Mrs F was hurting! As we walked along the A5 back to the car, Mr F looked over at Mrs F and was taken aback, making a comment on how whispy her hair was and said 'Tough day on the mountains? Probably!!' As Mrs F caught sight of herself in a house window going by, she was understanding of his surprise when looking at her!
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| We Made It!!! |
There is a photo from one of our very first climbs when we drove all the way from London, directly to climb Skiddaw and a photo of Mrs F hugging the car when we were back (see 2013, July entry) but for ease, will pop it here for you to see and compare an upgraded version of Mrs F being pleased to see the car!! 😆 Apparently some guys went by in a truck laughing but Mrs F really didn't care!
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| 2013 |
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| Now! |
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| A Clear Sign of a Tough Day On The Mountains! |
It was a good job we were only 15 minutes from the cottage, we didn't get home until 6:15pm, having left out just after 9am. We didn't realise today would be as big as it was but it was a great day; a day of topsy-turvy weather, lambs, stunning valley...and we stayed dry the whole day, which was a continued theme for the remaining week 😊 Mrs F was happy to have brough her tens machine with her and used it to the max on her heels to repair what the day had done and give her a sporting chance for much of the same the next day, although much less mileage!
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| Stats From Mr F's Garmin Watch |
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| Altitude and Gradient For The Day |
DAY 3: GALLT YR OGOF - 2,503FT
Y FOEL GOCH - 2,641FT
We woke up to another beautiful clear sunny and warm day. Mr F started the day with his feet in a bowl of cold water due to his feet hurting from the day before! The two planned mountains today were literally right behind the cottage, with the path leading just up the bank outside the door. Every morning that we were there without fail around 10am, two fighter jets would fly right past and over the cottage in practice for low range mountain flying, as they often do in Wales and the Lake District, but sadly Mrs F was always too slow to get it on her camera. Sometimes they would come over in the afternoon too when we were back in time to at least hear them but they were too quick to see them. So we waited just up on the bank with camera at the ready...for at least 10 minutes. And nothing! Every morning without fail and the one morning we were ready, they decide not to turn up!! So we carried on with our route; from the little bank, we turned left and joined the path heading over the stream that ran along the back of the cottage and was quite a drop down...
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| Mr F Cooling His Hot Aching Feet |
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| View Over Our Cottage From The Bank |
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| View From The Path |
The path went on for a little while with more lambs in the field to our right, which is always a welcomed sight for us 🐑 The path we needed was a very discreet one just took us off to the left that looked more like a sheep trail. In fact, Mr F checked his Satmap and thought we needed the more obvious looking wider path that ran a little lower down from it, but after we headed on it for a little while, realised we were off the track of the one we actually needed and then found it! It took us up onto a very craggy area with no clear way up or obvious previous trodden path and skilled navigation was needed (Mr F!) Mrs F just does her usual baby elephant following - we got the name Hatti for her when we were travelling, the name of the little elephant in The Jungle Book who holds onto the tail of the big elephant and just follows without knowing where he's going...although Mrs F doesn't hold onto Mr F's tail, just truss he knows where he's ging and follows...most of the time! It was a gradual incline up through the craggy banks and onto flatter ground that was quite boggy in areas that were quite deep, so a couple of traverses were necessary. We as were coming up we looked back and could see a couple with a dog, so assumed they would catch up at some point, but we didn't actually see them again until we were on our way back later on and they hadn't got very far at all!! In fairness, he was a small dog and there is a section of the hike where it's quite steep with rocks to navigate and pull yourselves up over...
