Llyn Geirionydd and Llyn Crafnant from Llanrwst. 27th July 2018

The Gray mares tail waterfall.

Llanrhychwyn church.

Inside Llanrhychwyn church.

Inside Llanrhychwyn church.

The Conwy valley from Llanrhychwyn church.

The Klondyke mine from the Trfriiw - Llyn Geirionydd path.

At the bard's monument next to Llyn Geirionydd.

Llyn Geirionydd from the monument path.

An "easier" ection of the tree root challenge footpath along the West side of Llyn Geirionydd.

Posing on a delightful verdant section of the Llyn Geirionydd to Llyn Crafnant path.

At the monument next to Llyn Crafnant.

Llyn Crafnant from the monument.

In the tunnel leading to the Clogwyn y Fuwch Slate mine .

Emerging from the Clogwyn y Fuwch Slate mine tunnel.

The Clogwyn y Fuwch Slate mine.

The Klondyke mine.

A much better bridge than a wooden plank.

The dry Fairy Glen Waterfall.

Looking towards Llanrwst fro the Afon Conwy from the Gower footbridge.

Walk stats: Distance: 11.2 miles. Climb: 1891'.

Time: 6 hours 9 minutes. On the move walking avearge: 2.4 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.8 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn, Mike and Ed.

The forecast for today was for showers and gusts of winds up to 20 m.p.h. with the possibility of heavy thundery rain after 14-00. We did get periodic spells of gentle rain, but the strong gust didn't materialise and thankfully neither did the thunder and lightening. In fact the wettest some of us experienced was walking through head high wet bracken.

Lunch was taken just in the woods just before descending to Llyn Crafnant, kuckily in a spot that allowed us to bask in the warm sunshine.

Overall this was really good walk, varied with the added bonus of visiting Llanrhychwyn church, Clogwyn y Fuwch Slate mine and the Klondyke mine.

Apart from the tree root challenge, along which only Ed slipped, the wood plank bridge across the stream at the Klondyke Mine which only Ed crossed, this was an excellent walk. As there are much safer alternatives to both of these, this is a walk well worth repeating.

A reasonable amount of water was seen at the Grey Mare's Tail waterfall, but hardly any was seen at the Fairy Glen Waterfall.

Birds seen and heard today included: Common buzzard, Mallard, Grey heron, House martin, Woodpigeon Goosander, Common blackbird, Barn swallow, Carrion crow, Blue tit, Stonechat, Common chaffinch and Pied wagtail.

after walk drinks were enjoyed at the Britannia Inn at Pentre Halkyn where the Lees bitter was in excellent condition. 

Back home in time to enjoy watching Liverpool beat Man U 4-1 in the International Champions Cup 2018 watched by over 100,000 spectators in the Big House the home stadium the University of Michigan  football team.

Maen Esgob and Maen Penddu 26th August 2017

Looking West from Cogwrn.

Looking towards the Conwy valley from Cogwrn.

It doesn't look like being a good day on Tal-yFan!

Looking towards Penmon and Puffin Island from the cairn on Maen Esgob.

At the cairn on Maen Esgob.

 The view as we approached the large erratic stones on Cefn Maen Amor.

At the large erratic stones on Cefn Maen Amor.

Maen Penddu, South east of the Cefn Maen Amor.

The gentle descent to our lunch spot at the reservoirs.

Our lunch spot on the North side of the resevoirs.

Wild ponies on the mountain.

Sailing West of Conwy.

The described route alongside of the wall, but is it a path?

Conwy Castle from the path heading towards Craigfedwen.

The Conwy valley from Craigfedwen.

Walk stats: Distance: 7.5 miles. Climb: 1376'.

Time: 5 hours 15 minutes. On the move walking average: 1.8 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.4 m.p.h.

Group: Martyn and Ed.

I arrived at the car park to find that it was already pretty full, with only a couple of spaces left. Thankfully Ed arrived in time to claim one of them, before the rest of the Vale of Clwyd Ramblers arrived.

 We set up what seemed like quite a steep climb at the start of a walk, but were rewarded with superb views once we were on the top of Cogwrn. It is always good when you get different views of places you know so well, and the walk today was to provide us with many such views.

 The weather to the West was good all day, and in fact became better as the day progressed. However Tal-y-Fan seemed to be in cloud all day, and the summit was seen for the first time as we neared the end of the walk. 

 Although it seemed warmer than the forecast 16 Celsius, we did get a pleasantly cooling breeze from time to time. The cairn on Maen Esgob and the erratic stones on the top of Cefn Maen Amor were visited for the first time. but I'm sure they will be visited on our walk in the future.

 We headed for the reservoirs, where we hoped to find suitable rock on which to perch, but our first problem was how to get to them by going around from their western side. The first problem was crossing a stream, but heading up stream we soon found a place was narrow enough to cross with a large stone in the middle to act as a stepping stone. The next challenge was to cross another channel, but thankfully there was a choice of two wooden bridges that we could take.

 We had lunch on the Northern side of the reservoir, enjoying views towards the coast as we did so.

 After lunch we followed the North Wales Path for a couple of miles before exploring more new paths and visiting a small summits with a cairn and good views.

 Our only problem encountered was after visiting the top of Craigfedwen, we followed a path that took us through head high bracken before picking up a real path. On reflection this wasn't the way we should have gone!

 The Heather clad moorland was superb, especially so as could smell it too.

 We arrived back at the car, having had a good walk, having seen new things in area we thought we already knew well!

Birds seen or heard included: Common buzzard, Carrion crow, Raven, Red-billed chough, Meadow pipit, Stonechat, Barn swallow and Common kestrel.

 An fter walk drink was enjoyed at the Blue Bell Inn in Halkyn.