We decided to wait a while to see it the cloud would lift so we had breakfast and a few cup's of tea and watch the cadet's and leader's go off on their activities,some break's in the cloud appeared but the top's remained hidden as we made the short drive to the bend in the B4418.We entered the Beddgelert Forest by the south side and made our way through to the clearing where we got a good view across to a now clear Moel Eilio and chum's.
And from a bit higher up showing Llyn Cwellyn.
Gaining height a could hear the whistle of the Welsh Highland Railway and as it neared the old Castell Cidwm Hotel,now a house,i zoomed in to take a photo.
Below now looking across to the hillfort of Castell Cidwm and higher up Cwmbychan.
As we left the forest the weather was improving all the time,occasionally when we got a little breeze it was cold but mostly it was still and very warm in the sunshine.We ambled along slowly as we were not in a hurry,stopping to take load's of photo's and i was pointing thing's out,naming mountain's and telling them stories,particularly about the "floating" island in Llyn y Dywarchen as it came into view,seen partially hidden left behind Clogwynygarreg below,with Y Garn and Moel Hebog making an appearance too.
Dan and Brian on route to Craig y Bera.
Now Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) was the only mountain that was covered in cloud and we were seeing more and more mountain's as we gained height.Everytime we looked down on Llyn y Dywarchen i said "look the island has moved again" and the more i said it i think the boy's were getting convinced.Below the island is now to the right of Clogwynygarreg.
The steep section negotiated we got our first view of a now clear Mynydd Mawr.
And across to the Nantlle Ridge.
The boy's were loving the walk but when we got above the cliff's of Craig y Bera and they saw the view down they were well impressed.Dan scrambled down to pose on the "diving board" seen below.
A black and white photo of the boy's near the edge.
Looking across the valley to Yr Wyddfa the cloud lifted briefly.
So i zoomed in on it's summit.
We now made our way up to the summit of Mynydd Mawr where we met a lovely old gentleman by the name of Edmond,he was waiting for his walking group who were some way below.He kindly took a photo of the 3 of us by the summit cairn.
Whilst we were having a break at the summit i could see one of the Snowdon Train's chugging it's way up to Clogwyn Station.
We said our farewell to Edmond and made our way back down retracing our step's and passed his friend's who were making there way up.The cloud's were lovely and the sky above very blue.
Disturbing a robin on the stile,seen below,we headed down to the breached dam.
Crossing the dam we walked passed the derelict house,seen below with Mynydd Mawr in the distance.
We now walked up to the col of Clogwynygarreg to get a great view of Llyn y Dywarchen and the legendary floating lake.
We picked the road up for the short walk back to the car.Today's short walk was 5.5 miles long with 2,050 feet of ascent.Below is the story of the floating lake.
It’s the lake that Gerallt Gymro (Geraldus Cambrensis – an early historian) described when he wrote about a floating island on a lake, as he and his party passed the lake on the way to Caernarfon, while they were enlisting men for Third Crusade in 1188AD. The floating island was either made of turf, or a slab of peat that broke away from the mainland, or detached itself from the bottom of the lake and floated to the surface, and was being kept afloat by the gasses, such as methane that came out of the marshlands. He noted that farm animals would often be seen marooned on the island, as they would walk on the island while it was resting on the shore, and it would suddenly drift off. The scientist Edmond Halley (of the comet fame) confirmed that the island was indeed floating, as surrounded by on-lookers, he swam out to the lake, and started rowing – to which the lake floated along! But, unfortunately, the Island we see in the lake today, isn’t the famous floating Island.
MILEAGE 181
ASCENT 46,800
TOPS 53.
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