Snowdon - Top of Wales
May 2010, by Tom
The first point of call on our first major Smurfy excursion was a fleeting visit to Wales to climb it's highest peak - Mt Snowdon.
We set out from London on a hot and sunny Monday morning in a well rested Smurfy all packed up and ready for a good 10 days of camping. The drive went smoothly (thank you TomTom) and we reached a lovely picturesque spot in the heart of Gwynedd, Snowdonia the "Maes Carafanau a Gwersylla Barcdy Touring Caravan & Camping Park".
What intrigued me once we reached Welsh soil (the border line wasn't marked, however) was that all road signage was in both English and in Welsh. The Welsh words, to my ignorant mind, looked like someone had mashed the keys on the keyboard to create their translations. For example, "New Road Layout Ahead" = "Trefn Ffyrdd Newydd O'ch Blaen" in Welsh.
The sun was still shining brightly so we soaked up some rays while relaxing to the sound of sheep bleating and wind rustling. There were only two other campers in the whole place. We cooked up a quick and easy pasta meal to hopefully give us the energy we needed to get through the following day .... Climbing Mt Snowdon!
We awoke after a great night sleep and after a coffee and some breaky, took off to the Pen-Y-Pass where our ascent begun. With an estimated 6-7 hour hike ahead of us, we were pretty happy to have the sun gods shining upon us once again! The weather made the views that much more spectacular.
We reached the Snowdon summit, via the Pyg track, which met up with the train track near the top. We had heard there was a steam train taking those who wished to view the views without the sore legs to the top but had not seen any sign of it until we neared the top of the last ridge. The steam train dropped people off at a cafe at the top where the visitors, protected by glass, could get nice panoramic views of the region. We opted to sit on the top of the peak and eat our tasty three tiered white breaded sammies. Yum.
The descent was a nice and slow affair taking us down past the lakes (which we were sorely tempted to jump into!) and down the old miners track, and eventually back to the car park. All in all, the walk took us about 4 hours including lunch. No complaints when we manage knock a few hours off the "estimated" walking time. We returned to the camp site via a Mr Whippy and rested our weary bodies for a while before cooking up a sausage and salad feast.
The day was still early, however, as we had booked the 2am ferry to Ireland early the following morning ..... We kept ourselves entertained with a movie before hitting the road about 11pm with Holyhead plugged into TomTom. It was a pretty tiring stretch but we made the ferry with enough time to have a small snooze in the car queue before boarding.
A fantastic brief view of Wales. Another place we would love to return to at some stage to explore some more.
T
We set out from London on a hot and sunny Monday morning in a well rested Smurfy all packed up and ready for a good 10 days of camping. The drive went smoothly (thank you TomTom) and we reached a lovely picturesque spot in the heart of Gwynedd, Snowdonia the "Maes Carafanau a Gwersylla Barcdy Touring Caravan & Camping Park".
What intrigued me once we reached Welsh soil (the border line wasn't marked, however) was that all road signage was in both English and in Welsh. The Welsh words, to my ignorant mind, looked like someone had mashed the keys on the keyboard to create their translations. For example, "New Road Layout Ahead" = "Trefn Ffyrdd Newydd O'ch Blaen" in Welsh.
The sun was still shining brightly so we soaked up some rays while relaxing to the sound of sheep bleating and wind rustling. There were only two other campers in the whole place. We cooked up a quick and easy pasta meal to hopefully give us the energy we needed to get through the following day .... Climbing Mt Snowdon!
We awoke after a great night sleep and after a coffee and some breaky, took off to the Pen-Y-Pass where our ascent begun. With an estimated 6-7 hour hike ahead of us, we were pretty happy to have the sun gods shining upon us once again! The weather made the views that much more spectacular.
We reached the Snowdon summit, via the Pyg track, which met up with the train track near the top. We had heard there was a steam train taking those who wished to view the views without the sore legs to the top but had not seen any sign of it until we neared the top of the last ridge. The steam train dropped people off at a cafe at the top where the visitors, protected by glass, could get nice panoramic views of the region. We opted to sit on the top of the peak and eat our tasty three tiered white breaded sammies. Yum.
The descent was a nice and slow affair taking us down past the lakes (which we were sorely tempted to jump into!) and down the old miners track, and eventually back to the car park. All in all, the walk took us about 4 hours including lunch. No complaints when we manage knock a few hours off the "estimated" walking time. We returned to the camp site via a Mr Whippy and rested our weary bodies for a while before cooking up a sausage and salad feast.
The day was still early, however, as we had booked the 2am ferry to Ireland early the following morning ..... We kept ourselves entertained with a movie before hitting the road about 11pm with Holyhead plugged into TomTom. It was a pretty tiring stretch but we made the ferry with enough time to have a small snooze in the car queue before boarding.
A fantastic brief view of Wales. Another place we would love to return to at some stage to explore some more.
T
The amazing panoramic view half way up Mt Snowdon
Looking back from whence we came.
Rewarded with a three tiered sammy at the top.
Gini hugs goodbye the mountain rock.
