Easter came and went so quickly and we had lovely times with the family. Kept in practice by taking our grandsons up Great Rhos, the mountain in our back garden - very proud of them! We were aiming for the 11.03 train from Barmouth today as it is about a 9 mile walk. Although a bit
further to drive, it’s another corner turned on our route coastwards and this same route will get us to the Lleyn and a bit beyond. Was lovely to get views of Cadair
Idris as we approached Dolgellau…I love Cadair Idris, memories of going up with our 3 young children! We bought tickets at the ticket office-cum-tourist information centre so
I actually bought a book about iron age hill forts in northern Wales too
We liked
Llwyngwril, a lovely little village with its tiny Welsh cottages, a lot being
renovated just now. We climbed steadily out of the village and had good views of the Lleyn from
the tops but the photos aren’t that good so you have to take my word for it.
A
bit sad that we haven’t really had good views over Cardigan
Bay much..still, some more to go yet! We could also see the hill
fort of the last walk behind us… there it is highlighted in colour...
Soon we came
upon what on the map is shown as cairns/homestead…what a magnificent site! There were what appeared to be some hut
circles along with some rectangular shaped ones too and in the field beyond we
could make out almost 50 of these shapes.
What a place to have chosen to live!
The views out across the Lleyn – honestly!
We were still walking on a track –
it was easy walking today, the only place not a track was through the wood
later! – and passed several ruins, one of which seemed to have been a large
settlement complete with fishponds with some modern farms nearby. We crossed
the plateau and were overtaken by a couple of boys on bikes, the only people up
on top all day. We heard many skylarks and pied flycatchers over here and soon saw the next standing stones.
I believed they were part
of a circle as I could see lots of fallen down stones as I went round…should have
made the complete circle really just to check..or was it an alignment? We
stopped for lunch and it was one of the loveliest, if not the loveliest, spot
with views down across Fairbourne marsh, over the Mawddach to Barmouth and
beyond to the sand spit heading into Harlech and Porthmadog with the Rhinog
hills standing sentinel over it all.
We thought we could see Cnicht in
Snowdonia, the last mountain we climbed up there on our 40th
anniversary stay on the Lleyn…it is known as the Snowdonia Matterhorn so its
shape is a bit of a giveaway. And we believed the huge stones leaning together
were part of an earlier burial chamber of some sort, not just a sheep shelter! Though there were plenty of sheep and lambs up here.
My Lucozade picture is here – I am applying for a donation from Lucozade, fingers crossed – we
do drink it a lot. Chris swears it gives him refound energy when it’s needed!
Underway again we soon saw first views of Cadair Idris – I love it!
We then
passed more standing stones on the edge of a forestry area.
We began the descent then
passing a lovely old house and then going through a lovely old wood, mostly oak
just beginning to bust into leaf,
where we saw bluebells (not quite as many as
we saw in Emmets Wood in Kent last week but there none the less!) .....
......and heard the
first cuckoo of the year. It has been an absolute delight this year to have
watched, so closely, the seasons changing. And now Spring is so full on! I
bravely passed some cows with VERY big horns – quietly! All still with brilliant views down to Fairbourne and beyond.
Then we passed a
disused quarry – a very big one and saw an old bridge which must have carried
the old tramway carrying the slate down to Fairbourne.
A little stream in the
lane at the bottom bearing its Ransoms garlic in full flower. We were a bit lost here – and it seems that there had indeed been a
diversion here earlier in the year as we discovered after the event. Anyway we
made our way to the station at Fairbourne as the map told us and headed past
the light railway station too going down towards the sea again! This light railway had obviously been the tramway taking slate out to the estuary where there is now a ferry across to Barmouth. Think the tide was too far out his afternoon though.
We walked along the sea
wall with Llwyngwril not looking so far away behind us...and a kind donation which cheered us....
and with Barmouth ahead over the marsh
land and estuary. There was a train crossing the bridge - really!
We headed over the levee – another of those! – at the edge of
the marsh....
..... to the bridge with its footpath alongside the railway we had crossed
earlier. And it was very exciting to be passed by a train on its way into Barmouth!
We had good views both inland across the estuary to Cadair Idris and out to the dunes, the Fairbourne railway terminus and the mouth of the river....
It was very busy over here so we were a bit surprised at the other end
to find they weren’t charging the toll today – how silly, it could make a lot
of money, especially if they’d charged the many bikes a lot, thought Chris!
Lovely views of the estuary and Cadair Idris!
And across to the Harbour View Cafe which is also the ticket office for the Fairbourne railway.
And so we headed back into a busy Barmouth with its ice creams and fairground rides and lots of people on the beach - good to see it busy. The GPS is working again - had been a bit impatient I think! Richard aided and abetted its reinstatement over Easter. So it was 8.97 miles today with an elevation gain of 1007 feet. A really lovely walk. Can't wait now for next week - heading beyond Barmouth with Julia joining us too for a few days. We are staying for a week in Tremadog with 5 walks in readiness to get us to Pwllheli. Thank you for your support and if you do want to contribute, have a look at...www.justgiving.com/Pamela-Mallpress
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