Beddgelert to Llyn Dinas

Today was the first day of our holiday off proper, so we nipped ourselves off for the day to Snowdonia. Packedlunchypicnic in hand, we headed to Beddgelert after hearing of a fab walk from our friends H&G a year or so ago.

The walk is dubbed 'Aberglaslyn Gorge & Llyn Dinas walk' - a 6 mile-ish trek along the river, up and over Cwm Bychan, past several old ore transport pylons (once used to move the mined copper off the mountain via cable car buckety things), over the summit of Grib Ddu and down the other side to Llyn Dinas (the lake) with views such as the one in this pic (which is a mix of mountains that form part of Snowdonia, with the dark tip of Mount Snowdon visible slightly to the left at the back (covered mostly by clouds). It was simply beautiful - one of the most memorable and overwhelmingly wonderful things I've ever done and one I will most definately do again.

The weather was glorious and partway up we stopped for a barefootpaddle in the streamy waterfall, giving our feet a much needed rest and finding us the time for a little cuddle in the sun too.

Coming down was a bit tough on the knees and legs, but given the fact I've got thighs and calfs like oak trees I didn't suffer too much so was able to spend a good portion of my time snapping away and filling up my memory card, inbetween lending a gentlemanly helping hand to ladysp33d. We did get lost at the top and we couldn't walk through the 400m disused railway tunnel along the way but the description of the walk we'd read was a few years old and they've tended to several eroded paths during that time and closed the tunnel off (which is a good job because we'd forgotten the torch).

We finished our perfect day off with a short drive into Betws-y-Coed, a meander up the main street and a fish and chips supper shared from the bag, sitting on the rocks by the river. It sounds perfect but if truth be known the chips were crap and soggy, the vinegar was watered down and we couldn't stop doing chip-burps(que the start of a grown-up paddywack).