Around Llyn Padarn and the Powdwr Oil Walk 4th June 2016

Looking East along Llyn Peris towards Nant Peris.

The steam engine "Elidir" warming up for duty.

Looking acroos Llyn Padarn towards Snowdon.

Looking across Llyn Pardarn towards Llanberis and the high peaks of Snowdonia.

The standing stone on the North side of the Reservoir above Cwm-y-Glo.

Our bird of the day - a singing Yellowhammer.

The steam engine "Elidir" being turned around ready to take the coaches back to Llanberis.

A female Goosander with 6 chicks on a stone in Llyn Padarn.

Walk stats: Distance: 10.4 miles. Climb: 948'.

Time: 6 hours 38 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.1 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.6 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn and Mike.

A good day for walking, although at times it was a little too much on the humid side for comfort. Any breeze was welcome.

 We started the walk by following the lakeside and as a consequence had views that we wouldn't have seen had we taken the route exactly as described. We ended up climbing through Llyn Padarn Country park from one of the stations to reach the road just above Caffi Padarn.

 Lunch was taken, somewhat later than usual just after heading West from Castell Bryn Bras.

 After lunch path finding became a more of a problem, and we decided to take a path that essentially contoured around the hillside but at times it meant we were trying to find it through bracken or heather. The path junction we hoped to find didn't appear, so we picked up the original description just after spotting the standing stone. 

 We finally joined the Cwm-y-Glo road, 50 yards West of the marker stone denoting the Eastern limit of debris from the Pwdwr Oil Explosion.

 As we headed West towards Cwm-y-Glow , we first heard and then spotted a singing Yellowhammer, our first for 2016.

 The distant views of Snowdonia were somewhat hazy, particularly in the afternoon.

We arrived back at the lakeside, feeling quite tired, but knowing that we almost two miles to go and thankful that there was no more climbing to do.

 The next surprise of the day was when I decided to take a picture of female Goosander on a rock in Llyn Padarn, and closer inspection revealed that there were small juveniles on the rock too.

 All around the walk there were plenty of flowers, including some Bluebells and one or two beautiful Buttercup meadows., 

Birds seen or heard today included: Mallard, Common buzzard, Common kestrel, Herring gull, Common blackbird, Stonechat, Winter wren, European robin, Barn swallow, Meadow pipit, House martin, House sparrow, Jackdaw, Carrion crow, Grey heron, Goosander and Yellowhammer.

 We arrived back at the car, convinced that our legs were telling us that we had walked more than the 10.4 miles on my Garmin GPS and that perhaps my Memory Map GPS figure of 12.2 miles was the better value!

 After walk drinks were again enjoyed at the Blue Bell Inn at Halkyn, where Castle Rock "Harvest Pale" quenched the thirst before Dee Perry was sampled.