Early in the walk, still on a good path.
Still on a good path, but heading towards the bracken challenge.
Still on a good path, but the bracken is starting to close in.
Crossing this was one of the reasons why we ended up with wet feet.
Ling and gorse in flower.
The Moel y Parc Mast comes into view.
At the Moel y Parc cairn, looking for an escape route!
The Moel y Parc trig point, but alas no longer accessible.
A Raven uses the Moel y Parc cairn as a viewing point.
Descending to the Offa's Dyke Path and our lunch spot.
A juvenile Stonechat.
Harebells near our lunch spot.
Eryri from our lunch spot.
Ed enjoying his lunch.
Eryri from near our lunch spot.
On the Offa's Dyke Path that leads towards Bodfari.
Still on the Offa's Dyke Path with Bodfari ahead.
Bodfari church ahead (and the Dinorben Arms).
Walk stats: 5.7 miles. Climb: 1250Time: 4 hours 23 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.0 m.p.h. Overall Walk average: 1.3 m.p.h.
Temperature: 17.6 Celsius / 19.6 Celsius / 20.2 Celsius.
Beaufort Wind Force: 0 - 2. Calm to light air and briefly increasing to a welcome 6.1 m.p.h. Gentle breeze
Group: Martyn, Mike and Ed.
The day didn’t start well, with the Mold to Denbigh Road being blocked just short of Bodfari. This meant we were diverted back onto the A55 and approached Bodfari via St. Asaph and Trefnant.
The forecast for today wasn’t brilliant and we were anticipating showers in the morning, but clearing up later. We in fact had more rain in the morning than we expected, but it did turn sunny after lunch. At times it was very humid.
This was a new walk for us, and was taken from Dave Berry’s booklet “More Walks on the Clwydian Rane – Third Edition”. An unusual walk that we knew would be challenging as the OS Map showed no obvious paths to follow around the northern slopes of Moel y Parc. Usually, Dave Berry’s descriptions and sketch maps are easy to follow, but not for our chosen walk today.
We ended up contouring round the hill through at times head high wet bracken, and later knee-high wet bracken, that meant we all ended up with wet trousers and wet feet. The latter because the water wicked down our socks into our boots.
In the morning the clouds were low, so distant views were poor, giving us no easy sighting of where we should be.
Eventually we saw the Moel y Parc mast in the distance and decided to head towards it until we could see the cairn on Moel y Parc.
We made the decision that from the Moel y Parc cairn we would return to Aberwheeler using known paths that were also on the OS Map.
We descended southward from Moel y Parc to meet the Offa’s Dyke Path, and it was at this point that we had lunch.
As we headed towards Bodfari on the Offa’s Dyke Path, the high tops of Eryri could be made out.
We arrived back at the cars in Aberwheeler, thankful that by now the only thing still wet was our feet!
After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Dinorben Arms where it was still pleasant enough to sit outside. Brimstage Brewery’s Trappers Hat was my beer of choice. Mike tried their alcohol-free beer called Barcelona and Ed tried a beer from Rebel Brewery.
In a funny sort of way, this was quite an enjoyable walk, although not one e re likely to ever attempt again!
Birds seen or heard today were few, but included: Woodpigeon, House sparrow, Common swift, Stonechat, Carrion crow, Common buzzard, Meadow pipit and Raven.
No comments:
Post a Comment