Walk 16 in Alex Kendall's 'Snowdonia: North' Cicerone guide found us in the unremarkable village of Tregarth, parking roadside opposite the grotty looking pub.
Our 9km walk was far from grotty. We started in waterproofs, but the rain that had plagued the car windscreen miraculously evaporated once we started walking. We encountered just a dog walker and a jogger on our way up and down to the 420 metre summit of Moel y Ci, where we visited all the pimples that adorn the summit plateau. There were good views all around, including those across to Anglesey, pictured above. Low cloud over the Carneddau and Glyderau left us with a view that didn't quite compare with Alex's panorama.
Here are some of the pictures taken at the time:
Looking coastwards from the ascent out of Tregarth
The Wales Pilgrim's Way goes through a section of forest
We took a narrow trod soon after leaving the forest, which led to Moel y Ci's 396 metre trig point
The actual summit, 410 metres, is a little further on.
We lunched here, watching a fell runner visit this hill's several tops
The views to the coast slowly improved, whilst we ambled around the various summit protuberances
Then we desscended to join the path around the hill by a rustic kissing gate - this is where there's a more substantial path to the summit, down which we had come
Here's our 9km route, which included 350 metres ascent and took us rather less than 3 hours
We then drove to Llyn Ogwen for lunch in the car, overlooking the lake, with the Carneddau ahead. Walk 13 is an easy 5km stroll up to and around Llyn Idwal, in the glaciated hollow of Cwm Idwal, below the Idwal slabs and Devil's Kitchen. There were climbers on the slabs, high above the large parties of schoolchildren and assorted tourists circumperambulating the lake.
The picture shows Sue on the approach to Llyn Idwal, in Cwm Idwal.
More pictures will follow in due course, and I may add that we enjoyed finding Heath Spotted Orchids today, but we weren't so happy about finding dead shrews both yesterday and today.
Here are those 'more pictures' referred to above:
Llyn Ogwen, from Idwal Cottage, on a cloudy day
Idwal Cottage's cafe used to be a small kiosk, but it has now matured into a fully fledged visitor centre
Goats and herring gulls were encountered on the way to Llyn Idwal
We took the boggy cross country route to the lake after crossing a footbridge, but we returned along the well constructed slabby path shown above next to the lake
The Devil's Kitchen slowly came into view
Climbers were active on the slabs to the left of the previous picture
Wild Thyme flourishes here
We took a clockwise route around Llyn Idwal, encountering hundreds of children on school outings, and enjoying the view ahead to Pen yr Ole Wen
Further on, the distinctive profile of Tryfan slowly made its way into our field of vision
Looking back across the lake, the Devil's Kitchen ramp came into clear view to the right of the slabs
This was a short outing of only about 5km, with 150 metres ascent,
taking us a leisurely hour and three quarters
Next Day
