There was a Sunday with good weather forecast, so Neil and I wanted to go on another adventure. And I figured I hadn’t been to the Moelwynion in a while. He was up for doing something about that. He arrived at my place quite early, and said the mountains were white again. I hadn’t seen that yet!
In the Blaenau area, it wasn’t quite as white as the Carneddau. But still somewhat white! We parked by the reservoir and took the public footpath. Later we saw it wasn’t the one I had intended. No problem; we could just turn into the right direction later. That was a bit of a faff; someone had plonked a fence in the way. We were not fazed. Soon we found ourselves in the blazing sun on a series of inclines I had never negotiated. What a good early result! And we got to Stwlan Dam (the venue of my first race of the year). There the weather turned a bit.
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| Incline in the sun |
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| Stwlan Dam |
We wanted to do Moelwyn Bach first, and improvised the route a bit. That involved some negotiating of a grassy slope with melting snow on it - that was slippery. Not my favourite. But what followed was a lovely scramble! Through a dreamy misty landscape. And when we got to the summit plateau we walked to the actual top through horizontal snow. That was a bit cold. A Jack Russell we came across there thought so too. Poor shivery little dog. All humans and dogs quickly started to head down again; we in the direction of Moelwyn Mawr. Neil slipped on the melting snow. That gave me reservations about doing the bigger peak too! But some people who came the other way reassured me. We continued.
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| Different weather on the flank of Moelwyn Bach |
Moelwyn Mawr was also snowy and windy. We didn’t linger. And were hoping for some shelter for lunch. That wasn’t imminent! The blazing sunshine of the start of our walk seemed a long time ago. But we found some. Lunch was due! And we had a view (if the clouds allowed it) over the area where the Tyllau of Rhosydd are. Very beautiful!
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| Lunch view |
After lunch we continued. We had a look at the Rhosydd spoils, and a Twll, and the tunnel leading to it. And some buildings. Then we took the incline down to the mill, by the drainage adit (and main entrance). From there we went down the conventional way, past Llyn Cwmorthin.
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| Rhosydd buildings |
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| Autumnal selfie |
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| The route we would take back |
Along the way we had a look at some industrial remains I had never explored before. They’ll get their own blog post! But then we walked back with a firm pace as it was raining.
On the way back we went for a hot chocolate at Swallow Falls. I had never been, in all the time I had lived here! And not too long ago it had undergone extensive renovation. I was curious to see how it had turned out. And it was clear that some considerable effort had been made! We both liked the place, and our hot chocolate. And then we went home to have dinner and light the fire. Another excellent adventure! Although the start was not very representative. The forecast had been a bit optimistic! But at least we had seen more snow than the week before, when we had gone explicitly looking for it…
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