silence
Great day on the hills above Beddgelert with Joe. Weather held off until we were comfortably ensconced in the bar of the Anglesey Arms in Caernarfon. Ended up doing 6.5 miles of difficult terrain with a 1000 ft elevation climb in just over 4 hours. We stopped whenever we felt like it.
I had originally considered climbing Moel Siabod from Capel Curig. The temperature at the top was going to be around 1 degree celsius today and the 800 metres climb looked as if it might be a bit on the uncomfortable side. In the end we opted for “Llyn Dinas and Cwm Bychan from Beddgelert” which seemed to give me the optimum combination of scenery, climb and distance.
It ended up being an absolutely lovely walk where I got the quite steep bit of the ascent in relatively early and could then enjoy the rest of the day. The views were stunning and the silence notable. Most of the walkers were going the opposite direction to us which proved to have a far more gentle climb to it but i was glad we stuck to the “guide book”.
On our way down we encountered a group who had a couple of people somewhat on the large side. They didn’t make it to the top but turned around and headed back down the same way they had come.
The sun shone for most of the walk and was actually good enough to wait until we got to the top before giving of its best and on the way down we were able to remove our waterproofs which were there today mainly for their wind-cheating capacity.
Today I took the GoPro with me. It has a waterproof casing and I’m kind of leaning towards using it as the main coast to coast camera and just using the phone for the runkeeper app. Once it is mended that is.
We arrived in Beddgelert after a lovely walk alongside the Afon Glaslyn and hit the Conway Cafe (?) for a cream tea. There were some Americans on the table behind us where the son (early 20s) seemed decidedly unimpressed with the area. From the sound of it he was after Windsor Castle et al. Huh!
Met Rhys at the Anglesey Arms, popped in to Morrisons for some supplies and home for a snug night in. We are cooking pasta and tomato sauce with choritzo, bacon, mushrooms and chilli.
Home tomorrow.
feet beginning to harden btw