Snowdon, Welsh Highland Railway and Llangollen Canal, 4 to 8 September
On
Wednesday 4th September we decided to celebrate our 37th wedding
anniversary
by ascending
Snowdon .
Motorcaravanners note: there is good parking right in front of the
station (£7 per day). The plan was to go
up by train and walk down. However, “the
best laid plans of mice and men....” - despite arriving before 10 am, the
earliest available train was 3 pm, and, if you walk up, there is no guarantee
of a seat on the train to come back down. So
instead we decided to see how far we could get under our own steam (!) and
managed two thirds of the 4.5 mile / 1085 metres ascent. The weather was glorious, the views
spectacular and we passed people of all ages on the path (from a baby just a
few months old in a sling to a sprightly lady who must have been nudging 70!)
The
next day we moved on to our final site, stopping off at the small town of Beddgelert North Wales without travelling
on at least one of the railways, so I twisted John's arm (not difficult) to make
the trip. But there was still time for a
cup of coffee and we would recommend Beddgelert Antiques and Tea Rooms (also a
B&B and a licensed evening bistro).
Beware! Beddgelert also has a tempting fudge shop!
The
train journey to Porthmadog was very picturesque. Interesting manoeuvres are necessary at
Porthmadog station, as the Festiniog Railway also uses the station, the line
coming in from a different direction.
The guard warned us that the train would go beyond the station to the
spit of land called The Cob to enable the train to be hauled back into the
station by a diesel engine. On departure, this process had to be reversed. All very
interesting to “my other half”!
On the
return journey, as it was not too cold,
we opted to sit in one of the open carriages and unsurprisingly got covered in
flecks of soot! On passing through one
long tunnel the air became hot and thick with smoke, causing spectacles to
steam up.
On arrival back at Beddgelert we had a snack lunch in the 'van we continued our journey to the Caravan Club Site, Lady Margaret’s Park, at Chirk.
On arrival back at Beddgelert we had a snack lunch in the 'van we continued our journey to the Caravan Club Site, Lady Margaret’s Park, at Chirk.
This
site is highly recommended, although many of the pitches are in shady
dells. It has all the excellent facilities you would
expect and is only a 10 to 15 minute walk into the small town, where there is
everything else you might need. The mainline
railway station, with trains to Chester and Wrexham, for example, is even closer. The site
is located next to the National Trust property, Chirk Castle
On
Friday 6th we paid a quick visit into Chirk before joining the path
by the Llangollen
Canal
Having
had quite an energetic eight days, Saturday 7th was designated a
“day of rest” but it was also lovely to see Chris and Marie, who stopped by to
visit during the morning, as they were in the area.
To sum up, we found some excellent sites and wonderful places and will
do our best to make a follow-up visit.
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