Woke about 7. Again I had not slept that well, maybe I need to get out the sleeping bag and onto the floor. I had another shower just because I could and it was fairly powerful on my stiff neck and shoulders. I let J rest a while while I retrieved our gear from the drying room. I suggested to J about leaving some gear here and try to book a place for the saturday so we could move lighter and as J would say 'Boss it out'.
I went down stairs to ask the jolly lass on reception. She said they were fully booked due to the YHA national open day. After a few suggestions she was able to cancel one of the show rooms and book us in there. Also with a bag of gear stored for our return. Fantastic!
I returned to J and we went for the yha mega breaky.Again cereal, grapefruit, cooked breaky, jam, nuttella,yoghurt ,croissant and about three coffees. Oh yes we get our monies worth.
About 9.30 we left the hostel to a' cheery see you saturday'.
The initial walk was on country lane before picking up the North Wales Coast path. This part was well signposted, scenic and a dream to walk. Although not really on the coast but set back it took us a good six miles beyond Llanfairfechan.
We left the North Wales path to head further inland toward a hill called drum via a stoney track.As we gained height the wind was increasing cutting across us making walking awkward and tiring. We were getting buffeted about on reaching the top and huddled in a cresent shaped stone wall which is a common feature on tops of hills. We had a welcome cup of tea.
I was a little concerned that as we gained more height the wind may prohibit forward motion and started to regret my decision to take a nostalgic route over the Carneddu espesially as they are almost as high as Snowdon at 1085 metres. I said to J that we would carry on and see how it went.J was in good spirits and appeared up for the challenge.
So up we went, into tumbling cloud with no visibility
on the top just mysterious rock outlines and howling wind. The air was damp and having made the trig point of Foel-fras (942m) ,surrounded by the projecting shards of rocky outcrops. We sheltered in the lee of a stone wall to get our breath. Due to the cloud I took a bearing for the next top Foel Grach. As we emerged ghostly shapes of the only other walkers we were to see came in the opposite direction. Although I shouted a hello the wind drowned my voice out and I do not think they even saw us.
We had made the major climb and the route was a series of up and downs via saddles connecting each hill. Carnedd Llewelyn 1064 m, t
a fairly intensive rocky narrow edge to Carnedd Dafydd at 1044 metres. It is a shame my writing cannot put over the wind and tumbling cloud, the terrain, the sweat and the stumbles and stubbed toes and swearing.Maybe one day when I re write this I will be more in the mood to explain in more detail.
The bulk of the hills were now done, now was the time of descent. It was two miles of near rock climbing, it took over an hour to clamber down to what was a toy town lake Ogwen from above and a mile long lake from below. Tryfan a rather sinister hill projected meanacingly to our left but that would have to wait for J to climb another day.
The down hill is J's forte, he is like a mountain goat, I had to tell him to take ot slower due to the wind and loose rock.
We eventually made it to the bottom which felt harder than the going up. Crossing the road it was about 7.15. We walked the short distance to Llyn Idwal where we hoped to pitch. As we did so I could hear someone calling inbetween wind gusts, it was a shepard calling his dogs and stood where we wrre to pitch. We sat until be was gone then trying to find a flat wind free spot was a case of we hoped the tent would stay up.
It was getting dark rapidly as it was approaching 8 so I sent J to get water as I pitched the tent. On return we got organised and put the water on for tea. As the water heated I realised minute swimming things in the water, J had got water from the lake instead of the numerous streams that fed it , they soon stopped swimming so with added protein we had our tea and dehydrated delights.
We had had a hard day not helped by the wind, 19.5 miles walked and J seemed to lap it up. I do believe he is getting there. He is strong and showed no signs of giving up or poor drive , I felt proud of him, and I suppose of myself.
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