This bank holiday week-end, I went to
the North Wales to walk around the Ogwen Valley in Snowdonia.
The last train line to get there (Llandudno Junction to
Betws-Y-Coed) is really nice. It's a single track, with stops in
the middle of nowhere. You may have to make a sign to the driver to
request the stop
. It reminds me my favourite French train line in the
Vosges mountains
Colmar-Munster-Metzeral (more modern coaches have been
introduced around 10 years ago). And it's so nice to stop in a
station where you don't have a "Warning: CCTV in operation" sign
even in the toilets ...
First afternoon was really windy. I sometimes even couldn't step
forward, and fell a couple of time on the side. I scrambled up to
Tryfan anyway (in the second gully from the left in this
picture). It's a bit steep, but the rock is really good, it's a
nice scramble. As the summit was terribly windy, I just climbed on
Adam but couldn't even stand up on it so I didn't
jump on Eve. I'm not that brave...
I slept my first night in the Cwm (cirque) Bochlwyd, near the Llyn
(lake) of the same name. It was a really good spot ! I first tried
my new tent
The North Face - Mountain Marathon in windy conditions. It's an
ultra-light (1.67kg), ultra-compact tent, sleeping one. It seems to
be quite good quality, well-finished with even fluorescent zippers
so you can find them in the middle of the night
. It
resisted quite well even to stray winds.
Unfortunately, I
couldn't test it in heavy rain conditions...
Second day was long and hard (I kinda expect some comments on
that...). With long steep downhill parts especially from Glyder
Fawr (my knees formally acknowledge my walking poles). And a nice
ascent with easy scambles to Carnedd Dafydd and Llewelyn. Weather
was rather nice, I got tanned (some would say sun-burned). Scenic
ridges were great.
I slept the second night in Cwm Bychan, got woken up by a sheep,
and then everything went (too) fast
(*): I was back in
London, enjoying the sun in Hyde Park...
Thanks to Rachel for the bibliography regarding to this trip
(*) fast is a nice word, as in fact I took 6h (1 bus + 3 trains + 2
tubes) to get back home ...
