Completing the Cambrian Way

Tuesday 27th August 2024

On the twenty-first and final stage of the Cambrian Way I should have been walking from Llyn Ogwen to Conwy Castle over the Carneddau Mountains, however, just as on many days in the second half of the trail, the weather was bad with strong winds and rain, so I wasn’t going to be following the mountain top route. I had considered following the Snowdonia Way starting from Bethesda, but the distance was thirty-five kilometres and would take me ten and a half hours, which was not possible when I needed to get a bus to Bethesda first and then catch a train home when I reached Conwy. My next thought was, what is the most direct route from where I was in the Nant y Benglog valley, east of Llyn Ogwen, to Conwy? So I plotted a course on my map through the mountains and along the eastern slopes above the valley of Dyffryn Conwy to finally reach the town of Conwy, which would take me six or seven hours and give me plenty of time to catch my train. After overnight rain I was surprised to wake up to dry weather and a dry tent when I put it away for the last time on this holiday. From the campsite where I had been staying I set off across the A5 road and onto a bridleway that climbs the hillside, passing the rental property of Tal Y Braich and after crossing a stream became a very boggy and indistinct path. This soon bore no resemblance to the route of the bridleway on my map and brought me to a leat, a water channel that diverts streams into a reservoir, and provided me with a good surface to walk alongside it. Eventually I reached a point overlooking Llyn Cowlyd Reservoir where strong winds pushed me along just as it started to rain.

Once I had managed to put my waterproofs on I followed the bridleway down to the side of the reservoir, which was much more sheltered from the winds, and eventually led me to the dam. The access road now provided me with a broad track to follow and led me into the valley of the Afon Ddu which was marred by a large pipeline that traverses the landscape from the reservoir. After a while I realised that I should have come off the access road and taken a path that the Ordnance Survey characterises as ‘other routes with public access’ and is marked by green dots. To get onto this I had to walk up to the pipeline and squeeze underneath it before I could reach the path that I should have been on, and which aerial views don’t show until the point where I joined it. My route brought me past a herd of cows, over the blustery hill and down a stony path into the valley of the Afon Porth-llŵyd where I found a road which would largely take me all the way into Conwy, though I still had a long way to go. Judging by the strong winds blowing through the valley I felt I was right to come this way and not brave them from the tops of the mountains. When the weather is this bad I don’t mind walking along a road as it’s the best way of getting through tedious scenery.

After climbing out of the valley and then down into the valley of the Afon Dulyn I came off the road for a brief spell to pass through woodland, across the stream and along an enclosed path. From the road at the far end I now stayed on narrow country lanes that followed the edge of the Eryri National Park for many tedious hours. At one point I thought I must be nearing Conwy so I checked my map and discovered that I had another hour and a half of walking to go which was soul-destroying, but I kept on through the improving weather until eventually I came into Conwy and picked up the route of the Cambrian Way. Even though I hadn’t followed the trail over the Carneddau Mountains, I was still going to complete the Cambrian Way which I had started many weeks earlier. I passed through the old walls and into the narrow streets of the medieval town, turning left into High Street and then right into Castle Street before finally reaching a roundabout beside the Guildhall with the imposing walls of the thirteenth century Conwy Castle ahead of me. One and a half months earlier I had stood before the gates of Cardiff Castle with the noise of a demonstration behind me and now I was before Conwy Castle with many tourists crowding the streets. Even though I had come off the Cambrian Way on the northern slopes of Plynlimon to take a bad weather course around the mountains I still managed to cross Wales from Cardiff to Conwy and I could be satisfied at reaching my goal.

The bad weather that had plagued me over the last nine days on the trail was just one thing that didn’t go well as I also suffered from fatigue that could have also prevented me from taking the mountain route through Eryri/Snowdonia. I don’t think I was mistaken in my belief that I could do the Cambrian Way and with the lessons learnt it is very tempting to try again. I reached Conwy by two-thirty and with my train not due for another two hours I had some time to wander around the town and begin the long recovery process from my strenuous walk along the Cambrian Way.

