Walking

[Merddin Emrys]

Yes, great walks and pics again! 

[Hugo]

Hi Hugo.

The detail in the photos and text of your walks is wonderful. Mouth watering places for an exile who can no longer walk.

Have you thought of doing a 'Wainwright' type booklet. I'm sure it would be readily snapped up commercially.

Heddwch.

Mike.

Thanks Mike,  hope that your keeping well over there in Norfolk.  I know that you'd love to be able to join me on some of those walks but are unable to but I'll keep on doing the walks as long as I can and hope that they bring back some of the hen wlad fy nhadau for you.       

[Hugo]

Yes, great walks and pics again! 

Thanks ME,  I've been walking in your old territory this year and can appreciate how beautiful the area is.   

[Merddin Emrys]

The slate mill is a great building, they went to a lot of trouble building that, unfortunately the quality of slate in the quarry wasn't too good!

[Hugo]

It cost a lot to build and wasn't operational for long due to the poor quality of the slate as you've said

[Hugo]

Hollins,  I'm sorry but I forgot to ask you how Mr Hollins is,   hope that his injuries are healing well as I'm sure that this good spell of weather will make him want to get back on the hills again.     

[hollins]

Hi Hugo, How kind of you to remember about Mr Hollins injury.
The cast came off a week last Friday. he is progressing, now down to one crutch and supposed to be wearing a big black boot but I fear it will be a longish recovery time.
The injury was about as bad as you can do to an ankle, i.e two bones broken and ligament damage but he is determined to be fit again as soon as possible.
We both enjoy reading about your walks and they inspire him to get going again.
Thanks for asking.

[Hugo]

Thanks Hollins,  I'm pleased that Mr Hollins' injury is progressing and trust that it continues to do so. Give him our best wishes for a speedy recovery.
If it can happen to an experienced walker like him then it can happen to anyone.  I hope I'm not tempting fate but I've programmed the Mountain Rescue number into my phone as we had a bad experience on the Glyders the other week.

[Gwynant]

              I'm not sure if this is the correct location for this post, but it's the nearest I could find. I have just watched two TV programmes that I recorded earlier this week on the S4c "Mynydd" ("Mountain") season, which I found incredibly interesting and in some cases terrifying! They were "Dringo i'r eithaf" ("Climbing to the limit", ) and "Defaid a dringo" ("Sheep and climbing"), subtitles available on both programmes, the latter repeated on this coming Sunday on S4c at 2030.
          The two programmes describe the life of a young Bethesda climber, Ioan Doyle, and his fixation on becoming a successful climber and subsequently his chosen career and lifestyle in North Wales. I found both programmes to be really inspiring and interesting, and also an insight into Welsh farming and  family values. A lot of it is filmed in the Nant Ffrancon and Carneddau areas and also some of it on the Great Orme. Well worth a visit to S4c clic home, or if not catch the repeat on Sunday.

[Hugo]

It was well worth watching but not for me at all.   I wouldn't have the nerve to do what those guys goy up to.

[Hugo]

By the time I arrived at West Shore for the start of our walk up the Great Orme it had stopped raining.  Thank goodness, because I hadn't brought any wet weather gear with me.  We started the walk from Invalids Walk and went to have a look at Ogof Arth and found it hard to imagine that John Stevens an Irishman lived in this cave for over 14 years in the mid 1800's.  From there we walked straight up the slopes and followed the cliffs and the sheep tracks until we came to the Gogarth Tunnel.
What we noticed along the route was that the grass was parched, the paths badly cracked and there had been a lot of activity with Badgers or Rabbits near the path.
The Gogarth Tunnel was bone dry as it has been for years now but water was still flowing from the nearby Ffynnon Gogarth.  The sheep track took us to near the wall of the farm and we were surprised to see what was an exposed electric cable just below the surface of the ground but didn't bother to investigate any further.    It was then downhill to have a nice coffee and cake at the café by the lighthouse and then it was time to continue our walk along the farm wall and down St Beuno's road to have a look at the Cromlech.     Mike's Golf Course looked parched along with the rest of the Orme and as we passed by we found him busy watering one of the  greens.   After a quick chat with Mike who looked fit and tanned and we continued down the steps of Haulfre Gardens and along Invalids Walk back to the car.   

[Hugo]

Great Orme Walk

[Gwynant]

                Nice walk Hugo, I did more or less the same route a couple of weeks ago when I took the photos of the recent wooden structures by the Copper mines which Tom Parry told me about. Somebody once told me that the exposed wiring you came across is something to do with the viewing screen that they have in the visitor centre on the summit complex, which is connected to a camera on the cliffs below the light house, to enable you to pan in on the seabirds there, but they could be wrong.
               We walked from the Spinneys in Llandygai to Llanfairfechan yesterday along the sea-shore and I forgot my camera, which was a shame as the views and colours were exceptional. It was a very big tide and the path by the footbridge over the Afon Rhaeadr-Fawr at Aber was underwater in places and it was still coming in! All the birds on the spit of land between there and Llanfair which is designated as a nesting site were in a right panic, and the noise was deafening. 

[Hugo]

That sounds a nice walk Gwynant and one I've never done completely.  I did visit the Spinneys for the first time this year and was quite impressed but never saw those elusive Kingfishers there.
Shame about the camera as the pictures would have been superb but at least you have the lasting memories of them.  I wasn't prepared yesterday either, no wet weather gear, no walking trainers, so I ended up walking in my mountain boots and carrying an umbrella in my rucksack.  It's a sure sign of old age with me!

[Hugo]

It was just over a year ago that Wayne and I did this walk before and yesterday we were again walking up Snowdon via the Pyg Track and then returning down the Llanberis Path to where we had parked our cars.  The first thing was to get our bus passes out and catch the Sherpa Bus to Pen Y Pass for the start of our walk.   Pen Y Pass car park was already full up by 9.30am despite the charge of £10.00 for parking there for the day! 
Yesterday's torrential rain meant that the streams and rivers were in full flow and waterfalls were everywhere.  A big cloud hung over Crib Goch but we hoped that it would burn off as we neared the summit but it was not to be and if anything the clouds got lower the higher we walked.  One couple we got talking to as we sat down for a breather by the zig zag path just before the summit ridge  were from Newcastle.   Apparently they had caught the train up Snowdon on Monday but were unable to see anything because of the cloud but they were walking up yesterday to see the views.  Unfortunately they were going to be unlucky again as the visibility was awful.
A quick pull up to the Summit trig point and then we had to find a place amongst the hundreds of visitors to have our drinks and food.  We didn't stay long there and went down the Llanberis Path which seemed very loose and stony and made our way down to Penceunant Café where we stopped to have a nice coffee and chat with Steffan the ownere of the café.   From there it was a steep walk down the tarmac to the high street and to our cars, only stopping long enough at Giorgio's for one of their nice ice creams.    The visibility wasn't good yesterday but it didn't spoil what was otherwise a nice walk.