Tag Archives: camping

Crafllyn site: Rhyd Ddu

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16°C, clouding over. Rain in the west.
Heading for Snowden. Left work early and aiming for a camp in the village. The plan is to meet Chris and Em in the early morning to climb Snowdon. We’re taking a route from the west to use it out.
I decided to head out tonight so I have no long drive early in the morning.
This is all training for the 3-Peaks next week. Therefore, we should make good speed.
Made camp. Ate in the pub in RD, fantastic food, better than many restaurants.
The forecast now says this heavy rain will continue until midday tomorrow. Then it dries for a few days.
The car has a puncture.

QMD: Cadair Berwyn.

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0 to –8°C. April northerly. Mostly clear sky.
Full mountain day, after packing up camp, I heard the car rumble by, my colleagues had arrived. We convened a meeting around an outside table to decide which route.
Choices ranged from 7 to 12 miles. The big one got the go-ahead. Initially, there is a climb out of the valley along well maintained paths. Meltwater ran down and exposed ice on top of slate. Slate can be slippery at the best of times, but with ice!?
Before the first kilometer, it was apparent that we’d headed up the wrong valley. We wanted north and faced West. Oops.
I proposed that we take a quad bike track over the spur and intercept the path. Good.
Route mended, white summits poked above the grassy ridge.
From this point, the walk became fantastic. Fantastic in the sense that we strode out into a wonderland of snow and ice sculptures. Crunchy snow like this offers good grip and filled over those hollows between tussocks.
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The higher we got, the more fantastic the scene became. Wind was the sculptor here, and it had been very creative. Grid wire fences had long crystal growths of water ice, razor sharp and pointing downwind. Either the ice grew quickly, or the north wind had remained this way for days.
Worrying about time, we decided to skip Cadair Bronwyn and descent from the Bwlch before.

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Ice waffles.

The walk out was a considerable distance along sheep filled valleys.
Getting dark, we made camp at about 6pm. I was tired, partially my own fault. I didn’t eat enough. My boots repeatedly unlaced, the laces had iced up and slid loose.

Oban, at the end of the road.

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23°C, Clear blue and light wind.
Chased north avoiding the rain. Started at 09.15 and got to Oban at 18.00. No rush, it’s good to stopp a few times: one layby in Glen Awe, there is a marked walk in the woods to a very nice waterfall. Just what I needed when sat in the car driving for all those hours.

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The forecast has changed, it looks like the heavy rain has tracked east and gone to the other side of Scotland.

Snowdon, arrived.

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17°C, Clear with light W.
Betws-y-Coed: used my DofE discount card to buy some kit. Firstly, an expedition rucksack. After trying on many, I got the Lowe Alpine 65 litre. It seemed to fit the best. Next, a Rab bivvy bag. I’m looking forward to trying that one out. It’s quite roomy inside, I know because I climbed inside it tonight in the safely of my tent. The length is 7ft which should mean it puts no pressure on the sleeping bag thus reducing its warmth.
Walk up some of the Watkins path. Set off at 20.00 and got up to the 400m amounts at the quarry beyond the Gladstone Rock. Snowdon was all quiet and peaceful, barely anybody was seen. The natural beauty of this place was all there, plain to see.

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Watkins Path.

This time of year, there is not any real need for lights, even at 10pm, but to be on the safe side, I did. This is not the time to stumble.

Easter.

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11°C, brisk westerly carrying showers.
Plans: may be abandoned for this coming week.
Abandoned so far:
Ride to work on the cross bike and return along canals. Felt ill yesterday.
CX ride to Fradley junction. Same.
Camping in Wales next week, bad weather forecast.
Maybe go to Castleton instead, and go up Kinderscout.

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Beinn Eighe and the 3 buttresses

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Saturday, endless showers, 14C, strong SW.
Bad weather plus a desire to walk my last day means a valley hike. I went around the back of Liathach and snaked around the back of Beinn Eighe. The idea was to visit the corrie where the 3 buttresses are.
These hills are also sandstone of the same type as further north. It is layered in steps and terraces. Waterfalls usually fall in stages too. The one at the mouth of the corrie was swept back by the very strong wind. A smaller one further up didn’t fall at all sometimes. The water simply blasted into the air above.

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I had to crouch behind an erratic to get out of that wind and eat my snack. The socks I sat on were polished and scarred with striations. Strong wind sprayed water backwards from the waterfall as I said. That made the gusts even colder.
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I stayed there for a while, ate sandwiches and looked upon the scene. The cliffs had deep scars with conical landslides at the base of each.
The effects of cold air, spray and rain ended my time there. You can find photos mostly taken on the descent on my Flickr site. Showers became more frequent and heavier. Patches of sun did break through the drizzle. The stage was set for a meteorological special effect: low down a clear rainbow rose before the valley side.

