28
Dec 14

Glyderau

After our beautiful, and relaxing Christmas break down in London, we headed to Wales from the 27th of December – to get in some hiking, and, as Wales had recently got it’s fresh dump of super powder snow on the mountains, we were in for a great time.

We woke up, first thing Sunday morning, and headed straight to Llanberis, as we needed some fresh hiking socks for Gina, as she had just bought herself a new pair of beautiful boots: Scarpa Ranger Lady – Gina was over the moon with them. After a swift purchase of her new socks, we jetted up Llanberis Pass, and parked the van in a wee lay-by just after Pen Y Gwryd (the expedition pub), booted up, and headed straight up the Southern flank of Glyder Fach. Once we hit the snow line, we knew we were in for a good day’s hike, as the wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, the snow was super fresh-powder, and the views were stunning.

Gina, Snowdon Horseshoe & her new boots

Gina, Snowdon Horseshoe & her new boots

Snowdon Horseshoe

Snowdon Horseshoe

We powered up the hill, cutting through the epic balls-deep snow before reaching a nice wee plateau to which we stopped and had ourselves a lovely spot of lunch. As we bought up with us from London the beautiful Czech cookies that Gina baked for us, we thought that these would be a wonderful addition to our hiking snacks, and boy we were right: cheese ‘n pickle sandwiches, Czech xmas cookies and wonderful mint tea – perfect hiking foods.

Gina hiking in the snow

Gina hiking in the snow

Snowdon Horseshoe

Snowdon Horseshoe

After a nice lunch, we headed right up towards the summit of Glyder Fach. We hadn’t seen a single soul all morning, and it wasn’t until we reached the top plateau that we found the other hikers traversing from Glyder Fach towards Glyder Fawr. We stopped over at Castell y Gwynt, where the views down the valley, and over towards Y Carneddau were majestical and Wintery. I took a few snaps of the ice covered rock formation over on Castell Y Gwynt, and looking across towards Glyder Fawr.

Gina hiking up Glyder Fach

Gina hiking up Glyder Fach

Amazing views over towards Snowdon

Amazing views over towards Snowdon

Gina on Castell y Gwynt, with Pen yr Ole Wen behind.

Gina on Castell y Gwynt, with Pen yr Ole Wen behind.

Icy Castell y Gwynt & Glyder Fawr

Icy Castell y Gwynt & Glyder Fawr

From here, we traversed across to Bwlch y Ddwy Glyder, and stopped just shy of the summit of Glyder Fawr, as the sun was setting fast. We decided to head down a different route – from y Bwlch, straight down Bwlch Dwyglydion, and over to Llyn Cwmffynon. The sun was setting rather nicely, where we stopped for a breif moment to get some nice pictures.

Gina on Bwlch y Ddwy Glyder

Gina on Bwlch y Ddwy Glyder

Bwlch Dwyglydion - looking down towards Llyn Cwmffynon

Bwlch Dwyglydion – looking down towards Llyn Cwmffynon

Rather fantastic round trip, in glorious weather. Really nice to see Wales on top form!


02
Nov 13

A short break to Wales

After a super busy few weeks at work, Gina decided to take a week off and head over to Dublin for some relaxing times. We umm’ed and aah’ed about whether we should rent a car and travel around Ireland for a few days, or head over to Wales on the ferry to see my family and do some hiking. We decided it would be much more fun to do some hiking and seeing the sights in Wales, so we booked ourselves on a ferry over the Irish Sea. There was much speculation if the ferry was going, as the weather over in Wales was very stormy. Gina read that it was the worst storm in 10 years.
Our super fast ferry was cancelled, so we had to wait to catch the 9pm ferry over to Wales. It went super smoothly – with some of us sleeping the whole three hours. We were greeted in Holyhead by Dad, who took us back to my parents house – and to our super newly decorated bedroom, which was nice. CamperVan art and all! For Monday, the weather wasn’t in our favour to be heading up to the hills, so we decided to have a ‘tourist’ day around some of the places Gina hasn’t yet been to in Wales. After a quick stop at my favourite bakery in Llanrug to get a couple of nice pastries, we headed up the Llanberis Pass to see the mountains, and slowly make our way towards Betws y Coed where we decided to go for a spot of lunch.

