Walking

[Dave]

The last shot was taken from almost opposite the cafe in Crafnant Steve. I can only think of two houses near the water at Geirionydd, one near the cross, the other at the other end of the lake. There appears to be a farm not far from there which was having some building work done last week.

[Merddin Emrys]

Some great pics there Dave! 

[SteveH]

The last shot was taken from almost opposite the cafe in Crafnant Steve. I can only think of two houses near the water at Geirionydd, one near the cross, the other at the other end of the lake. There appears to be a farm not far from there which was having some building work done last week.

The one by the farm, called Ty Ucha, I really loved living there especially through the seasons, I have some photos I will try and dig them out and post them later.

[Ian]

That penultimate shot of the reflective lake was excellent, Dave.  It would have been quite ordinary were it not for the stakes marching out into the lake, too. Very nicely done.  And am I right assuming the Fairy Falls shot was held for a second?

[Jack]

On Sunday afternoon I only had a couple of hours to go for a walk so stayed ‘local’. I parked just off the A470 at Marl Hall and walked up through the woods towards the obelisk on the Bodysgallen Estate.  It was a beautiful autumnal day. The woods were alive with wildlife; squirrels were everywhere and lots of woodland bird species such as nuthatch, treecreeper and great spotted woodpecker. Amongst the fallen leaves there were lots of toadstools and fungi.

After taking in the panoramic views from the obelisk I carried on through the woods emerging on farmland above Llanrhos Road and walked towards St David’s College. There must have been an overnight ‘fall’ of winter thrushes as the field margins and hedgerows were teeming with redwings, mistle thrushes and blackbirds feasting on the rosehips and haws.

After skirting St David’s College, the path leads back to the A470. After a ‘heart in mouth’ dash across the main road I wandered around Llanrhos churchyard for a few minutes. I found the grave of ‘Poor Betty’ which I think Hugo has referred to in the past.  Her epitaph reads: “Here lyeth the body of poor Betty, who for upwards of 50 years was a houseless wandering maniac. Died February 1824.” Then in Welsh: “Y mae gorphwysfa yn y Nefoedd.” (“There’s a resting place in Heaven.”) Local people clubbed together to save her from a paupers’ grave.

[Dave]

That penultimate shot of the reflective lake was excellent, Dave.  It would have been quite ordinary were it not for the stakes marching out into the lake, too. Very nicely done.  And am I right assuming the Fairy Falls shot was held for a second?

Thanks for the compliments everyone, you're all most kind.
The waterfall was taken using the bench as a rest to steady the camera and it was set at f22  1/3rd sec ISO100. I was quite pleased the way it came out as I had never tried anything similar before.
The fencing posts in the lake were deliberate to try and lead the eye in to the middle of the shot but there's nothing to keep you there.It's much easier to frame wildlife and people when they are the centre of attention. I realise how difficult it is trying to get scenery to stand out in the same way. Work in progress !

[SteveH]

Hi Jack, You seem to have crammed a lot into your "short walk", well done.   

[DaveR]

Yes, some great walks posted lately, well done to everyone.

[Hugo]

Nice photos and walk Jack, it just shows that there are good walks nearby.     

[Hugo]

Yesterday's weather forecast wasn't too good but we decided to have a short walk anyway and we met by Hendre Farm at the junction of the A55.    We walked along Yr Hen Ffordd in the direction of Aber and passed an old Chapel before the road got narrower and steeper.   It wasn't long before we took a public footpath and followed the line of trees uphill.  We passed an old abandoned cottage on the way up, it had great views but the access to it was poor which may explain why it was abandoned.
After passing the trees we headed steeply uphill across open bracken country and then the wind hit us.  Wind speeds in Llanllechid were 35 MPH but these were far greater especially as we headed straight into the wind to meet up with the North Wales Path.   It was so bad we took a break behind a low wall before continuing on uphill.   We passed under the electric pylons and the noise coming from them was deafening and very high pitched.   Not long afterwards we followed the path along the contours of the hill and were lucky enough to see a Brown Hare which quickly shot off up the hill.  Walking got a bit easier along this path but as there was no shelter there we decided to have our refreshments elsewhere.
We followed a lane back to Hendre Farm and then drove our cars to the Spinnies Nature Reserve by Penrhyn Castle.    Surprisingly though the wind was howling on the beach and nearly as bad as the hill tops we had just been on but we went into the Kingfisher Hide and enjoyed our sandwiches there.   Didn't see the Kingfishers there but there were lots of other birds to see.     Although the wind was bad on the walk we were lucky that it only started to rain when we were in the car and coming home.

[Hugo]

Hendre circular walk

[Gwynant]

  As the weather seemed a bit "iffy" yesterday we decided to do a low level walk which provided some shelter from the rain when it started. We left the car at the car park by the Bangor University Arboretum and took the path down by the Swellies between the two bridges to the Britannia Bridge where we walked up to see the stone lions which are now obscured from view from the A55, and also the tubular box-section retained from the old rail bridge which went on fire in 1970 and was replaced by the present road/rail structure.
  We then carried on into the woods opposite towards Vaynol until we went through a wrought-iron gate in a boundary wall into the N.T. estate (Glan Vaynol). We continued on through the woods and fields past a couple of bird-watching hides alongside the Straits and turned left and over a footbridge into the woods again over another footbridge and then turned right onto a track down towards the old Vaynol dock opposite Plas Newydd. After passing the dock and a few hippie-type dwellings we reached the outskirts of Y Felinheli and turned left following the track still on the Vaynol Estate until we reached the Caernarfon-Bangor road where we caught a bus back up to Penrhosgarnedd. We got off the bus just after the link road up from the A55 and walked down it, turned right towards the Menai Bridge and then left down through the Treborth Hall Estate past the hall and over the railway bridge where you can see the old Caernarfon branch line and the main Holyhead line and then through the Arboretum Gardens back to the car.

[Gwynant]

                Vaynol Walk between the bridges.

[Gwynant]

                 Vaynol Estate towards Y Felinheli.

[Gwynant]

             We covered part of that walk when we went up and over Moel Winion a few weeks ago from Hendre walk but the weather was fine that day. Like you we managed to dodge all the rain yesterday but the weather was very windy and wet on the trip back home along the A55, but to be fair the Bangor Weather Forecast gave a "window of opportunity" between 0900 and 1400 yesterday so they got it exactly right.