5-7th September 2011
Introduction
When we were staying in
Barmouth last May on our tour of the Mawddach Estuary we picked up a pamphlet
for a new long distance route that we had never heard of. It looked very
attractive and we saw way-markers for it as we climbed out of this lovely
harbour town. The complete route and its pamphlets are all online and
downloadable for free. So planning started early. We decided to reduce the recommended
three stages into a two-day walk and then cross the Moelwyns to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
This would give us two very different and amazing train rides for, if booking
was well in advance, a very attractive price. I booked the trains, Phil took
care of the accommodation and another trip to Wales was in the pipeline.
Monday 5th September 2011: Brief Encounter
Phil left his car at John’s
from where Jill drove the three of us to Wilmslow station for the 07.46 departure
to Shrewsbury. What should have been a quiet and uneventful breakfast in the
station buffet rapidly became a film set, both romantic and farce. John caught
the eye of a stunning beautiful girl who in turn returned his gaze. When she
left the café, she came over and said goodbye and John, not being one to turn
down an opportunity, followed her onto platform 5. Whilst John was stealing his
goodbye kiss, Phil and I were on platform 4 trying to sort out some very mixed
messages coming over the station tannoy. ‘Those travelling to Barmouth, get on
the front end of the approaching train’. So we did and once installed, we heard
‘those travelling to Barmouth and beyond should be on the rear of the train.
Panic! No problem said the guard. ‘The train pulled out backwards’. Just when
we had calmed down, two coaches were added to the rear, so we became the middle,
soon to be the front after leaving Machynlleth. I hope you have followed all
this. We couldn’t.
Amazingly we finally rolled
slowly over the Mawddach estuary and into Barmouth only a few minutes late. We
knew the route out of town as we had walked it three months before and, on a
bright and breezy afternoon, we climbed up though the old town and along the
grassy terraces towards the Barmouth slabs. The views back over the harbour and
estuary were stupendous. It seemed much shorter now than the first time and we
were soon on the long descent to Cerrig Arthur. This time we hardly glance at
the stone circle; there is not a lot to see. Then we turned north and upwards
towards Bwlch y Rhiwgyr. Two grass track bikers sat on their machines at the bwlch.
One offered me a lift down. But we decline this and descended a rough track
into a new vista of the west coast.
The route got enticing close
to the shore before turning off right up the Afon Ysgethin where we met our
first of several wet sections, wading along flooded tracks on what seemed a
pointless and bleak deviation inland to the old drovers’ bridge, Pont Scethin.
An hour later we were only just across the valley having hardly added a mile to
the straight line distance. Here we missed the trail having encountered a herd
of frisky cows, a vicious looking bull and a four wheel drive slewed across the
way-marker. It was only when Phil casually remarked that we appeared to be
heading back to where we had come from that I realised the error and called for
a reassessment and retreat. Not well received at the end of a long day. John’s
knee was troubling him so he wisely decided to cut into Llanbedr at the
earliest opportunity whilst Phil and I did another mile or so on route before
heading, at Gelliwaen, down a road to the hotel. It was just beginning to
drizzle as we arrived in Llanbedr but this was nothing to the downpour that we
were to watch from the bar later that evening. We had timed our arrival to
perfection. The only flooding we had to endure was in the bathroom after Phil’s
attempt at taking a shower in an open bath.
We stayed at Ty Mawr Hotel, Llanbedr,
Gwynedd, LL45 2NH, Tel: 01341 241440, I ate cod and chips, Bread and Butter Pudding,
with some Gold Wing & Cwrw Haf from Kite Brewery.
Barmouth (dep.
12.05) - Llanbedr ( arr
17.45) GPS
14.83 miles in 5 hrs 40mins
Tuesday 6th September 2011; Walking on
Water
The storm had gone through
during the night so we left Llanbedr on a cloudy and windy morning with the
local river roaring passed full to the brink. Phil and I decided to retrace our
steps to the point where we had left the route on the previous evening; forever
the purists. John meanwhile had the opportunity to get his sore knee warmed up
at a less frenetic pace and took a more direct line back onto the official
path. We nearly went wrong straight away but saw the correct trod off to the
left just in time. Then it was down to cross a raging stream and back onto the
route behind John.
At the Dinas caravan site we
were stopped by a couple who had seen us as they have cycled into town earlier,
the lady on a tricycle. They knew all about the Ardudwy Way and had walked much
of it in sections. Then we resumed our chase of John and climbed up into a
hanging valley, or rather a hanging bog. The route traversed a waterlogged
basin where the path itself was hidden below a foot of last night’s rainwater. We
eventually found our way across a deep stream via a wooden footbridge. We only
found it by trial and error; the boards were 3 inches under water.
It was a relief to climb out
of this mire and up the steep slopes to Ffridd Farm. It was relatively dry
underfoot now as we passed Rhyd yr Eirin and across a poorly signpost field. I
hoped that John had avoided the obvious track to the left and stayed on-route.
We enquired of a couple coming down towards us as to whether they had seen a lone
walking with a bad knee. But they had not. I did not think anything more about
this but pushed on trying to locate John on the moorland ahead.
A rain squall hit us as we
crossed the highest and most exposed part of the route and we stopped to don rain
proofs and rucksack covers. A circle of stone huts dominated the hill top ahead
of us. What a pity we had not time to wander off route to investigate this antiquity.
