Here's a belated TR from the bank holiday weekend - didn't get round to
sorting out the photos earlier. Photos are at
http://users.aber.ac.uk/ruw/album/050530.html .
I got out relatively early on bank holiday Monday, starting the walk
from Dinas Mawddwy to Waun Oer and back. There is no way to make this
a circular walk other than including a 500m descent and reascent on
forest roads on top of what is a rather long walk anyway. The reason
that there is no circular option is that the walk is along a rather
steep-sided ridge which has hollows alternatingly on either side.
Great views guaranteed if the weather is fine!
I first skirted up the northern and western side of Foel Dinas to
Bwlch Siglen, the beginning of the ridge. There is a short diversion
inside the forest which causes the path to become awkwardly muddy and
steep for a short section. It wasn't too bad on Monday, but I wouldn't
like coming down that way in rain. The hillside is decorated all over
with what I take for Rhododendrons.
After the forest, the view opens up and the Maesglase waterfall comes
into view - a narrow stream falling down by some 200m in several steps.
I could hear the A470, a major road by Mid Wales standards, quite
clearly on this section, but it got better as soon as I reached Bwlch
Siglen. I followed the path steeply up Maesglase and then over open
moorland along the crest of the Maesglase cliffs. Then back towards
the fence and towards Craig Portas, where the drop is towards the
north. The main path here is really on the wrong side of the fence:
The soil at the top is drifting gradually towards the drop, and the
path is broken up several times due to this motion. When I decided
that I'd be more comfortable on the other side of the fence, it turned
out that a few people or sheep must have thought that before as well
as there was a faint path.
Cadair Idris is clear in view all the time as it is quite a bit higher.
I enjoyed the view across the carved-out hollow and on to Cadair Idris
very much and had a long break just lying in the grass and taking in
the view:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/ruw/album/05053058bwCraigPortasCadairIdris.jpg
The next summit on the ridge is Waun Oer, and it's necessary to go
down quite a lot only to have to scramble up to its broad summit plateau.
There is a rusty iron box about a cubic metre in size sitting on two
wooden beams inside a ring of stones:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/ruw/album/05053062bWaunOerBox.jpg
Does anyone know whose it is and what it's used for?
The view west and north from Waun Oer must be one of the best panoramas
of north Wales! Immediately north, there is a bit of a plain so that
all of Snowdonia presents itself very impressively, from Cadair Idris
to the west, the Rhinogydd, Moelwyn, Arenig etc. I've tried to catch
this view in a stiched-together panorama
http://users.aber.ac.uk/ruw/album/05053064bwWaunOerPano.jpg . It's
not perfect, though, as I never bother carrying a tripod.
After another long rest near the trig point, it was all the way back.
I met, for the second time, a lonely lamb without any adult sheep
in sight. The poor little bugger won't make it much longer I fear!
Lower cloud and a chilly wind was now beginning to come in from the
sea, and it was time to get off the hill. I missed the turn just
before Maen Du and had to retrace more than a kilometre. Stupid me!
At Bwlch Siglen, I branched off my outward track and went down towards
the A470 which I then had to follow for about a kilometre back to
Dinas Mawddwy.
Bank holiday weekend? Coming into force of the right to roam in
Wales this weekend? I've met one other walker on Saturday and none
at all on Monday! I bet they were all queueing up Carnedd Dafydd...
--
Rudi Winter, Aberystwyth, Wales