Easter hike to nowhere

Kate was back in the country! And she had announced well in advance she would be up for adventures. She hoped we could do a multi-day hike. We had quite enjoyed the slate trail! But her week in Wales was a week where lots of other things were also taking place. I had a cave rescue training on the Tuesday and I had to teach my Quakers on the Thursday. So we decided we would try to go away on Monday night and Wednesday night!

For Monday night, Kate suggested a bothy I had never heard of. It was Cefngarw, that we could walk to from her house. It sounded fab! And it wasn't far. We could just leave after lunch and still make it before dinner. And that meant I had some time for work! 

I started packing my bag over the weekend. And I arrived as planned in time for lunch. We ate at her garden table, applied the last finishing touches to our luggage, and set off. Soon we were out of the village. I had considered the first part of the route before, for one of my nights away to get the cat used to my absence. Then I had reconsidered, but now I finally got to see it. And it was lovely! We walked on an old drovers’ road, that turned into a real road, which we then left. And the views only got better. 

The drovers' road

Double selfie

The landscape gets emptier

After a while we crossed the road through Ysbyty Ifan. The path continued on the other side through farmers’ fields. We met a farmer who said that the path did not continue as a public footpath beyond the farm, but we chatted a bit with him and then he said he wouldn't tell anyone if we continued our way anyway. So we did! Otherwise we would have had to go back to the road and follow that for a while.

The landscape gets even emptier

Soon after the farm, we really reached the totally empty landscape that characterises the area behind Penmachno. I love it! And after not too much time, we saw a chimney appear. The bothy! It stood there in the middle of nowhere. It was absolutely gorgeous. And when we got inside I was even more impressed. What a place! An old building where people rounding up sheep would spend the night. It was just two rooms; bedroom and living room, one presumes. We ignored the bedroom as there were only two of us. And the living room had a fireplace the size of a house (but we had no fuel), and spooky broken furniture, and a spooky grand piano of which about 20 keys made a sound. The floor was big slabs of slate. I loved it!

Almost there! Pic by Kate

Arenig Fach in the distance

The slightly spooky interior

Kate had brought her drone; she had already flown it a few times along the way. She now wanted to use the late light to fly a bit more in these beautiful surroundings. I went to get some water; the bothy wasn't quite next to the stream. And when I had water I went for a bit of a wash. Then it was time to cook dinner!

Kate had taken over a stove from someone she knew; it was allegedly broken. But we configured it and it worked flawlessly. She might now have a working stove for the rest of her life! A good deal. And soon we were having dinner. We managed to make ourselves reasonably comfortable on the broken furniture; the structure of the chairs and the bench was intact, so just an added plank as a seat was enough to make it usable. And then we sat outside for a bit, looking at the last rays of the sun touching Arenig Fach and Arenig Fawr in the distance. We also almost emptied a 5 cl bottle of whiskey I had brought. And we drank tea. But then it quickly got to bedtime. We made ourselves comfortable on the slate slabs.

In the beginning of the night I was a bit cold; I had brought my big sleeping bag so I didn't expect that. But I had clothes I could put on.

In the morning it was beautiful again. I got up and started to heat water. You can't have coffee early enough after getting up! We had a lovely alfresco breakfast, and then we packed up. I had to be back in time to meet a representative of the solar panel company that would have a closer look at my house that afternoon. We were ready to leave at 8 AM.

Making breakfast

Morning sun and mist

We had decided we would try to take a different route back. We would just bushwhack it to the road through Ysbyty Ifan, which we could do by just following the ridge with Cerrig Llwynogod and Cerrig Lladron, and then follow the road eastward until Llyn Cottage, where we would hit the path to Llyn Conwy. That went well; the terrain to the road was okay, and the road was (as expected) very quiet, and the path to the reservoir was excellent. Kate had warned me that skirting around the lake would be a bit less comfortable. And it was! It was the sort of hummocky terrain where you can sink half a metre into the vegetation. And from there we hoped it would be better. It started out not so bad while we were skirting the flank of Pen y Bedw, but when we tried to come down Llechwedd Oernant we were back in the awful vegetation that wasn't even traversed by sheep tracks. It was pretty trying. But we had time, so we had a last drone-flying break on the slope in which we could gather our strength for the last leg. I was really glad when we reached the river. On the other side of it there was an actual path! And that was already on the outskirts of Penmachno. Soon we were back at Kate's place. A lovely adventure!

Into nothing

Llyn Conwy

We had lunch together, again at the garden table, and then it was time for me to jump into the car again and go home. I was there in good time, and that was good as the solar panel man was early. It had been a lovely adventure, and I would love to go back to Cefngarw as it is incredibly beautiful there! But I will never again try the route we took on the way back…