Monday 14 December 2009

A night on Creigiau Gleision































Managed to convince my wife to come this time. Had to buy her a North Face nupste jacket and loan her my alpkit pipedream 800 as part of the deal.

We left Keighley for Betws-y-Coed about 5pm and somehow missed the traffic. Things were looking good.

Halfway down the M62 the Bongo lost power, the lights dimmed, radio turned off and the speedo went wild. Disaster. i was convinced the weekend was over. After drooling over the weather forecast (the best weekend in weeks) things were not looking good.

the very nice men from the AA turned up popped the Bongo on a truck and drove
us to the nearest service station where, an AA legend (in my opinion) was waiting for us.

He checked the battery and knew instantly it was the alternator. The alternator had rattled loose, lost a bolt and torn its wires out. In true Mc Gyver style he rigged up a new bolt from some scrap laying around in the back of the van and a new plug for the wires
going into the alternator. The weekend was back on!

We arrived in Betws-Y-Coed just in time for all the pubs to stop serving food. We eventually got a table at the Chinese restaurant (the Red Dragon I think) the Beijing beef was amazing.

We then drove to the parking spot I discovered SH 79514 56809.














This was a great little secluded spot that reminded me of a campsite. Not free during the day but their were no signs to say you couldn't park overnight. We awoke to be in a prime location to choose a free spot (SH 79479 56434)

to leave the bongo for the weekend while we hiked and wild camped. This spot seemed quite secure as it was in full view of several shops and a pub.

We were heading for Creigiau Gleision taking in Llyn y Parc


,












llyn Glangors,














Llyn Geirionydd













and Llyn Crafnant














before
climbing up through the forest at the end of Llyn Crafnant to Creigiau Gleision.

This was my full winter wild camp and I was really pleased with our kit.

Because my wife was with us I took our Vango Tempest 300 that we bought for Croatia instead
of my Laser Comp. Although over three times the weight it compacts quite small and had plenty
of room for me and Jo, the dog and Tom could fit in to eat with us and play dominos.

Jo said she was really warm in the pipedream 800. I was using My Snugpak Kestrel which has
a comfort rating of 0. I was ok through the night but I had to wear all my clothes and Jacket.

I was so pleased with the views and conditions in the morning, and I hope you can tell from the
photos it was hard not to take a good photo.
















After packing up we continued along taking in the other peaks and then dropping down back
into the forst and back to Betws-Y-Coed for Sunday dinner.

Flickr Slideshow to follow with all 400 photos!

Links to GPX files for the route.


View creigiau-gleision-day-1-gpx

View creigiau-gleision-day-1-gpx


Saturday 5 December 2009

Live blog from skiningrove

My super tall shadow

Live blog from the dune at skiningrove

Live blog skiingrove beach

Saltburn side sands at skiningrove