Saturday 23rd August 2008
For the August Bank Holiday I returned to Snowdonia and started with this walk, which was an attempt to echo my exploits of about four years ago when I was going all over Wales attempting to climb all the mountains in Wales no matter how dull they were in an attempt to bag every mountain above 2000 feet. This year I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the area towards the south of Snowdonia as I hadn’t been there since the Spring Bank Holiday weekend four years ago when I walked up other mountains in the area, Glasgwm and Cadair Idris. A look at the map of the area revealed two rather dramatic hills with steep cliffs that might be interesting so I decided to go up these hills which I'd never been up before. I drove over first thing in the morning and started the walk at the top of the pass on the A470, at Bwlch Oerddrws. Heading south from the car park I climbed up the hill by crossing under Craig y Bwlch and onto the ridge. There is a more direct route but I thought this would be better and it was enjoyable below the cliff (I always enjoy such paths) but the climb up onto the ridge was difficult and tiring. I was stopping every couple of steps just to get my breath; I must be unfit. Last autumn I started working in an office for the first time, after years of manual labour, and I think it must be having a bad affect on my fitness levels. This year I have found it a lot more difficult to get up the hills, and I must admit I have put on a bit of weight. I never realised until now how much my work was keeping me fit as I had always assumed it was the hill-walking. Also I have stopped walking to work and now I cycle, but perhaps that 30 minutes of walking to work was keeping me fitter than cycling just 5-10 minutes is doing now. Maybe I should go back to walking to work.
From the top of the ridge I walked over the broad top of the nameless hill with the cliff Cribin Fawr on its eastern flank before traversing a col up to the top of Waun-oer. There is a trig point at the summit but the real attraction of Waun-oer is the amazing view west of Cadair Idris, which was quite simply awesome. Returning back to Cribin Fawr I used a path on the other side of the fence from my outward route. There seems to have been a change to the landscape since my map was made (the latest maps are correct). I had crossed over to Waun-oer to the right of the fence where there was open grassland while on the other side was a young wood, where a path is marked on my map, though I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to walk along that path now through the trees. Eager to find out I returned along this path and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the path was not as difficult as I'd anticipated and even eased the gradiant slightly by zigzagging as it descended to the bottom of the col. I am sure it won’t take long for the wood to completely take over and render the path impassable, and when that happens it will be a great shame as that path was the best I walked all day. Crossing Cribin I turned south descending to the cliff face, Craig Portas, which I passed over walking right next to the edge where good views could be seen down into the valley. Following the fence at the top of the ridge I climbed up to my next destination, the broad heathery bog of Maesglase, where I had my lunch, at the 674m top. I'd planned to continue the walk around the top of Craig Maesglase but by this time I was getting fed up with the bog and the bleak, grass scenery so I dropped straight down to the road via Moel Cwm yr Eglwys.
From the top of the ridge I walked over the broad top of the nameless hill with the cliff Cribin Fawr on its eastern flank before traversing a col up to the top of Waun-oer. There is a trig point at the summit but the real attraction of Waun-oer is the amazing view west of Cadair Idris, which was quite simply awesome. Returning back to Cribin Fawr I used a path on the other side of the fence from my outward route. There seems to have been a change to the landscape since my map was made (the latest maps are correct). I had crossed over to Waun-oer to the right of the fence where there was open grassland while on the other side was a young wood, where a path is marked on my map, though I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to walk along that path now through the trees. Eager to find out I returned along this path and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the path was not as difficult as I'd anticipated and even eased the gradiant slightly by zigzagging as it descended to the bottom of the col. I am sure it won’t take long for the wood to completely take over and render the path impassable, and when that happens it will be a great shame as that path was the best I walked all day. Crossing Cribin I turned south descending to the cliff face, Craig Portas, which I passed over walking right next to the edge where good views could be seen down into the valley. Following the fence at the top of the ridge I climbed up to my next destination, the broad heathery bog of Maesglase, where I had my lunch, at the 674m top. I'd planned to continue the walk around the top of Craig Maesglase but by this time I was getting fed up with the bog and the bleak, grass scenery so I dropped straight down to the road via Moel Cwm yr Eglwys.At the bottom I'd thought of trying to climb up Glasgwm but I got into considerable difficulty trying to get onto a forest road and eventually gave up as my leg was aching from a recent football injury and my heart just wasn’t in it; I was really exhausted. Despondently I tried to climb back up to the top of the pass avoiding the road as much as possible. I used a track early on and then a non-existent path to the farm Llawr-Cae. A walk along the road took me to a track which I followed over a ford and up the hillside, wading through dense bracken as I struggled to get back up to the top of the pass and the car park. These hills did not prove to be as interesting as I’d anticipated; the steep slopes I’d spotted on the map were covered in grass and heather while the tops were very wet and boggy. They are the sort of hills I have lost interest in having been up too many hills like them. It’s rugged, mountainous hills where there is an abundance of rock that really appeal to me now. This wasn't a great walk but it did show me the sort of walks that I like to do now, and it is interesting to see how my interests have changed. Ticking hills off a list holds little interest for me now, if it ever really did. I guess I'm getting old and I no longer find any enjoyment in struggling across dull terrain just to tick a name on a list.
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