Paul Saunders said:DAY THREE - SUNDAY
Got up at 5:30am.
Got up late. I do enough getting up early at work!
Quoted message said:Various people planned walks of their own. Didn't seem much agreement
between anyone to do a group walk, so they most (all?) went off and did
their own thing.
Martin and I managed to agree on something and David was keen to tag
along.
We took all three of our cars up the west bank of the Conwy to
Tal-y-bont and turned up a likely looking road. This turned out to be
the first mistake. We should have taken the unlikely looking one just
before it. This went up and up an ever increasing slope and then
through two gates. David in the lead car opened them and I closed them
leaving Martin smug in his flash motor in the middle with nothing to
do but wait for us. From the carpark (best described as *near* Llyn
Eigiau) we headed northish and were soon on the track leading round
onto Clogwynyreryr and then the ridge leading towards Foel Grach. This
was another mistake, the intention was to approach Foel-fras from the
east but we hadn't told David that. After rummaging for waterproofs at
the onset of rain we continued up past the Nuttall of Craig Eigiau
without even being tempted (Martin has all of them anyway and I don't
bag them, David was ahead of us, as ever) and at a suggestion from
Martin stopped for lunch before entering the clouds.
The clouds had other ideas though and by the time we set off again
they had come to meet us. Navigation took another turn for the worse
here, we set off upwards but we were turned by several sheep tracks
and ended up heading more across the hill than up it. Correcting our
mistake, which was not helped by the fact that David was using the
edition of the OS 25k that neatly splits the Carneddau ridge across
two sides of the map with no overlap, we came across a cairn on a flat
area and two walkers looking puzzled at the other side of the map to
us. Knowing that the summit of Foel Grach is somewhat raised I
concluded that this pile of stones marked nothing in particular and we
set off again in search of the true top.
Here a route conference resulted in our small party of five splitting,
with the two others intending to go back to Carnedd Llewelyn, David
wanting to continue round over Garnedd Uchaf and Foel-fras to descend
by what I intended to be our ascent route. Martin was suffering from
back-pain and so he and I made a retreat down the easy slopes into Cwm
Eigiau into the sunshine and then after walking down the old slate
works track passed by the rugby Mountaineering Club's hut at Cwm
Eigiau Cottage where there was a substantial meet going on. Tents all
over the place providing overspill accommodation and a couple of kegs
of ale set up with a huge BBQ facility under an awning.
Rather than take the cruel modern track back to the cars which climbs
over the hillside we sought out the more level old track (once drowned
by the dam) and picked our way over the boggy parts preferring them to
more ascent. The old dam wall was more tidy than Martin remembered it
with the broken ends neatened and the smaller holes plugged with new
concrete. Just before we got the our cars we passed a family out for a
stroll and Martin hatched a plan. To save us from opening gates we
would wait for them to leave and nip in behind them. This plan was
made even better by the arrival of David who was ready to leave just
as we set off in convoy.
Another happy if damp day on the hill.
14 km 4h34 Total Height Gain 657 m.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"
