Monday 17 July 2023 - The Tame Valley Stompers at Eagley Jazz Club

The Summer Hot Pot Supper. A great evening with an excellent band.

Karen Johnson drums/percussion (borrowed from the Dixie Beats)
Terry Brunt trombone
Roger Wimpenny trumpet/vocals
Paul Broomhead clarinet/saxophone
Peter Smith bass
John Gordon banjo/guitar
 

Sunday 16 July 2023 - Erddig

We chose to return to Timperley from Porthmadog via the National Trust property at Erddig, near Wrexham - more or less on our route. We spent a happy couple of hours there and took a few photos which are captioned below. On a lovely afternoon, this was a good spot. 

"Erddig was on the brink of ruin during the early seventies. A crumbling Welsh stately home, the house was sinking, the roof was leaking and the destructive forces of nature were setting in. Today, thanks to a four-year restoration project, you can see a family home filled with a collection of servants’ portraits and poems, fine interiors and furniture."

We didn't go on any of the recommended walks, and we whizzed around the house, so expect another visit sometime.

Jalopies now replace the horses in the stables (probably the same horse power though!)

This snug room would have been a good one in which to enjoy a winter's day in front of a roaring fire.

Dining Room

The huge vase is a treasured possession

Library - I wonder how often the books in such places are actually opened?

It would be a shame if they never saw the light of day

An impressive doll's house, part of an interesting collection of vintage toys

In the bathroom, a fairly modern looking bath and sink, and a very novel shower contraption

They don't look much, but these restored bed hangings are very precious

Family chapel

Formal gardens, viewed from the house

West aspect of the long, thin house

There's a wolf's corner, home to a childrenss playground

Coots were hassling mallards on the ornamental pond, with Canada geese looking on

It'll be good at some point to explore the gardens - we hardly touched the surface

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. 

Saturday 15 July 2023 - Dolgellau parkrun #306

Squalls of rain lashed through the harbour. The low morning sun briefly illuminated the boats, but we didn't venture onto the deck.

Pwllheli parkrun promised to be a wet and windy endurance test, so we chose to go to Dolgellau again, where the weather held off before the start.

And off they went. The rain hit me at the three quarter distance point. Wisely I'd taken an anorak with me. Sue hadn't done that, but by then she had finished and sheltered with a group of runners behind a bush as the horizontal squall passed through. 

We adjourned to the T H Roberts café for breakfast. We stayed for quite a while, watching the rain lashing down and chatting to a lady and her ten year old son who had come from Northampton this morning to 'Tail Walk' here in an hour or so before returning home.

Friday 14 July 2023 - Llyn Trawsfynydd

Today was promised to be wet. And it was. We chose walk 4 in Alex Kendall's Cicerone guide to Snowdonia South. We had done this before, on 26/8/21, and enjoyed the stroll across the footbridge near the start of the walk. Sadly, we found that today Health and Safety had got there before us and the bridge is now closed indefinitely. 

So an extra 2.5km was needed to get around the lake to the end of the footbridge pictured above.

The road continued to Moelfryn before ascending to a viewpoint near where we lightened the flask.

The high point was soon reached, and despite the inclement weather offered some good views down to the lake.

A chill breeze was blowing off the lake as we rounded the path near the power station that's being decommissioned. It'll take until the end of the century!

There's a sheltered pavilion with no seats under cover, so we sat on a bench out of the wind, if not the rain, for our lunch.

The main information boards are in Welsh, with no English translation. That's  a pity, as I suspect that only a minority of visitors are conversant with the Welsh language. 

The cycle track that we had been following all day took us gently back to Trawsfynydd village, after we'd accidentally taken a diversion around a small headland. This minor error rewarded us with the sight of a beautifully constructed wasps nest dangling from a slim branch.

Earlier, Sue had spotted a healthy specimen of Common Toadskin Lichen. This turns out to be anything but 'common'.

We finished in heavy rain after a 16km outing with 200 metres ascent. It took us around 4 hours. We saw nobody else on the path. Not even a bicycle (for whom it would have been a quicker, if no less wetter, outing).

Later, when the rain had stopped, we walked down to Tremadog for an 'Early Bird' supper at the Y Sgwâr restaurant. A tasty meal with friendly service. Much appreciated after our bad experience at Dylans the other day.

Thursday 13 July 2023 - Cwm Pennant

Sue and I did this walk on 11 July 2021. It's walk 28 in Alex Kendall's Cicerone guide to Snowdonia North. Today it met our desire for just a short drive, and boots were deployed as we'd noted 'roughty toughty' last time.

We parked in plenty of space just before the first gate on the narrow road up the Pennant valley.

A 2km stroll along to the roadhead car park warmed us up before chatting with some D of E gold teenagers and heading up the hill to a ruin, from where the picture above was taken.

In the other direction, another remnant from the Prince of Wales Quarry that operated from 1873 to 1886.

The sun came and went as we looked across the valley.

We then descended past the two thick stone walls of the former winch house. 

The rest of the circuit involved tussucks, bogs, and lots of bracken. The occasional stile helped to confirm that we were still on the right track.

Can you spot Sue making her way across one of the many fields of bracken on this route? Next time we'll leave it for a winter outing!

The 'Footpath Closed' sign that we noticed two years ago is still in situ on the path to the west of the road, beside which we enjoyed a lavish picnic lunch. We needed the energy from that to get through the final section of thick undergrowth before finishing in a meadow of bog asphodel and heath spotted orchids.

The circuit was about 11km, with 280 metres ascent. It took us over 4 hours.

From the top of the final stile before reaching the car - a field of blue sheep.

 

Wednesday 12 July 2023 - A Walk to Criccieth

Today we promised ourselves a nice lunch in Criccieth, so we lazed around until 10:30, giving ourselves 2.5 hours to reach Dylans, a restaurant recommended by my niece, Ellie.

We set off around the harbour, looking back to our house on South Snowdon Wharf (above). Then we followed the coast path to, and along, Black Rock Sands.

After passing through Borth-y-Gest there's a nice sandy bay.

Before arriving at the huge beach of Black Rock Sands, there are some pleasant woodland sections of path, and the direction of travel isn't always obvious due to side tracks to the beach on one hand and up to a static caravan site on the other.

Eventually the vast expanse of Black Rock Sands was reached. Sunglasses were donned just to keep the sand out of our eyes thanks to the stiff breeze on the beach. A runner jogged past, struggling to make progress against the wind. 

After some distance the coast path leaves the beach at a campsite, around which it makes its way before rising over a headland and dropping down to follow the railway line into Criccieth, where the Art Deco building occupied by Dylans was more or less immediately encountered.

We had walked over 10km in less than 2.5 hours, and would be happy to spend two hours in Criccieth and return to Porthmadog on the bus.

Drinks and starter arrived efficiently, but staff were not designated to tables and nobody noticed when our 'mains' didn't arrive. We had been forgotten. After our efforts to regain visibility the food did arrive after a further delay, nearly an hour in total, but it was pretty ordinary. The thickness of pizza base on my calzone was just a bit too tough to bite through. There was no time after all the delays for us to have desserts (they looked nice) and coffees, so after the short bus ride we enjoyed ice creams in Porthmadog and hot drinks back at the house.

Here's a view from the coast path in Criccieth, on our way to the bus stop.