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| The Discreet Path Leading Upwards |
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| Very Graggy |
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| Great Views Over The Boggy Areas |
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| Looking Ahead To Gallt yr Ogof |
Even though it was a hot day and fairly challenging with a few steep areas - as seen in the picture below - we were really enjoying the day as it wasn't overly hard in terms of navigation and strenuous and we had 360 clear views...and literally just behind the cottage! As mentioned, there were quite a few boggy areas that were quite deep. Mr F isn't as thoughtful and careful as Mrs F when considering how we were going to get across and will often trudge through and end up sinking in. Today was no exception. Albeit there were areas that looked quite sturdy, leading you into a false pretence and this is exactly what happened to Mr F when both his legs literally disappeared into what looked quicksand! After being sucked in knee deep, he managed to pull himself out and was covered in wet muck!! He had done a bit of research and watched a couple of videos on YouTube of other people doing it and had seen that it is a notoriously boggy route and so suggested we wear gaiters and good job he was wearing them!
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| Making Our Way Up |
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| The Steep Rocky Section |
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| Gallt yr Ogof |
The distance from Gallt yr Ogof to Y Foel Goch wasn't too long and the views we had of Snowdon and Tryfan along with the Glyders was just stunning, like we'd stepped into a painting! You can have the best camera in the world but nothing ever takes it in like the human eye from being there...
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| Mr F Pointing to Our Next One, Y Foel Goch |
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| Layers Upon Layers of Mountain Ranges |
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| Mr F Making His Way To The Small Summit Rock |
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| Adding Our Smaller Stone To The Summit |
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| Looking at Tryfan From Y Foel Goch |
There was a little wind shelter that just about shielded us from the wind, although the wind wasn't that strong, but it could definitely do with building on and definitely no more than two people could fit. Mrs F went ahead of Mr F and got stuck into lunch whilst Mr F took a 360 video complete with audio description of where we were and the names of mountains around us. Whilst we were in the wind shelter, we used the time to pray. Jesus often went to the mountains to pray and whilst you can pray wherever you are, it just felt quite fitting to be surrounded by such an amazing creation, it was right to be in amongst it all and pray about various things that were on our hearts including thanking God for blessing us both with a love and appreciation of this beautiful world He created for our enjoyment 😇
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| Mr F Sad About His Muddy Gaiters! |
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| Adam & Eve At The Top Of Tryfan |
The route back was sadly the way we came and no avoiding it. Since the route lead us directly back to the cottage just below, there wasn't really enough mileage to allow for a looped route that we normally do and prefer. This meant we had to go back through the bog-fest! As we made our way back through the bog (carefully!) we saw the couple heading up with the dog...only about 3 hours later than when we saw them behind us!
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| Not Sure What Mr F Is Doing Here!! |
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| Friendly Resident |
As we made our way back through the rocks area, Mr F thought that if he walked back and forth down the steep areas, it would break up the gradient and made a comment that he was making his way down like Professor Yaffle making his way down from his books from Bagpuss. Mrs F had no idea who that was but when looking at it later could see what he meant and chuckled! We managed to do well navigating our way around the larger boggier areas...until we had made it almost all the way down when Mr F slipped over completely on some wet slippery mud!! He was a bit of a mess both on his side and his rucksack, but thankfully he wasn't hurt. We could see the cottage just below us over a big rock that Mrs F thought would be nice to sit on as the sun went day (sadly we never did that!) We did however decide to sit down for 10 minutes at the time the two fighter jets would come over right by where we were, with the camera at the ready. Alas, they didn't come!! Although it was a nice sit-sat for a little whilst, especially after Mr F had a tumble...
Once we made it back to the path leading over the stream by the cottage, we tried to find a way to get down to the stream where we could dip our feet. There is a car park not far from the Cotswolds Outdoor place literally over the road form the cottage and we walked behind that trying to find a safe way down but it was too steep. We then walked along the main road that ran just outside the cottage past Cotswold Outdoors to find a route down, but alas there wasn't one. Mrs F went into the Cotswold shop to ask how we could get to it and the guy who was working there said something about the car park behind them but the accent was so strong she couldn't understand him! We wondered back briefly but then resorted to heading to the
Brenin National Outdoor Centre just up the road form us where we could dip and cool our feet in Llynnau Mymbyr lake...a great way to end a great day 😊
The water was so refreshing and not too cold to the point where it hurt, but could hold our feet in the water long enough to adjust and keep them in. Just over the water there were two women who were wild swimming and when they got out, they took their tops off to get dried in full view!
