A week in Wales

We set out early after work hoping to miss the bank holiday rush into Wales along the A55, but sadly no matter how early you seem to leave the queues seem to beat you, but after a three hour journey that is normally two, we arrived at our park up for the night, a layby at the side of Llyn Ogwyn. This is a great spot right by the lake popular with campers to overnight before a walk into the mountains. We had a quiet night and as the layby slowly filled up during the evening.

In the morning with good weather we decided to walk up the steep slope to the summit of Pen yr Ole Wen and the Carnedd circuit. A circuit that includes Pen Yr Ole Wen, Carnedd Dafydd and Carnedd Lewelyn.

This route should be know as the giants staircase. It rises almost vertically up steep steps, scree and short climbs taking you to the top of Pen yr Ole Wen, the seventh highest peak in Wales. This is a hard route as every step is upwards. However when you get to the top you are already at 978m. The path then drops back down through a small saddle and climbs again, this time to the summit of Carnedd Dafydd, at 1044m the fourth highest peak in Wales. Again the route drops back down before re ascending this time to the summit of Carnedd Llewelyn, at 1064m the third highest peak in Wales. The walk between the peaks is relatively uninspiring but does offer you some fantastic views of Tryfan, the Glyders and Mt Snowdon beyond.

From the summit of Carnedd Llewelyn the path takes a couple of steep decents over Penywaun-wen and Bwlch Ery Farchog before passing Ffynnon Llugwy Reservoir and meeting up with the reservoir track and back down to the main road where we joined the Snowdonia Slate Trail back to the camper. The route is around 13 miles long and covers a combined ascent of over 900m. Needless to say we were glad to be back at the camper and an early night was had by us all.

The next day as the weather wasn’t great we decided to drive over to Anglesey and walk through the Newborough National Nature Reserve and Forest. As we drove over the heavens emptied what rain they were holding in a heavy shower, but once at Newborough the sun came out and stayed with us for the rest of the day

We walked from the main road car park through the woods down to the beach where we explored the ruins of St Dwynwen’s church on Llanddwyn Island, once one of the wealthiest churches on Anglesey until King Henry the 8ths split with the Catholic church. There is also what’s left of the Twr Mawr Lighthouse on Llanddwyn. Either side of the island are Llanddwyn and Malltraeth beach, both stunning long strips of sand. We returned back to the camper through the forest the way we had come, a round trip of about 8 miles. That evening we drove into Llangefni and found a quiet spot to park up for the night away from the traffic.

The reason for heading to Llangefni was to visit the Dingle Nature Reserve, a small section of woodland that extends almost to the middle of the town. With easy parking and a flat wooden walkway the nature reserve offers great access to all ability groups, and probably the best chance of seeing a native red squirrel anywhere in Wales. Each time we have visited we have seen the red squirrels up close as they are used to people coming to bring them nuts (no peanuts please, the are poisonous to the reds!)

Passing through the Dingle wood the path takes you up and around the Cefni Reservoir, another lovely walk, part through open countryside and part through woods, the path skirts the reservoir and brings you back out to the dam where you started. We then retraced our steps back through the dingle wood for more red squirrel encounters before returning to the camper.

As the weather was so good we decided to try our luck at spotting a puffin or two as May was the perfect month to see them breeding around Anglesey. We drove up to south Stack Cliffs, but even though the sun was out the wind was howling in from the Irish sea. However armed with our binoculars we followed the many steps down to the South Stack Lighthouse from where you can look back onto the cliffs and the puffin burrows. This area was once home to a large colony of breeding puffins but due to an infestation of rats the puffin numbers dropped significantly. Now the rats have been eradicated from the area puffins are returning but sadly still only in small numbers. We were in luck though and did get to see a couple of puffins mixed in with the many thousands of other nesting sea birds. With their red bills and feet they do stand out amongst the others. (sorry about the poor quality photo, it was a long way off, better through the binoculars.

in the evening we drove via a quick visit to Holyhead beach over to a small farm aire located just outside of Amlwch which has five camper spots per night. For only £10 we got a lovely welcome from the owner, a slate shingle, flat, level pitch for the night with a sea view (just) and the opportunity to empty the grey and black water and fill up our fresh water tank. A lovely quiet night despite the weather closing in a little. You can either chance your luck and turn up or ring in advance and pre book, follow their Facebook link for more details https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083276915848

We were greeted the following morning with drizzle, mist and low cloud. Not letting this put us off we drove the short distance over to Parys Mountain, not actually a mountain at only 150m high, but the site of a large disused copper mine, famous in Wales as it was once Europes biggest in its heyday and now a heavily polluted other worldly landscape. A mix of sulphourus yellows and iron oxide reds and browns, the whole landscape looks like the earth turned inside out! Its worth a visit if you are passing, if not just to remind you what large scale mining does to a landscape. Imagine this against some of the worlds largest lithium mines that produce over 15 times anually the ore that Parys Mountain produced in its entire 150 years!

Following Parys mountain we had a short drive over to Port Amlwch to wash the dogs off in the sea, there is a great slipway that in the harbour that gives you access to thee water. Here we found our park up for the night, right above the boats on the harbour side.

On our final full day we decided to return to the Newborough Nature Reserve as it again was dry and the dogs love bouncing through the undergrowth in the woods. We parked up on the free car park near the main road and walked for about 7 miles through the wood, occasionally getting lost on the smaller paths. Its a surprisingly big area to explore and a mix of quite open woodland with some areas that are filled with saplings and brambles. There are also a mixture of good wide paths and also smaller trails branching off into the thicker wood.

Finally we returned to the Ogwyn valley and parked up in the lay-by by the lake as we were planning to walk up another few mountains in the morning, however the camper was kept rocking all night as strong winds picked up through the night. By the morning we decided it wouldn't be much fun (or safe) walking up the mountains in high winds and low cloud so we headed for the beach on the way home. We stopped at Deganwy beach as this is on of the few beaches along the area around Llandudno that allows dogs on the sand in the summer, its actually a massive sandy beach when the tide is out, but you have to be careful as the incoming tide returns quickly and can cut you off on sandbanks, so there are strategically placed refuge pontoons that you can climb onto just in case you do get trapped. From Deganwy we returned home, ending another great camper adventure.