Noon day 35

Walked 200’ up slate maker’s inclines to bwlch (col/saddle) above my pitch quite quickly. I had more energy than I expected. Breeze a lot stronger on the bwlch as I had my first glimpse of the sea. Then turned right/north for slow careful scramble up Craigysgafn. Passed some huge beautiful quarz rocks on the way up. From the top I could see my next objective, Moelwyn Mawr - checkpoint 30 on the Cambrian Way. The route look straight forward enough, gentle descent from Craigysgafn to another bwlch, then up a long grass slope to top of Moelwyn Mawr. ‘Moel’ means a rounded top hill so they are rarely challenging. On top the descents all looked scarily vertical. But as I have often found when I have initially been incredulous about a drop, carefully following the map there was an easy route down off to the east of the vertical faces I could see from the top. I met my first walker of the day on the way down. A local from Ffestiniog doing a 8 mile circuit of the hills.

3/4 mile further on I passed through extensive abandoned slate workings. There were spoil heaps, dramways, barracks, sheds and abandoned machinery. Passed five more parties of people in the late morning and early afternoon.Read more