😯🙈 Next to us was a puppy who was scared to go into the water, but his owner had chucked the ball in and too far for him to go and get it and he wasn't happy about it! He had to wait for the current to bring it closer but it took a while and was entertaining to watch as we sat and dipped. We had to carefully navigate ourselves over the rocks back to the flat grassy ground with our wet feet to dry off before putting our new feeling feet back into our boots and make our way home for dinner and a chillout. On our way back, we came across a guy who had pulled over to try and take a photo of the little church just along the road (which had sheep in the graveyard eating the grass from around the graves!) Mrs F got talking to him and he said he is retired and drives around looking for unique building to photograph and Mrs F told him she likes to think of herself as an amateur photographer and even got in on the action and took a photo from the bridge of the water in the setting sun light. Turns out his name literally was David Bailey, but not the real one...of course!
As we were home at a decent hour, Mr F suggested going back up Moel Siobad since it was a clear day and would have much better views than on our first day. Plus he wanted to redeem himself from going wrong on the way down on our first day! We contemplated it for a while before coming to the conclusion that we wouldn't be back until quite late and still had inner to eat with another long day the next day. Mrs F sat outside with an amazing glass of Welsh tap water which tasted a hell of a lot nicer than East Anglian water and read her bible, whilst Mr F watched The Honesty Box...yep, he did! He did suggest around 5pm that we should "shoot" up and down, so the niggle to go and do it was still there but even though we had plenty of daylight, we sadly didn't have enough time, so we left it for another day.
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| Mrs F's Photo From The Bridge |
DAY 4: CRIMPINEAU (Not a Nuttall)
CRAIGLWYN - 2,044FT
CRAIGIAU GLEISION - 2,224FT
CRAIGIAU GLEISION NORTH TOP - 2,080FT
Another hot day today. Mr F had, as usual, done some research on todays route and watched some YouTube videos and discovered that it is really quite boggy in areas leading up, so recommended wearing gaiters, even though it was mega hot! Mrs F had to order more kinesio tape as she had ran out (first time ever!) and the best ting about Amazon is it comes the very next day. So she left a note for it to be left in the porch as it wouldn't had fit through the letterbox and we obviously wouldn't be in to accept it. From the cottage, our route took us over the main road and onto the hills where we have walked before on our previous trip and saw a mountain guide leadership course - the guy was talking about the green marks on the rocks and what they are! 😕 But before we headed over the main road and through the gate, we stopped for 5 minutes just after 10am with phone in hand to capture the two fighter jets that have been over every morning around that time...but much like yesterday, not today!
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| Hot Lambs In The Sun |
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| Looking Back Towards Our Cottage |
As we made our way along the flat path towards the mountains, we met an older guy coming towards us who was kitted up complete with two walking poles. We hadn't met many people so far and always think it rather rude to have someone else on our route! 😄However on this occasion, we were very pleased to have stopped and talk to this guy and it turns out he is a retired mountain guide and had done Everest Base camp, in his words, too many times! We spoke to him about that for quite a while, sharing stories and memories from when we were there (see 2012 April entry) and was really lovely for all of us to be able to talk about places and have the other person know where and what exactly you're talking about. We imaged it must have been quite a while since he met people who had done that EBC trek to talk about. He had moved to Wales from Yorkshire and didn't hold back with smirking and correcting Mr F's pronunciation of the Welsh mountains we had done and plan to do...in the end Mr F was almost too shy to say the names with fear of them being all wrong...and they were! 😄 After about half an hour, we wished him well and continued along the path. The gravel path disappeared and we were on very boggy grassland, where careful navigation was needed to avoid any disappearing legs as per the day before, but it wasn't easy as a lot of the terrain was really boggy and some hidden in tall grass so lured you in with false pretence that it was safe to tread on before sinking into bog!
