Snowdon, Xmas trip

A much better day, and we were heading off to Snowdon ...

Starting off on the Watkin path, around the back of Lliwedd then up to Snowdon. Everything was closed up there, and we soon headed down the railway track to Llanberis.

Once again the youth hostel we would have stayed in was closed, but this time we knew. The original plan had been to head over the tops tomorrow back to Bangor, but we had enough, supported by finding out the forecast for tomorrow was not good and we would have to walkout for a ways to get somewhere to crash.

Cutting our losses we took the early evening bus to Bangor and the next train home. Enough exploration for one year.

Nant Gwynant, XmasTrip

The rain was still falling as we woke up, the ground was completely soaked. Not a day for heading up, so we chose to miss out Moel Siabod, and headed off down the road towards Beddgelert.

Not nice in the rain and when a bis came past we took the opportunity to jump on.

We found the Youth Hostel up a track by the end f the lake...  By chance the youth hostel here was open - but not just yet ...  We left our bags and had a short wander around until it did in the afternoon ... a dry oasis, in the rain, and a change in fortunes.

It was here we found out that there was only one open at once this year, and so we were lucky today, but checking the timetable none of the others would fit with our plans..

Glyders, Xmas trip

Up early and we set off for Bethesda, and after the second bus passed us, we realized that the buses were very frequent, and would save us a day of tramping the roads. So catching the next one passed we soon got to Bethesda.

From here we set off up the slate Quarries and onto the start of the ridge ... off towards Y gran then e the Glyders, before continuing along the ridge until it petered out above Capel curig. The final section was a little complex to find a path through the fields and buildings.

We headed off to the youth hostel, only to find it also closed for the holiday ... to make life easy we explored a track opposite the pub, and soon found a quiet grassy patch, and pitched the tent, dropping the sacks inside

After food and drink in the pub we came out to heavy rain ...  up to the tent and all packed in sardines style, with the rucksacks outside under a large plastic bag.

luckily the tent held through the night, even "floating" on the stream flowing over the bank and under the tent.

Xmas Trip, Snowdonia

John, and I had been talking about catching up after the first term at uni.. the more we talked, a plan came into being.

We would catch the train up to Bangor in North Wales and then tour around staying in Youth hostels...  that was the plan.

We had tracked a route over the ridges, but success would depend on the fickle winter weather. We had a list of hostels, and some details, and without knowing exactly which day we would be where there was no way to pre book, so we took a tent as back up.

Toby decided to come along as well, and we all met up at Bangor station late in the afternoon. From here we wanted to make a start, but the Bangor hostel was closed for the holidays ...  a theme that would bite us time and again this trip.

We walked out along the A5 and found a convenient ditch to crash in.