Wet.

We had a lot of rain in the night after a thunderstorm at bedtime. Today started off hot and muggy but with the possibility of rain later I decided to take a light mac when I went on the walk. A good thing too as for most of the walk a thunderstorm raged overhead.

While we ate our breakfast and listened the The Archers we watched our local lifeboat team up with the Aberdyfi lifeboat for some towing practice.

Today's meet-up point was the car park of The Osprey Centre on the way to Mach so I had no problems with getting there. We didn't go into the centre but headed up the hill through a mature wood. The rain got worse after I had taken the above photo so as well as putting on my mac I put my camera away for safety.

For once our walk was a there and back instead of the usual circular route so the photos are not in true chronological order. Having walked up through a dripping wood we found ourselves on the old turnpike road with excellent drystone walls on either side. It was originally the main road from Aber out to the north of Wales. Looking at historical records I found that the 175 mile road was built in 1770 and had 12 toll booths. The modern road is right down in the valley and has a number of sections where the steep rock face had to be blasted away.

In the rambling garden of a cottage we saw a large group of beehives surrounded by mesh fencing. We wondered why and my guesses were that either it was to make the bees fly up and away from people or else to keep out sheep. Looking on-line I've found that my first suggestion was correct. 

We turned off the turnpike road and went even higher, still with the thunderstorm going on overhead, until we came to a good viewpoint. This would normally have been our lunch spot but it was too wet and exposed for that today. Instead we turned back and ate our lunch standing under some trees.

Looking eastward up the Dyfi vally to Mach.

Looking northwards to Snowdonia.

After a wet walk back we went into The Osprey Centre cafe for refreshments and to dry off.

There they have large screens with live feed from the nests where a wet osprey was keeping her three chicks dry.

You don't have to pay to go in the cafe/ visitors centre, only if you want to walk to the different hides. We went upstairs where there are good views across the wetlands

When I got home Peter said he hadn't heard any thunder though there was some rain.