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| Welcomed Cover of Trees |
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| Road Block Sheep! |
Once the bog had been skilfully navigated, we were on a gravel path again and out in the open of the hot sun. We creamed up and Mrs F used her buff to tuck under her visor and the back to protect her neck form getting burnt as it always tends to. The gravel path was a long winding route that disappeared up ahead deeper into the mountains as they appeared closer with no end in sight. There were fields to left and right and eventually the path was left in the open and moved into the closed surroundings of the grassy banks leading up towards to tops of the mountains. Our path we needed was off the left of us, however we carried on just a little further to make our way onto a great viewing point to get an amazing view...
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| Making Our Way Along The Long Gravel Path |
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| Looking Up To Crimpineau |
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| Great Views From The Viewing Point |
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| More Views |
We then took no time in making our way back to the path (where we randomly saw two pushbikes propped up by the gate with no one around who might be the owners!) back on the path and then shortly took a right turn up the bank towards Crimpineau. The walk up to the summit of Crimpineau wasn't a hard incline at all from the path and had a very clear way up along a well trodden path. Mrs F was astonished to discover that this wasn't on the Nuttals list, as it was so spectacular up top, the best views we've had so far this week and in the history of mountain treks in Wales...apart from when we did Crib Goch, possibly! (see 2015 June entry) There was already a couple on the top eating lunch who we spoke to briefly about our planned routes. They were from Liverpool and here just for the day...just because you can when you're that close to Wales! The lady kindly took a few photos of us together on the summit, which we rarely have when it's just us out in the mountains...
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| Pushing For The Top |
After we'd soaked in the glorious 360 views, we stopped for a short snack and gulps of water before making our way down a little zig-zag route over towards our first official mountain of the day, Craiglwyn. There is always something quite sad abut mountains that have no status other than the name it's given when they definitely qualify to make it to a list of achievements. The couple headed off before us and headed down the same way, which Mr F questioned given they said they were heading back to Capel Curig...and sure enough, they realised shortly after and turned around, passing us as we were on the right route for our next stop!
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| Craiglwyn Dead Ahead |
The walk between all three summits were quite short and mostly a nice gentle ridge walk across the top to each one. But it was getting hotter as the day went on and as we sat and had lunch on our final summit, we took our gaiters off that were melting our legs and the bottoms of our trousers were soaking with sweat!! 😝
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| Mr F Pointing to The Next Day's Mountain, Pen yr Helgi Du |
As we sat for a while on a summit, we looked down and saw a lake called Llyn Cowlyd, that looked very invited and as we were heading down to it, decided that we should should have a skinny dip!!
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| The Very Inviting Looking Lake |
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| Mrs F Feeling The Heat With Rosy Cheeks! |
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| Lunch and Removal of Gaiters! |
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| The Boys Loving The Mountains Although a Bit Too Hot For Them! |
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| Family Photo 💗💙💙 |
We strapped our wet gaiters to the outside of our rucksacks and carried along the ridge towards the top end of the lake just below, passing a lovely little tarn (Mrs F loves a water shot!) A little further along, we came across a rock coming up out of the ground and Mr F thought it a good idea to try and get an optical illusion photo of her sitting off the edge of a sheer drop, but it didn't quite work out! We were then met with a fairly steep decline of the tall ridge and the way down wasn't clear with any visible path through rocky and heather based terrain and what looked like a sheer drop just ahead as we couldn't see beyond that point. We chose the best way down without risk of injury or getting stuck and towards what we believed to be a good way down. Trusting our judgement paid off and we we soon on an easy slope down towards what looked like a water supply to the towns below; at the end we were walking towards, there was a massive pipe that stretched from the lake all the way along through the mountains, quite an impressive piece of engineering. We wasn't sure if this was a manmade or natural reservoir and if the water was treated and whether we should go in....but we did! We walked past the pipe and around to the other side where the path was and walked about half way along where we were away from anyone who may be working by the pipe and had an accessible way down to the water. There was a fence that ran along the lake that we thought was for keeping opportunists such as out, but given all the sheep and lambs that were on the slopes, it was most likely to protect them from drowning! Although there was one rogue sheep that had made her way down to the waters edge to have a drink, which we couldn't blame her given she still had fer full fleece on and it was a mega hot day, surprised she didn't get in for a little dip herself!
