My 13th walk this year proved to be unlucky!.I met Howie at the Rhug Estate at 8.15 and he drove us down to the "Bwlch" where we were to meet Julian at 9 a.m. All the way the weather was horrible,very low cloud and thick fog in places and you couldn't see any of the mountain top's.Julian had got held up in slow moving traffic and didn't arrive until 9.30,he left his car at the "Bwlch" and jumped in with us and we drove back to Llanuwchllyn were we parked in the free car park near the railway station.Setting off at 10 a.m. i joked to the lad's saying "we'll have 10 minutes of view's,7 hour's walking in the cloud and 10 minutes of view's nearing the car",little did i know that that prediction was nearly spot on,if fact it was clear for about 7 minutes,we walked in the mist/fog for 6 and a half hour's and we had about 7 minutes of view's as we neared the car out of our 6 hour 45 minute walk.Turning left out the car park and crossing the B4403 we followed the Afon Twrch to the Hydro-Electric Station.
We were soon in the mist and lost all view's.You couldn't see any rain falling but the mist was carrying very fine water droplet's and i noticed my fleece and trouser's had started to get wet so i suggested a stop to put our wet gear on.The ground under foot was very wet and there was a lot of surface water lying around resulting in numerous detour's trying to find the driest route.Head's down we soon passed Moel Ddu,Craig y Geifr and Moel Ffenigl and hit the steep section that lead's up to the summit of Aran Benllyn.A quick photo at it's summit before we set off for our next top.
Less than 1 mile away and hardly any descent and ascent lies Erw y Ddafad-Ddu and it's splendid summit marker which we didn't linger at as we walked the half mile onto Aran Fawddwy.
Howie and Julian in it's small stone circle.
It had been quite windy all day but it was to increase significantly for the remainder of the walk,and it started to rain quite heavily too resulting in my camera not being employed again on this walk.Breaking new ground we headed down to Waun Camddwr with increasing use of my GPS as i hadn't walked on this section.The ground here is very very boggy and a lot of duck board's have been put down a good few year's ago,some of them have become rotten and it was a squealchy walk over Waun Camddwr to reach the bwlch and the Afon Cywarch.A very steep ascent lead's up to the summit of Glasgwm where it was blowing a hooley,driving the rain horizontally into us.Again not lingering at the summit we made for our 6th and final Nuttall,Pen y Brynfforchog.Again it was a very wet walk to it and we missed the summit by about half a mile before making a detour to it.Just over 1 mile away and virtually all downhill lies the "Bwlch".Again crossing ground i have never been on before i wished it was clear because it looked a lovely area to walk in with what i could see.Locating the fence we started our last steep descent to the car and eventually dropping below the cloud we could see it about 200 metres away.Looking in the direction of Cadair Idris it was a lot brighter and even a patch of blue sky and a sight of the sun,gutted.Gau Graig was visible too.This brilliant walk was 11 mile long with 3,850 feet of ascent and i will definately be walking it again on a clear sunny day.
MILEAGE 97
ASCENT 23,900
TOPS 29.
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