Another hike: Gorseddau, and more

Neil and I are on a roll. We still want more of each other's company, so when the weekend arrived we went for another adventure. And I got inspiration out of the Thursday night run. We had fairly comfortably run through an area that normally is very wet. Maybe we should do a walk somewhere that could also get quite boggy? And I suggested Gorseddau slate quarry. The previous time I had been there with Kate it had become a complete washout. And it wasn't too far. I didn't want to do something as extensive as the Snowdon horseshoe.

Neil was happy with that; he had never been. But he suggested we tag a nearby hill to that: Moel Ddu, as he had not been, and I am starting to have the suspicion he is a bit of a summit bagger. Fine with me!

As it was a bank holiday weekend in summer, we figured that the parking lot at Nantmor, which is a convenient place to start, would be rammed, so we decided to park in Beddgelert, which has a big parking lot by the railway station. That makes the walk a bit longer but so be it. And the plan worked. There was a sea of space at the parking lot, even though we got there by 10am. And we started off on a very beautiful path. I had done that before! And then it vanishes. It indeed did. So it was good we had picked this dry spell for it, because if you end up bushwhacking in North Wales, you are bound to hit boggy bits. And today they weren't very boggy.

How the path starts

Beddgelert in the distance 

We hadn't seen a soul since Beddgelert, but near the quarry we met two ladies. We had a nice chat. And then we proceeded. We had lunch with views over the quarry. We didn’t explore it further.

Gorseddau

After lunch we made our way to Moel Ddu. There was a faint path! And the views were lovely. I was really glad we had decided to tag this extra bit on. And we had a bit of a break at the summit. And then we had to make our way down. We didn’t want to retrace our steps, so we decided to come down on the northern side. If we would follow a wall we would get into a proper footpath. And then the beginning that was fine. There was a faint path along the wall.

Summit view towards the sea

Summit view the other way

You guessed it; at some point it wasn't fine anymore. We ended up in a forest of bracken. And I don't like that to start with; you can't see where you put your feet, so risk over sprain is heightened, and that slows me down. Additionally, bracken hides brambles. These sure did! I had already torn my legs to shreds during the Thursday run, but now I was making it a lot worse. This was a very trying bit. We escaped the hostile vegetation for a little bit while walking on top of a wall. We were so glad when we were out of the bush and on that footpath! And it wouldn't bring it straight back to town; it would lead us a pill for a while and then back down. We decided that we had done enough for the day and as soon as we could, we got onto the farm track, and then on the road. We will do a little bit along the road until we would get to Nantmor, where we would get onto the very touristic path along the Glaslyn river.

Too much bracken

That way we got back to the village quite quickly. And we rewarded ourselves with some ice cream. And then it was time to go home. 

In spite of the very bloody legs it has been a good day! I was very keen to make sure our next adventure would not involve too much bracken. I had had enough now. A bit like at the end of the slate trail with Kate. The worst thing about that was also bracken! In spite of the midges and the exhaustion…