Today’s walk was mid-range, with only 7.5 miles on the path but plenty of ascents and a mile walk off the path to our hotel at the end of the day. We started the day in Tregarth and ended along Llyn Padarn in Llanberis.
Soon after leaving Tregarth, we started up a hill through the woods — first deciduous woodland and then pine.
After the woods we headed around a hill and out onto moors, which were thankfully fairly dry. We’re getting very lucky with good weather, so the places that could be difficult to navigate in mist or boggy in rain are just slightly mucky and so far not too hard to get through. From the moors it was uphill again, passing an interesting ruin and eventually getting into open terrain with mostly heather (although not in flower now).
Coming over the rise, we got our first glimpse of Mt. Snowdon! The peak is just barely visible — it isn’t the rounded top in the distance (second from the right) but rather the very pointy bit just to the right of that. I don’t think I would have recognized it if I hadn’t walked up Snowdon a couple years ago.
We then descended into the village of Deiniolen, where we were pleasantly surprised to find a cafe (EB’s cafe) serving food as well as drinks. There we rested and had our fill of fish and chips before climbing our last hill of the day.
Across the rise we saw Llyn Padarn, with Llanberis past it. We chose our path down through Padarn Country Park and Coed Dinorweg and over to the old quarry, where we descended sets of slate stairs and admired the old quarry structures. From there it was a short walk past the end of the lake into town for a pub dinner to end the day.
This is the fifth of 12 daily blog posts I wrote as I walked the North Wales Pilgrim’s Way, May 13-24. I am publishing them after the fact but they reflect my thoughts as I completed each day’s walk.
Expat Linguist 