The Snowdonia Slate Trail from Llanberis to Nant y Benblog

Monday 26th August 2024

Last summer I attempted to walk the Cambrian Way which starts in Cardiff and crosses the length of Wales taking a high level route over the mountains before finally reaching Conwy on the north coast. However, half way through the trail bad weather had forced me onto lower routes that took me around the mountains and this continued on the day before this walk when I should have been climbing Yr Widdfa, better known as Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, but strong winds and rain forced me to follow the Snowdonia Slate Trail to the west of Snowdon. This finally brought me into the village of Llanberis where I caught a bus up to the Pen-y-Pass Youth Hostel, which is where stage nineteen of the Cambrian Way ends after coming down from the top of the Snowdon on the Pyg Track. The following morning I had to decide whether to resume the Cambrian Way over the Glyderau Mountains or continue to go around on the Snowdonia Slate Trail. The weather was not great, though dry, with low cloud covering the tops and strong winds forecast. I was mindful of the fact that I had not come to Pen-y-Pass by my own steam and I had a strange compulsion to reach Conwy honestly, by walking the whole way, even though I hadn’t followed the exact route of the Cambrian Way. So strictly speaking I needed to catch a bus back to Llanberis to pick up the trail that I had left the previous afternoon, even though that was not the Cambrian Way, and therefore I caught a bus back to Llanberis and set off on the Snowdonia Slate Trail again.

After more than two weeks spent walking every day I was feeling tired, especially of carrying a rucksack weighed down with a tent, sleeping bag, stove and everything else to do with camping. It would have been a lot easier to climb these mountains if my rucksack was lighter. I was happy to be resuming my walk along the Snowdonia Slate Trail because it was giving me an opportunity to explore areas of Eryri/Snowdonia that I had never been before and now took me around Llyn Padarn and past the remains of quarrying while gradually climbing through woodland until I eventually emerged out of the trees to misty views across the western foothills of Snowdon. Roads and footpaths took me across the lower western slopes of the Glyderau with views that should have extended west to Caernarfon and Anglesey but they were buried in the mist. At the end of the road a sketchy, often boggy footpath led me across an open moor that initially seemed uninterestingly flat, but to my right the ground rose towards the mountains of Elidir Fawr and Carnedd y Filiast while ahead of me were the vast Penrhyn Slate Quarries and across the Ogwen Valley I could see the foothills of the Carneddau. As the path developed it became drier and the clouds away from the mountains began to break up with blue sky appearing while I slowly began to enjoy walking across the moor.

At the far end I joined a road which took me down the hill, across the Afon Ogwen river and into the town of Bethesda where the Snowdonia Slate Trail ends at a memorial, but I was not done and continued to follow the largely circular trail back across the river. This took me into the woods of Parc Meurig where the orange flowers of the invasive crocosmia dominated the scene, however I really like them and don’t mind that they are now becoming almost as ubiquitous in late summer as daffodils are in early spring. Soon I crossed a road and was on the route of the old mineral railway that used to carry slate from the quarries down to the port at Bangor, but is now the Lôn Las Ogwen cycle path and provided me with an easy walk up the valley. This led me past the quarry workings on my right and the fast moving river, the Afon Ogwen, on my left, which provided me with photo opportunities until I eventually reached a sign that mentioned a permissive path that climbs the mountain along the edge of the quarry. The evening before I had considered climbing these mountains, but there didn’t seem to be a good route and I had been feeling too tired, however, I couldn’t resist taking up the offer and nipped onto the wide track that meanders up the hillside. This was actually a vehicle track used to take people up to the launch point for a zip wire that descends across the old quarry workings and I was passed by many large ex-army trucks filled with people ascending the mountain the easy way while I toiled up the wide gravel track.

At the top I took a sign that directed me off the track, through a gate and onto the open hillside where the path soon disappeared and I had to find my own way up. A path is marked on Ordnance Survey maps, but is not on the ground, so I had a very tough time crawling through the heather and bilberry until eventually I reached the top of the ridge where I miraculously found a narrow path. This took me slowly up the hill towards Carnedd y Filiast, but it was very windy which would have put me off if I had known in advance. I fought against the wind over the north top and up the stony path to the bouldery top of Carnedd y Filiast from where easier, grassy slopes led me to the top of Mynydd Perfedd. While coming down the other side, all I could think about was how soon I could get out of this wind and off the mountain, and then at the col before Foel-goch I saw a ladder stile and immediately took the opportunity to descend the pathless grassy slopes. This was a long, sometimes arduous descent, especially much lower down when I had to fight through bracken until I finally reached the road at the bottom of the valley where the Snowdonia Slate Trail had been calmly heading up the valley while I had been fruitlessly climbing over the wind-swept mountain tops. Now, a relaxing stroll took me all the way up to the top of the valley at Idwal Cottage where I crossed the road to Pont Pen y Benglog and back onto the Cambrian Way I walked alongside the lake, Llyn Ogwen.

This was an interesting rocky path that I had not previously taken before, with the iconic shape of Tryfan across the lake, and eventually brought me to the far end and into the valley, Nant y Benglog, where I found my campsite. This was a curiously enjoyable walk, mainly because of the relatively good weather that I had most of the day, though maybe not on the mountains tops, which I rather surprised myself by attempting it and was punished by the strong winds and lack of a path.