CRAIG y CLOGWYN 23-11-2014

As the weather forecast was for a good sunny day I thought I'd go for a small walk in the morning and explore a bit of the area around Buarthau and follow the part of the path we missed out on the Saturday due to failing light. As I found out, it was the right decision as there is quite a few obstacles along the way, mud, moss covered rocks, tree roots and slipery steps. I made my way to where a remote & hidden cottage is, heaven knows how people manage with no vehicle access to these places but they do look idylic and a place where you can just loose yourself and forget all about whats going on in the real world, until you put the tele on that is :-)

A straight there and back route

On the path out of Buarthau

Heading up into the wood

Old derelict building

Back of the remote cottage

Path that leads to the cottage

I did want to go for a look round the cottage but I wasn't sure if there would be people living in it or not and I didn't want to go snooping around as they enjoyed the spring like Sunday morning. Just past the cottage was a stream coming down through the woods with a faint path next to it so I followed it up through the wood. I had to climb over a wall that took me out of the woods with a good view down towards Porthmadog and also straight down the Nantmor Valley which was a lot clearer and warmer than the Saturday.

Following the stream through the wood

A nice Autumn feel to the day

Good clear views over to the coast @ Porthmadog

Looking down the Nantmor Valley

I made my way over to where a lonely tree was on top of a rocky outcrop, Craig y Glogwyn, and this offered fine views all round, from the coast, the crags of Moel y Dyniewyd, Nantmor Valley, Cnicht & Yr Arddu. A great place to just sit and take in the solitude of the place, especially in the fine weather on offer. I was that taken in by it all that I didn't notice a horned cow about 100 feet away from me, just staring at me, probably wondering what I was doing on her patch. My first thoughts were where could I get out of the way if it decided to come my way!!! No where to run, no where to hide. There's a song in there somewhere :-)

Looking across to Yr Arddu with Cnicht in the background

Zoomed in on Cnicht

Pano of Moel y Dyniewyd with my friend in the foreground

Watching me watching you!!

One lonely tree

Another old derelict building

A rugged & wild place that needs another visit

As this was just a short look round in the morning sun I made my way back down the same way and hoped that the cow wouldn't be following me to close. As it happened she stay where she was, only venturing to the top of the gully making sure I went on my way. Back down through the woods, over walls and through gates it was turning into tee shirt weather and I was quite surprised to see yellow flowers on quite a lot of bushes that certainly made it feel more like spring. Quite sureal really.

Nice path through the moss covered trees

Spring like day in November

Homeward bound

Yellow flowers & blue sky = perfect

Buarthau

Home just in time to change before we visited Blaenau Ffestiniog where we were going to have great fun bouncing around on rope trampolines and clambering about up and down rope ladders and slide at a very cool place called BOUNCE BELOW. A great way to end a great day. We were also treated to a Rescue helicopter low flying through the valley, which we found out was on a training excersie.
Another great day :-)

Rescue Helicopter

Fun @ bounce Below

Here is a short video of the views from Craig y Clogwyn and the Rescue Helicopter