#67.PUFFIN ISLAND WALK.28-12-11.

Donna and Chris were staying in the area and asked us if we fancied an easy walk locally and we said yes and we invited Howie and Julia too.My knee was sore from yesterday's fall but not bad enough for me to cancel the walk.Donna and Chris met us at the hotel and we drove in 2 car's to the village of Llangoed on Ynys Mon where we met Howie and Julia.The forecast was for a very wet day in the mountain's but only occassional rain shower's for Anglesey.I have done this superb walk half a dozen times so was chosen to lead.We left the car park and took the lane beside the Rhyd Pub to enter a field.

Leaving the field we headed up the lane to the Congregational Church in Glan-yr-afon.

The sun was shining but it was a bitterly cold day.

We now took the footpath that lead's to Plas Newydd.

The iron kissing gate's are very old and narrow and some of us had trouble squeezing through.

Just time for me to do a spot of farm work.

Passing through the hamlet of Caim we entered the old deer park once owned by the Bulkeley family near Pentir.A very wet section led us down to the old quarry.

We got our first glimpse of Ynys Seiriol AKA Priestholm AKA Puffin Island.

A very muddy stretch with slippery wet wooden step's led us down to the beach where we had a break.

2 seal's came quite close to the shore whilst we were eating,but the water was choppy and this is the best shot i could get.

Leaving the coast Howie and Julia treated us to the highlight of the walk,matching super sized hood's,ladies and gentlemen i give you Mr and Mrs Hooded Crow.

We walked up the lane for a visit to Penmon Priory and it's Dovecote.

I took them to see St. Seiriol's Well.

We continued along the road to Trwyn y Penrhyn.The tide was well in now.

We were now following the Anglesey Coast Path and it crosses this stretch of beach below but we had to find a way round as the tide was in.

We now followed the Afon Lleiniog along the new boardwalk and took a detour to visit Castell Aberlleiniog,a Norman Motte and Bailey castle built in 1090.

Returning to the path we walked the short distance back to the car park.Although it went a little cloudy we never had a drop of rain.

Today's walk was 7 mile long with 650 feet of ascent.Final total for 2011 is..........

MILEAGE       471.5
ASCENT        114,500
TOPS              108.

This year's total's are well down on last year mainly due to me picking up a knee injury on April 29th which took week's to get right.
2010 total was........

MILEAGE     672
ASCENT      200,822.

#66.FAIRY GLEN CIRCULAR.27-12-11.

Me and Julie had a 3 day break booked in the Royal Victoria Hotel in Llanberis and we set off early to walk up Foel Goch in the Arenig's with a good forecast predicted.We stopped at the Rhug Estate for breakfast on a beautiful sunny morning,but looking east the sky was very dark.After our bacon batch we set off for Llangwm but we soon hit very heavy rain and leaden skies so i decided to carry on down the A5 to see if the weather was any better.Although it did stop raining all the summit's were shrouded in low cloud so i pulled into the Conwy Falls Cafe car park with the intention of doing a low level walk.After gaining permission from the cafe owner to leave the car there we got our gear on and set off down the B4406 and stopped on the bridge that span's the Afon Conwy to admire the river in spate.

We walked a short distance down the road and then turned right to cross the Afon Machno near the dis-used Woollen Mill.

Julie spotted the old "Roman Bridge" a short distance away.

With camera in my right hand i said to Julie "i'm going down to the roman bridge to get a closer look",i stepped through a gap in the wall and started to descend the path,then i slipped,both my leg's went up and i fell on my backside and as you do i put my hand's out to stop myself and my new camera hit the ground.I quicky jumped up and the first thing i did was to check my camera but luckily no damage was caused,phew.I thought i was ok but later in the walk i started to get a pain in my right knee and forearm,but nothing serious.We continued down the lane to pass the dis-used Pandy Mill to reach the confluence of the Machno and Conwy river's.

Continuing down the lane you get a good view of Dinas Mawr across the valley.

Heading for the A470 now we soon reached our third river,the Afon Lledr.

A new cycle/walking path has been layed to take you safely along the busy A470 to bring you out by the Fairy Glen Hotel.