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| Unintentional Great Photo Of Mr F Walking By |
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| Mrs F's Water Shot With A Mountain Backdrop 💗 |
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| The Lake Getting Closer |
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| Mrs F Happy at The Prospect of a Cooling Off Dip! |
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| Mr F Looking Pleased With Himself Making is Way Down The Rock & Heather |
Once we had picked our spot, we had a quick look around to see if there were any eyes that didn't belong to sheep, but we were really quite secluded and even if there were people on top of the mountain they wouldn't be able to get a clear image of our nakedness! We popped our stuff down on a mahoosive rock and proceeded to get undressed. We had never done this before but we do enjoy a wild swim, usually in our swimming costumes, but since we were without appropriate swim attire, a skinny dip was just the ticket! Mrs F was undressed and started to make his way carefully over the stones - we'd usually wear wet shoes but again, these weren't to hand so had to tread carefully. As he made his way into the water he gave a short burst of a cry to indicate it was freezing!! 🥶This wasn't incentive for Mrs F to get in as she actually really doesn't like really cold water, but as the temperature was still scorching at nearly 5pm, she braved it. The only thing that was a challenge besides the freezing water temperature was the big stones and rocks on the lakes bed that were also a bit slippery, which were quite painful on the feet and a challenge to walk on. Mr F managed to stay in for a total of about 3 minutes and Mrs F went in twice, as she came out due to her feet hurting from the rocks but wanted to have a proper dip so wen tin again and managed to get in just below the shoulders but nit getting them fully under. There is something about getting your shoulders when people go swimming, especially in cold water that apparently makes it easier, but I wasn't about to put that to the test!
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| Mr F Is Going In!!! |
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| Mrs F Cautiously Getting In With Cold Hunched Shoulders!! |
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| That's As Good As It Gets! |
Once we were out and feeling really quite refreshed and invigorated, we didn't have a towel to dry off but with it still being really hot, all we had to simply do is wait a while. Mrs F used her fleece jacket to hurry the process along, as we noticed there was a cloud of mosquitos that were like the luftwaffe looking for where to attack!! We had to move quick and away from the big rock where we could comfortably get dressed with our newly felt bodies and head back onto the path. It was such a great moment to have our fist ever impromptu skinny dip in the middle of the Welsh mountains with no one to look on but sheep...a real special moment for us 😊💖
Dried and dressed, we headed off along a beautiful scenic path, where a little further up we noticed a frantic lamb calling for it's mama with mama on the other side of the wall, so Mr F had to usher him down towards his Mum to stop him going further up away from her. Mum and lamb reunited, we carried along our way, still with the hot sun beaming down in our faces as we were heading in it's direction. Once we reached the end of the lake, we took a left turn which lead us back down through the boggy terrain we navigated on our way up, this time without our gaiters so being exceptionally careful!
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| Our Beautiful Walk Back |
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| Not Sure What Mr F Was Trying To Achieve With His Buff! 🤔 |
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| Looking Back At Where We'd Just Been From Ground Level |
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| A Well Done High Five! 🫶 |
Bog skilfully navigated, the walk back felt quite long with a few sheep to entertain us. We decided that today would be another day for a drink and once we were on the road that lead over the bridge and past the cottage (Mrs F caught sight of her delivery in the porch) and carried to the Plas y Brenin National Outdoor Centre for a couple of cold ones. It was whilst we were sat enjoying our well-earned cold beverages that Mrs F started to feel that both of the backs of her ankles were really quite itchy and felt like loads of bites from the mosquitos, but when back at the cottage, it was in fact a horrendous heat rash that was insanely itchy!!! It kept her awake that night with it itching and burning and had to get up a couple of times to wrap a wet, cold towel around it!
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