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Saturday 28th May 2005

Walked 4 miles; Climbed 260m.

Wet, windy and a missed turning

We awoke to the sound of rain and strong winds - not the ideal camping and walking weather! We climbed out of the tent at 7am, got our walking gear together and left to drive to Dinas Mawddwy, just north of Dolgellau. As we drove away, we could see tents being severely battered by the wind. We even saw somebody's feet through the canvas as their tent briefly folded over in one particularly severe gust - they weren't going to be happy bunnies! We had spent four hours the previous evening driving to get here and didn't intend to let some nasty weather stop us walking. It had taken ages to get out of Swansea's rush hour traffic, but once on the road it had been clear all the way - not bad for a bank holiday weekend. We were staying at Torrent Walk Campsite, which is within easy walking distance of Dolgellau.

The forecast had been for strong winds with gusts up to 70mph at 900 metres above sea level, which was dangerous enough to stop us even briefly considering walking at altitude. The turning for the town we were looking for wasn't obvious and we soon realised that we had passed it, but were very close to Betws-y-Coed. Paula needed some new boots, so we thought "What the hell?" and drove to Betws-y-coed to go shopping.

We were successful and returned to the car with Paula's new boots and base layer. I was very good and didn't buy anything! By 10am, we were back on the road again. As we were in the area and the rain had eased off, we decided to drive slightly further on past Capel Curig and to the Idwal Cottage Youth Hostel. I was going to show Paula my favourite part of Snowdonia - the Glyders, or Glyderau to give them their Welsh name.

Two llyns and some more wind

As we parked the car, still early enough to be before the bank holiday crowds, the rain started ... and continued. We sat in the car for a while, but it showed no signs of abating. Determined to have a walk, we put on full wet weather gear and started the walk up to Llyn Idwal. It's a very easy path with slight incline over the erosion controlled path. We both felt invincible in our gear because we were warm, dry and comfortable.

Llyn Idwal from a previous trip

As we got nearer the llyn (or tarn), the gusts of wind became worse - a few times, we were blown a couple of paces back. At the llyn, we decided not to carry on, as it was just too dangerous. However, other people were pressing on and going higher (I've since checked the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue logs and haven't seen any rescues for the weekend so they must have been lucky).

As we walked back towards the car, the rain stopped and the wind seemed less strong. We had originally intended to climb a short path from Llyn Idwal to Llyn Bochlwyd, with a height gain of 180 metres. Closer to the car was the more common path to Llyn Bochlwyd, so we took that and starting climbing higher again. This time we were sheltered by a huge outcrop called Clogwyn y Tarw (or Gribin Facet) - had we followed our original plan, we would have been on top of it.

The rain didn't start again and being out of the wind, we began to get rather warm and had to shed a layer of clothing. It wasn't until we reached about 10 metres below the llyn that we were hit by the wind again. As it was nearing lunch time, we battled on and found a relatively sheltered spot below Gribin at the edge of the tarn. We ate our sandwiches whilst standing, braced against occasional gusts of wind. Once finished (which was very quickly given the conditions!) we walked back down the path we had climbed and to the car. We peeled off our outer layers of clothing and were very pleased to be still dry - our wet weather gear had performed perfectly.

Back to camp

By the time we got back to the campsite at about 2:30pm, the sun was out but the wind was still gusting. We showered and then played cards for a while before cooking a tea of pasta, tuna and pasta sauce followed by rice pudding - yummy! A while ago, I had discovered the secret of never having to queue for a shower on campsites. It's very simple - get up early! This gives you free use of the bathroom, you are out on the mountains before 8am and you get back to the campsite by late afternoon. At that time most other people are still out and about, thus giving you the choice of the showers. It hasn't failed yet.

By early evening, Paula was feeling bored - I was contented just letting my mind wander, but she wanted to do something. After poring over the map in true Enid Blyton style, we found a walk along a stream to Llyn Gwernan, which used the same car park that we needed for our walk the next day. We drove to it and both decided not to wear boots - a bad decision as it turned out. The path was rather muddy, so after a very short walk, we turned around and went back to the car. I stopped briefly to take a couple of photos whilst constantly trying to keep the tripod stable against the wind.

The view along the valley near Ty-nant

Back at the campsite, Paula felt much happier, so we went to bed with our fingers, legs and arms crossed (we really wanted some good weather!) in the hope that the forecast would hold true - they had promised it would be sunny and far less windy.