Now that she lives in Penmachno, Kate's commute takes her straight past my house. And that creates possibilities! She suggested she pop by one evening, and I thought that would be a lovely idea. And an interesting thing was that she asked me if she should bring swimming gear or walking clothes. Most people who just pop by after work don't ask that! But she does. And that was a great idea. I assumed the swimming gear was meant for the river. And the walk needed to be thought about. So before she appeared, I cooked some food and thought of some possible routes.
She appeared in a working outfit. I was also in a working outfit, but mine was a working-at-home outfit. There was a clear difference in smartness! And we first had a drink and then dinner. And over dinner we decided what we would do next. I had thought of a little lake in one of the cwms on the side of Nant Ffrancon I had never visited: Llyn Clyd. And she thought it was a good idea! The distance involved was very small; what would keep as busy was a 350 m ascent. But that was perfectly doable before daylight would fade! So after dinner we both changed into walking gear and set off.
It was beautiful! I know the beginning of the path well, but as soon as it went up the ridge that leads to this particular cwm, I wasn't familiar with it. I knew I had come down once, but that was in the snow (can't find the post about it!), and in August things look rather different. And I suspected that the path had been entirely redone since then. It was really well-maintained!
We didn't see many other people. But when we got to the top and looked for somewhere to sit down and have a drink, we saw that there were people pitching a tent by the little lake. We gave them wide berth! They were undoubtedly also coming for their peace. And just when we headed back down, a bloke appeared with a big bag, who also intended to spend the night there. And on the way down, we saw four more aspiring campers, and a clump of people who had decided that halfway up was high enough! That is what you get on a sunny bank holiday weekend.
We were back at my place at 20:45. It was still light! And it had been nice to squeeze beautiful walk in, even to new terrain for the both of us, after work. And we had walked down in beautiful orange evening light!
When we got down to the valley floor and walked back to the car, we did get completely crowded out by dense clouds of mosquitoes. Maybe it was good that we hadn't decided to camp! I hope these people higher up were not so affected.
Soon the evenings will be too short for this. But I hope we will squeeze another one in before that happens!
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| The view back down early on |
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