With us still having plenty of time before checking in to the hotel we decided to visit the Fairy Glen Gorge so we walked up the lane and paid our 50 pence in the honesty box and took the well laid out path up river to see the gorge.

Leaving the Glen we continued up the muddy lane,made worse by the ongoing work to repair the stone wall.

The path did improve higher up thankfully.

Just before we reached the A5 near the cafe i took a few more photo's.

Although overcast it didn't rain and we had tea and victoria cake in the cafe before heading to our hotel.This lovely little walk was 4 mile long with 750 feet of ascent.


MILEAGE     464.5
ASCENT       113,850
TOPS             108.

#65.YR WYDDFA (PYG Track up + down).20-12-11.

With the temperatures set to rise across the country i wanted to get in a pre-Christmas walk in the snow before the white stuff disappeared.I drove me and Killy to the Rhug Estate farm shop where he treated me to a bacon and egg muffin before we set off for Snowdonia.We pulled into the Pen y Pass car park at 9 a.m. and were walking at 9.15.

It was bitterly cold with quite a strong wind blowing but we soon warmed up as we gained height.We reached Bwlch Coch in 30 minutes and got our first glimpse of Y Lliwedd.

Crossing the stiles we reached the snow line but no need to put the crampon's on yet as the snow was quite slushy due to the recent rain and higher temperatures.

The higher we got the deeper the snow got and it was more compact so we stopped above Glaslyn and put the crampon's on.I had recently bought a second pair for Julie and with Killy not having any i had brought this second pair for him to use.I managed to fall through a section of snow,much to Killy's amusement.

We were sheltered from the wind in the cwm and as we gained height we were getting hot.We stopped to talk to a lady and 4 teenager's going down and they told us that as they didn't have crampon's they didn't go higher than the zig-zags as the snow was bad there.We soon cooled down standing still talking.The cloud started to lower and we couldn't see Yr Wyddfa and Y Lliwedd was playing hide and seek in the mist.

We reached the monolith that mark's the junction of the Pyg and Miner's path.

A lot of the water had frozen as it flowed over the rock's.

It was tough going as in places the snow was solid and other places you would sink quite deep in it so i suggested a little break at the bottom of the zig-zag's.I had brought some home made bara brith that Aunty Betty had made for us both and it was delicious,washed down by a cup of tea.I could hear voices from above and i could see foot print's leading up Spider Gully and said to Killy "somebody must be climbing up there somewhere",mad.It started to sleet whilst we had our break.

Fortified by the bara brith and tea we set off up the steep zig-zag's and about 20 metres from the Llanberis Path monolith a man was descending so i stopped to talk to him.It transpires that he had climbed that gully at 9 a.m. that morning,solo,and it had taken him 2 hour's.He said somebody had started later than him,these must have been the voices we had heard.He said the path up to the summit was very icy and windy and to take care.We said our goodbye's and were soon on the final stretch up the Hafod Eryri and he was right,it was very very windy and really icy.In the 30 to 45 minutes until we returned to this spot on our descent we saw about 50 people and only about 5 people were in crampon's.

We headed for Hafod Eryri to shelter out of the wind and to grab a quick break again.

The sleet had turned to snow,and the flakes were the size of 2 pence pieces.We couldn't see the summit cairn from our sheltered position.

There were a few people taking photo's at the bottom of the step's that lead up to the summit cairn and i thought it was strange until i realised that we were the only ones with crampon's on and the step's were like sheet's of glass with the ice and they obviously couldn't ascend them,at least we had the summit for ourselves to take photo's which is a rarity.It was my 33rd visit to the summit.

We didn't hang around for to long as it was freezing and quickly made for the monolith to descend the Pyg Track and to get out of the wind.It was great fun walking quickly past everybody who didn't have crampon's on and were struggling.When we got below the cloud it was still snowing heavy but it soon turned to rain for the rest of the walk back to the car.

We reached the spot where we had put our crampon's on and decided to take them off again as we were reaching the point where the snow was disappearing.

At last the car park came into view and we knew we would soon be getting into our change of clothing.

4 hour's and 45 minutes later we were back at the car having walked 7 mile with 2,400 feet of ascent.


MILEAGE    460.5
ASCENT     113,100
TOPS           108.