Coffee, had a success with an idea taken from the German teenagers in Achmelvich the other day. I got this coffee maker for £8 that works on a gas stove.

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Good coffee.

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Lochinver.

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13C, frequent rain showers. Not too heavy.
Visit the harbour, for food, coffee and get a weather forecast. Steadily improving, Thursday will be the best day.
There is a good cross-country route to the village and I decided to find another route north back to base. Wandering off tracks does not really work here. I found myself by a remote Loch then tried to turn west in the general direction of the camp. There was no way around the deer fences though. They are so high and gates were few.
I am used to waist height fences in Wales for the sheep, but these were over 8ft and wire. No way to cross those.
Later. A group of young Germans arrived and pitched next to my tent. It seemed strange since this is quite a large site and most of it is empty. Their tents were soon up and cooking organised. Then one of the guys climbed the rocks I had chosen to offer some shelter. What made them choose my corner was the rocks, but for a different reason. One of the boys pulled on climbing shoes and chalked up. Then he was all over the rocks. Such is life for the young. The group are friendly and speak good English. They didn’t keep me awake at night.

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Camp- Achmelvich

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19C sunny white, low cloud.NW wind.
After the storm, a respite. The sun is out and wind, dropped. A chance to dry out. I did laundry this morning so all is fresh (including me).
The journey brightened up in Assynt and some spectacular views revealed themselves.

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This picture was taken on kid northern shore of Loch Assynt. The plaque told an interesting story of the building, wildlife and geology.
North of Assynt, is limestone topped with quartzite. South is Lewisian gneiss topped with sandstone. Geologically, that is interesting because the gneiss is 2,000 million years old. On top is sandstone of only 480my old. That is a huge gap between, a discontinuity. Which brings me to..

It was not long after that Sulvain appeared on the left. The top just scratched into the cloudbase. There it was, set quite a distance from the road; this is a remote mountain. The walk-in is 3+ hours in any direction.
The ground between carries a huge volume of water in rivers and streams in spate, and flooding. All that from last night’s tempest.

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This camp in in a rocky inlet with a small white beach. The water is clear and greenish.
The ground is strangely empty. Later, a frequent visitor told me how the storm hit campers here. Of sixteen tents pitched, only one stood the night. Most left by four in the morning leaving broken, flat patches of coloured fabric in the puddles.
I thought to myself: would mine pass this test? Probably, I would say. It’s the big family tents that fared badly. That would not be a good night, the noise from buffeting.
Also, I am nervous about the high waterline. It seems rather close to my pitch.
Wish me luck.

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Tried too much?

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19C, showers, some heavy.
Break camp at Oban and head towards Glen Coe. The road along Glen Orchy is single-track through Caledonian temperate rainforest. Each tree is decorated with feathery lichens, any rocks were coated in thick velvety moss. These places are rare now, but still, the magic is there.

I was looking for a hike, the rain wasn’t so bad, more drizzle by now. But I failed after making friends with some pigs. So, drove on to The Bridge Of Orchy and decided on the climb on the opposite side- Beinn Dorian. At 1076m, it is about the same height as Snowdon. The top was in cloud and so was the approach along a ridge. It’s a shame because the view would get been stunning.

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You have to watch out for the false summit. The real one is at the second cairn.
Rain has been the big problem today, I took the tent down is rain and later, put it back up in an even heavier downpour, and it was dark.
Everything ran too late today, I got back to the car at about 8.45.
That screwed the plan to have a pub meal near the campsite, view stopped serving at 9.00.
So I cooked in rain too.

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New word: bimble.

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6~14C, S brisk, clear.
Thirty years ago I first set eyes on this mountain. That was a Youth Hosteling trip with my brother on cheap, unreliable bikes. The day we arrived was warm sunshine and we both got sunburnt. The second day it rained heavily and a landslide closed the main road. We were, therefore stuck here a few days. In all of this, Tryfan stuck in my mind. It looked ominous those days. It looks like a clenched fist on the valley side.
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Today, I climbed it. I took the Heather Terrace route on the east face. Conditions were perfect but it was three hours climbing.
The title- bimble is a new word to me. They use it here to mean an easy walk, like amble, stroll, plod and all the rest. Clearly, there is a need for a word with a comedy tone.
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