The Green Desert.

With the forecast being dire for Sunday but nice for today it was decided to have the group walk today. It was nice and sunny down here at the coast while up in the hills it was dry but a lot cooler.

I say hills but our walk today took us across the spine of the Cambrian mountains, a good 1700 ft up.

It was nearly an hour's drive to get there but I could relax as I had a lift with J in her comfortable car. We met the rest of the group (there were only five of us today) in Ffair Rhos and then drove in convoy to the same spot we parked at the time we went to Teifi Pools. That time our route had taken us down the track and round the reservoir but today we walked eastwards over the mountain tops and many very wet bogs.

The big reservoirs were created by damming the valleys where there were existing smaller lakes but a number of these lakes or tarns still remain.

Our initial destination was Claerddu Bothy A bothy is a basic shelter with a fireplace, sleeping platforms and a toilet where outdoor users can stay for free. We were hoping that if there was some wood (since we'd forgotten to bring any) we could have a brew up. I had brought my collapsible camping kettle and an assortment of tea bags, P provided bottled water and D had some spare cups. But when we got there we saw 3 tents outside and people in the bothy. A lad sitting on the steps told us he was part of a group of 16 and there had been 2 more the night before. A fire was burning merrily in the fireplace, towels and feet drying so we decided to leave them all to enjoy their break and carried on across the wilderness.

For once we didn't have a set route planned just followed the Cambrian Way up to a high point where we stopped to eat our lunch.

From there we left the track to swing round in an arc to bring us back to the cars.

We passed several small lakes reflecting the clouds in their still surfaces.

And walked through very wet bogs where it was a matter of looking for the thickest clumps of grass to step on hoping that our feet didn't sink down too far.

It's a good thing we weren't out any longer as the light was going and it was getting much colder.

We were out for several hours and according to J's app we walked just four miles. But what a four miles, either up the sides of steep slopes or through difficult terrain which was hard on the ankles. I might need a day off tomorrow. 

 

The first part of our route was from the out of sight cars in the centre to the bothy and then off to the left. Our return  was along either of the two ridges on the right, I'm not sure which.

PS Loading photos returned to normal after just one day.  I don't know what was going on with Blogger but it's a relief to do all the photos in one go.