Our first encounter with Ysceifiog mud!
Local residents checking that we leaving their field.
Where is the footbridge? It's there somewhere!
The view from my lunch spot!
The village of Ysceifiog seems a long way off.
Moel y Parc from a bridleway South west of Ysceifiog.
Walk stats: Distance: 6.4 miles.Climb: 1083'.
Time: 4 hours 27 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.0 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.4 m.p.h.
Group: Martyn, Sue and Michel, Roger, Jim and Mal.
The weather today was unseasonably warm, with temperatures in the low teens Celsius. Overcast and with little wind to cool us, my glasses frequently steamed up.
Although the walk had been changed to try to avoid known muddy sections, it wasn't long before we encountered the worst of the mud as we entered a field after crossing a footbridge at the East end of Ysceifiog Lake.
The next part of the walk was along a pleasant path on the West side of Ysceifiog Lake to a road that went past Ddol Nature Reserve.
We decided to take a short cut along a wooded path to the Caerwys road, unfortunately this path didn't quite go to the road and ended at farm building. This was pointed out to us by the landowner, who still kindly allowed us to continue rather than forcing us to retrace our steps.
On arriving at the B5122 Caerwys road, we soon realised that this was a much busier road than the 1955 walk description suggested. We decided to miss out the climb to Caerwys and instead headed South towards Afonwen. It was our intention to extend the walk on the South side of the A541 to compensate.
This we did by following a path that took around the South side of Bryn yr Eithin to link up with our planned route near a footbridge over the Afon Disgynfa.
By now it was lunch time, but as yet we hadn't come across a suitable place to stop, so we plodded on up hill again and decided that the grass verge near Plas Gwyn was the best we would get. Thankfully as we ate our lunch no vehicles went past us on this narrow road.
After lunch we decided not to explore the Waen-dymarch path and instead to stick to the road to the Sarn fisheries.
We did manage to explore two bridleways that we hadn't used before that led to the Ddol-Yscefiog road.
We arrived back at the car a little earlier than expected but still with legs letting us know that a reasonable amount of climb had been involved.
Birds seen or heard today included: Carrion crow, Mallard, Tufted duck, Coot, European robin, Treecreeper, Great tit, Long-tailed tit, Black-billed magpie, Common starling and Sparrowhawk.
As this was the last walk planned for a Thursday, it was thought appropriate to go to the Britannia Inn at Pentre Halkyn for after walk drinks as this was the hostelry that we visited after our first Thursday walk in Autumn 2005.
As ever, the Lees bitter was excellent.
We can look forward to visiting the Britannia Inn again in mid February after scheduled refurbishment starting in early 2018.
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