Llanberis Pass

Llanberis Pass

Swallow falls

Swallow falls

Along the way, we stopped off at the lovely Swallow Falls – a multiple waterfall system that’s located on Afon Llugwy on the way to Betws y Coed. As it’s been raining hard all week, the falls were quite spectacular, the most fierce I’ve seen them.

Gina at Swallow Falls

Gina at Swallow Falls

Iestyn and the Falls

Iestyn and the Falls

'Afon ffyrnig'

‘Afon ffyrnig’

After a nice stroll around Betws y Coed, looking at the art galleries, we had ourselves a nice cuppa and scone from a local cafe, and decided it would be cool to head up through the Conwy valley and see the mighty Conwy Castle.

Rainbow at Conwy Castle

Rainbow at Conwy Castle

Incoming rain!

Incoming rain

The castle itself is a fantastic place, It’s stunningly located on the Conwy River and has fantastic views all over. We spent a couple of hours exploring every single rooms and hallways, even bumping into my old school teacher that I hadn’t seen for over 10 years.

Iestyn at the tower

Iestyn at the tower

Miniature Conwy

Miniature Conwy

Conwy Castle

Conwy Castle

We finished our touristy day with a quick trip to pizza hut, and then met up with a couple of my friends for a pint and a catch-up in Llanberis before heading home for the evening.

…and because Iestyn happily leaves posts unfinished like this, I will have to finish the job on this one.

After a touristy Conwy escapade, we decided the next day we should also do some nature fun, and selected Yr Aran for our little hike. We didn’t want to do anything too crazy as the weather was uncertain, but in the end it actually held quite nice with no rain, and it was just super cold and windy with some ominous blackness in the sky – just as we like it.
Not much to say about the walk otherwise, it was not extremely eventful. Iestyn took a nice panorama picture of the view but there was a rusty stick smack in the middle of it, so it kinda spoilt it. I took a great selfie up on the top.

Up Aran

Up Aran

Iest taking panos

Iest taking panos

Selfie!

Selfie!

View from Aran

View from Aran

On the way back to Dublin our (fast) ferry was cancelled again due to bad weather, and we had to take the big slow one. The storm was epic and the sea really rough this way round, so I got all sea sick for the first time in my life and was throwing up all over the place. I was not nearly the only one either, the whole thing was basically just a chain reaction started off by a little girl, who felt sick and did the only reasonable thing at such situation – ran to her dad and threw up all over him. Anyway, Iestyn was fine of course, but refused to go to the captain to tell him to use the stabilisers on the boat, which would have been appropriate I think.

IMG_3128

Anyway, I spent the rest of the week in Dublin, which was boring as per usual, but sunny and nice nevertheless. We went to the Dublin National Gallery and I liked one of the paintings too.


06
Jan 11

Llanberis Pass

Llanberis Pass

From the ‘resting place’ we begin the descent of the -Llanberis Pass, the finest motor mountain-road in Wales. The precipitous and craggy sides of the noble mountains press closely on each other and shut in the narrow pass. Shattered masses of every form, which have fallen from the heights, lie in strange confusion, and amid them the  Seiont, rushing and roaring, hastens its descent to the head of Llyn Peris.

Some two miles farther we reach the picturesque village of Nant Peris, formerly knows as Old Llanberis, and soon afterwards are running by the side of Llyn Peris, on the opposite shore of which are the Dinorwic slate quarries. Then we get abreast of the remains of Dolbadarn Castle. The consist only of a round tower, which probably does not date back many centuries, but the site is said to have been held by the Prince of North Wales in the sixth cantury. Beyond the ruin we arrive at the Royal Victoria Hotel, in modern Llanberis. At the foot of the hotel grounds is the lower terminus of the Mountain Railway.

Skirting Llyn Padarn, en route for Caernarvon from Llanberis, the remarkable manner in which the slate quarrymen have terraced the mountain slopes opposite is well seen. Then on the left the Cefndu wireless station comes in view and shortly after Carnarvon is reached.”

I’d sure have to agree that this road is the finest ‘motor mountain-road in Wales’. It sure is awesome. It’s my second favourite mountain route in the UK, second only to the epic A82 running through Glen Coe in the Scottish Highlands.

The Pass itself hasn’t changed much since the good old days, only a few big rocks been moved, but apart from that, it’s in top shape!