But it was time to turn for home and start the long descent back to the coast.
Having totally failed to catch up with John, we rang him to see where he was.
Amazingly he was behind us, and not that far behind, but still on route. How
had we passed him? We had not deviate one iota from the official way-markings.
The descent turned out to be a bit devious and at one point climbed up again
passed a lovely remote hilltop church. Then it was down the final plunge to sea-level,
down a gorge share by overhead power lines. At Llandecwyn, we stopped at the
signpost which announced the end of the Ardudwy Way.
Pausing briefly for a photo,
we walked down the road and onwards to the railway station. Having 90 minutes
to kill before the train, we decided to walk on over the toll bridge and into
Penrhyndeudraeth. There was not tea shop to be found so we walked on,
eventually coming to the main road just by a bus stop. The timetable informed
us that a bus to Porthmadog was due so we waited a few minutes and, true to the
timetable, along came a bus to take us over the Cob and into the busy little holiday
town with all its tempting shops. It started to rain quite hard as we got off the
bus and it did not take much persuading to get us into a tea shop. In between
the downpours, we raced to the b&b arriving just before John rang from the
railway station wanting some directions.
We were recommended that the
safest place for three English guys to watch the England-Wales International on
television was the Ship Inn. It was owner by an Englishman so at least the
landlord would not throw us out. So we had a pleasant meal, a not so pleasant
football match and a relatively late night.
We stayed at Tudor Lodge, Tan
yr Onnen, Penamser Road, Porthmadog, Gwynedd, LL49 9NY, Tel: 01766 515530. We
ate at the Ship Inn, Steak and Guinness Pie, Spotted Dick, and draught St
Austell Beer and a bottle of Purple Moose.
Llanbedr (09.45) – Llandecwyn
(15.00) – Penrhyndeudreath ((15.30)
GPS 14.28 in 5hrs 48.08
(moving time)
Wednesday 7th September 2011: The Railway
Children
We were up so early that I
was sure that we would get a flying start to the day, but Phil sat for an hour
with a piece of toast waiting for his cooked breakfast. As the hotel only did
continental breakfasts this seemed a pointless exercise so two hours after
rising, I stood alone in High Street awaited the rest of the party to appear. We
had decided that, as the weather was so poor, we should abandon our plan to
traverse the mountains and instead take a low level option. The first visit was
to the railway station where a diesel was shunting some coaches in anticipation
of the arrival of a steam engine from the sheds. As we crossed the Cob, the
steam engine chugged towards us. It was of South African Railways origins,
pertinent because of where Phil’s brother now lives. We could not resist a
glimpse into the sheds before we turned away from the railway and onto a quiet by-road.
We walked passed a sign
telling us of a road closure ahead, but we thought that nothing would stop
three intrepid walkers. How wrong we were. A new bypass slashed across the
landscape and a farmer warned us of problems ahead. But then he said ‘let’s go
and have a word with Spider’ and we followed him up to the barriers. Spider,
God bless his cotton socks, opened the gates, stopped a dumper truck from
crossing our path and saw us safely over. We were soon in deep forest alongside
the Ffestiniog Railway once again. One unmarked dog-leg nearly threw the
navigator but the overseer saw us right and on to an overgrown path to Rhyd.
Here we broke out of the
forest onto a high level road which we left once more to head into trees just
where the road started its descent. The final 200m path to Tan y Bwlch Station
was hard to find and we spend a few minutes floundering around a field above
the railway line. So imagine the joy when we finally found the link path and saw
the café/tea shop on the other side of the track. Bacon butties were the order
of the day and John went back and got some carrot cake. So it was a full and
replete party that staggered out into the station yard ready for the afternoon
session.
Down through a way-marked
wood and onto the road, we soon found a good forestry track that led to a wonderful
contouring route that basically ran parallel to the rail tracks. Eventually we
climbed out of the forest, across the track and into a loop of the railway
where the line comes back over itself in its need to gain height. Halfway round
this loop, whilst we were on the view point looking back at Trawsfynydd Power
Station, a train came rushing down the hill. We dashed down to the trackside so
that we could stand in the trees waving to the passengers. An easy section took
us passed old quarry workings and over the ridge to get our first glimpse of Ffestiniog
Power Station and its reservoir. As we started our descent a very strange and
mysterious incident occurred. Passing the old workings involved at one point walking
through a short tunnel no more than three metres long. We paused for photos as
we entered and then emerged two seconds later into pouring rain. The weather is
certainly localised in Wales.
Just as John was walking
straight into the lake, I spotted a dry path over the other side of the railway
line. We crossed just as another train came chugging up the line. We stood once
again waving, feeling just like the Railway Children (E.Nesbit). Phil took a
picture of the switch gear and transformers behind the power station, just for
me. Then we walked into Tan y Grisau and along the long main street to the main
road. It began to rain hard as we turned into Blaenau Ffestiniog so we sought
refuge in the Bridge Café. Gale served us with the last cakes of the trip
before I shot across the road for a stronger drink. The train was pulling into
a wet and dismal platform as we entered the station. Soon we were travelling
through the mountains and down the Conwy Valley on our way home. A classic trip
in very unstable weather.
Porthmadog (09.05) – Tan y
Bwlch (12.00-12.30) – Blaenau Ffestiniog (15.45)
GPS 13.65 in 6hrs 07.45
(moving time)
