Seize the two dry days

In June, I had had two lovely nights away in my tent. And maybe I could have had more. But at some point the weather turned, and for weeks it wasn’t really camping weather. And then there suddenly were two nice days forecast. And I hadn't really taking any time off yet. This was a sign! Time to dust off the tent again.

On the first beautiful day I still had several things timetabled, so I had to do pretty much a full day at work. I got home and packed my stuff. I also had dinner; I figured it was probably best if I didn't start walking hungry. I quite like cooking by the tent, but not at any hour!

I had also decided to camp by Llyn Bochlwyd. It is in a beautiful area! And I had walked past several times, but never slept there. And the places you can park are very busy in summer, but probably not in the evening. And that turned out to be true. I didn't struggle at all finding a parking spot.

I walked up in the low sun. It was a nice walk! But when I got to the lake I saw a tent already there. Oh no! Of course I could keep walking, as I had done on one of my earlier trips, but it was getting a bit late. I decided to just walk around the lake a bit to see if I could find a quiet spot. And then I saw two more tents. This was busy! 

Walking up: looking at Cwm Idwal

Reflection of evening light 

When walking around the lake I had to pass one of the tents. I had a little chat with the people associated with it; they were quite nice (and had a charming dog), and they said they had camped here several times before, and they had always been the only tent there. I said I was going to keep a respectful distance. And I walked to the far end of the lake.

I intended to camp by one of the streams that feeds the lake, as I think lake water is lovely for swimming in, but I prefer drinking water from streams. (Yes I know that all the lake water has been streamwater not too long ago.) And there was a stream, but in general, the ground there was quite swampy. I did a bit of scouting around, and in the end I found a spot by a rock that wasn't quite by the lake nor by the stream, but close enough to both. I pitched the tent and then wanted to go for a swim. The midges had come out by then, and I really wanted to wash, so I could afterwards put on my long trousers and other covering garments.

My swim was brief but nice! And then I covered up. I then fetched some stream water, and sorted my luggage. In the meantime, the wind picked up and the midges vanished. Then I brushed my teeth. And then I put on my down jacket and just sat on a rock for a while. It was nice just looking at the black hills and blue evening sky and the reflective lake. And all the lights in the sky. The stars were coming out. I even saw a meteor! And a helicopter seemed to land on Carnedd Dafydd. 

My swimming spot

My anti-midges outfit

A cloud rolling in 

The nightly lake

Then I went to bed. I slept ok! And woke up around six. The midges weren’t out, so I had a relaxed breakfast. And I decided to go up y Gribin. And then walk back down over the Heather Terrace. 

Walking up y Gribin was lovely. And on the top the views were amazing, and there was as good as nobody there. I walked past Glyder Fach, and sat down for coffee with a view on Tryfan. And when I was ready to leave, a bloke appeared. He was one of our students! We had a nice chat. 

My tent; notice the sliver of the lake in the mid-distance

Tent seen from the other side

Going up y Gribin

View from y Gribin

Nearly at the top! Where the ridge gets quite narrow

From Bwlch y Ddwy Glydyr

I then started descending into Bwlch Tryfan. Only when I was pretty much committed I remembered that that was not the route I had intended to take. This was steep and full of scree; my intended route was more along the isolines and would have been a lot more comfortable. Oh well! This would have to do. And when I got to the Bwlch I easily found the path that leads to Heather Terrace. I had done it once before, in the other direction; it is an okay path.

View onto (Bwlch) Tryfan

View from Bwlch Tryfan into Nant Ffrancon

When I was about halfway there I figured I had probably lost it. I was on some sort of sheep track! That was uncomfortable going. I figured I might have dropped a bit too much. I dropped my bag and scrambled up the slope to see if I could find the real path, but I couldn't, so I just continued. At least I had a sheep path! And later I found a gully which I followed up in another attempt to find the real path. That still didn't yield anything. So then I decided to just descend. That was uncomfortable; there is a lot of heather there, obviously, and that scrapes your legs, and also can hide a lot of unevenness in the train. The going was hard, again! But after while I came to a path and that made everything easier. And by the public footpath past Tryfan Bach I had lunch.

Uninviting stile by Tryfan Bach

From there I would just loop around Tryfan and get back to the road. There is a public footpath there. There was a junction; I took the right turn, as that seemed an efficient thing to do, but that wasn't the public footpath. I cursed myself! Why couldn't I just stay on the comfortable paths? This was a case of ploughing through bracken. But after not too much time I ended up on the road anyway. Almost there! I walked the last few hundred meters along the road back to the car. This rather short hike had taken me a long time! And the next day I would really feel my legs, from all the uncomfortable walking. Oh well! This is how one learns. At least I had got another small trip under my belt! Who knows when the next one will be…

Road and cars in view again