In the Autumn of 2002 some friends and I went to North Wales for
a weekend of hiking in Snowdonia. This area is one of the most mountainous
regions in the UK and still in a reasonable reach from Southampton.
Getting there:
We decided to rent a car for the weekend, as we were in four and
a train ticket for everyone would have been at least as expensive.
In addition it enabled us to move around the Snowdon area, that
is a little tricky without a vehicle. Finally we could stack all
our camping equipment into the car, also our rented Corsa was a
little bit small for four Adults and all the equipment.
After picking up everybody we headed north to Oxford and from there
to Birmingham. Unfortunately we reached it at rush hour on a Friday
afternoon what delayed us quite significantly. Shortly before crossing
the border of Wales the motorway stopped and the rest of the journey
was on A and B roads what delayed us even more. It took us 7 hours
to do the 260 miles (420 km) from Southampton to Nant Peris nearby
LLanberis. By the time we arrived it was already quite late and
we where happy to pitch our tends and get a good sleep (There are
two campsites in Nant Peris, ours was the first one coming over
Pen-y-pass, and the sanitation facilities were very primitive. But
a friend told us, that the second one is not much better).
Day 1: Glyder Fawr - Glyder Fach - Tryfan
The weather on the next day was surprisingly good for Wales
as we had no rain and so we decided to go for a long hike.
As most of us have been already on top of Snowdon we decided
to climb the eastern range of Snowdonia.
From our campsite we walked along the road to Pen-y-pass till
after Gwastadnant a footpath left heading eastwards. Initially
steep ascend climbed up the mountainside but after we reached
Cwm Padrig it become flatter and brought us to a small lake.
There we joined the path coming from Devils Kitchen up to
Glyder Fawr, the highest point during this day.
After a break on top
of it we followed the ridge eastwards to Glyder Fach and from
there went on till we joint the Miners track. This brought
us to the saddle Bwich Tryfan, where we had our lunch. With
fresh strength the easy climb up to Tryfan was very enjoyable
and the view we hade from up there was fantastic. The descend
brought us down to Llyn Idwal (lake) from where we began our
last climb of the day. Devil's Kitchen is a very steep and
impressive climb over hundreds of steps through a small cleft
in the ridge. On top of it we decided to avoid our ascent
and cross over into the next valley where a path lead back
to Nant Peris.
Day 2: Cnicht
On Sunday we packed our camping stuff and left Nant Peris
for an other sunny day. After the Pen-y-Pass we turned south
on the road to Beddgelert. Once we passed Llyn Gwynant (lake)
we turned left on a single lane street and followed it for
about 3km till we reached a new big car park.
From there we walked a little bit back on the road and turned
east at a cottage. A very nice footpace led past Llyn Llagi
(lake) up to Llyn yr Adar (lake).
Keeping on the ridge
(Southwest) of Cnicht we reached its top which provided a
beautiful view over the Snowdon area. Still keeping on the
ridge we descended into the valley between Cnicht and Yr Arddu
and then scrambled up Yr Arddu. From there we hiked northwards
on top of the hills past several small lakes.
This bit was probably the best part of the whole trip, as it let
through a wilderness of Erica, which unfortunately didn't bloom
anymore. But nevertheless it was a fantastic experiance. The final
descend led along a small river back to the single lane road, from
where it was only a short walk back to the car.
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