Llyn Cwmstradllyn from Gorseddau Quarry.
At the summit of Moel Hebog.
At the summit of Moel Hebog.
On the old railway track, the last stretch of the walk back to the car.
A Brown hare lying low.
Not the best photo of the bird of the day - a Whinchat.
Walk stats: Distance: 10.0 miles. Climb: 2360' - estimated as GPS gave 3800', wind assisted!
Time: 7 hours 4 minutes. On the move walking average: 1.7 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.4 m.p.h.
Group: Martyn and Dave J.
The weather forecast wasn't too good, showers, strong winds and even worse a cloud base below 1000'.
The walk started well with a Whinchat (female) sitting on a fence post near to the start. Visibilty was good at this point as we headed for Gorseddau Quarry, but that's where we left the views for quite some time as we contoured around the grassy slopes heading for the path that leads from Bedgelert to the summit of Moel Hebog. We did get the occasional glimpse of the valley below, but that was all. In fact at one point we walked on a compass bearing to get us to Moel Hebog path.
We didn't linger at the summit trig point for long, as it was very windy and views were none exitant. We were thankful to have got there and were glad to be descending to Bwlch Meillionen.
The route from here was a little on the boggy side, and didn't let up even when we reached the old railway track that we encountered our first rain of the day, large drops that almost seemed like hail, but it didn't last long.
It was just off the old railway track that Dave spotted a Brown hare within about 20', it eventualy heard us and raced off as Hares do!
The walk ended, better than it started, with us getting superb views of a pair of Whinchats, just a few yards away from us.
Birds seen or heard today included: Whinchat, Stonechat, Pied wagtail, Raven, Winter wren, Ring ouzel, Common buzzard, Lesser black-backed gull, Meadow pipit, Wheatear and Skylark.
We arrived back at the car, knowing that we had quite a challenging walk in more ways than one. Once again the steps at the Britannia Inn were only overcome as we knew the effort would be rewarded with a good pint of Lees bitter.
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