Saturday 15 July 2023 - Coed Llyn y Garnedd

Returning from Dolgellau to Porthmadog, the rain seemed to have taken some time out, so we stopped at Plas Tan-y-Bwlch and took a two hour stroll in the pleasant woodland of Coed Llyn y Garnedd. This was a variant of Alex Kendall's walk 26 in his Cicerone guide to Snowdonia North. 

We took the path steeply up from the car park (FOC) and soon crossed the railway line. The sun even came out to illuminate our progress (see above). There were no battles with bracken today.

Our usual path was closed in order to give some nesting ospreys a bit of privacy, so we took a short cut and found ourselves at a viewpoint over the Afon Dwyryd.

From here it was all downhill to reach Llyn Hafod-y-Llyn, where Sue sat on a bench and eulogised about going for a wild swim.

She decided against a cold plunge, and we re-crossed the railway, narrowly avoiding being mown down by a long train full of waving passengers.

Further on, Llyn Mair sported its usual profusion of attractive water lilies, though today's sky was darkening ominously. 

So we found a good contouring path back to the car park, stashed our waterproofs that hadn't been needed, and settled down to scoffing the contents of a flask that had been left in the car, just as the heavens opened again for more or less the rest of the day.

Here's our route - 5.6 km with 190 metres ascent, taking rather less than 2 hours.

We've enjoyed this walk twice before - on 14/11/21, and 1/12/22, when there were no osprey restrictions. We didn't see the birds on this visit.

There were quite a few people out today - this must be a popular area, though the car park we used was otherwise empty apart from one vehicle. 

That's it from Porthmadog for now. It's time to scour the cupboards for leftovers before packing up and going home tomorrow.