Our Village

Our village is in the Nantlle Valley, and it is just on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park, we have the Nantlle mountain range on the south side and hills on the north, at the top end of the valley is Mt Snowdon it's self, and finally on the west side we have the sea!
 On the edge of the village we are lucky enough to have a large lake, that once upon a time was a huge quarry, but is has been filled in and landscaped for the enjoyment of our village and the surrounding villages also!
Here is a wonderful aerial photograph of the whole of the Nantlle Valley, with our village just at the bottom of the photo, and the beautiful  Mt Snowdon at the top!!

As you can imagine our village has a jackpot view of the whole of the surrounding area, right down the valley to Mt Snowdon, there are lots of walks leading from the village as well, that takes us up high onto the Nantlle ridge, and if you are feeling really adventurous, you can walk the whole length of the ridge, 15miles in all, but take some advice, the best thing to do is come with friends and bring 2 cars, drive to one end of the ridge, and leave a car there, then drive back to the other end to start your walk, that way after doing 15 miles you won't have to turn round and do it all again in the opposite direction!!!!! 30 miles is a long long walk!!!!lolololololol.
The views from the top of the Ridge truely do take your breath away, on a clear day you can see Ireland, The Ilse of Man, and some of the mountains in the Lake District!!!

Here we are on the far side of the lake looking back towards our village, very few people know we are here, and even less know what fabulous views we all enjoy!!!

 Another view from the other side of the lake,
as you can see it's a very pretty place to live.

We have spent many happy hours walking round here with our dogs, sitting on one of the benches and have enjoyed having a chat with some of the other villagers out for a walk.

 Our view from the garden, looking towards The Nantlle Ridge, as you can see we are up on a hillside so the views are spectacular, and every day it looks totally different with the light and shade, as I said there are lots of walks leading from the village.

A beautiful Place!

Well good day to everyone, I hope all the snow has disappeared for you, it rained all day yesterday and all night, and this morning the snow and ice has vanished!!! no one would ever think that 2 days ago we had 4 ft snowdrifts and couldn't get out of our village!!
But anyway I want to take you to a truely beautiful place today, and the only place you will be walking around is a garden!!
It's called Bodnant Gardens, and it is truely heavenly! Not far from here,  Caernarfon, only about 3/4 of hour away, but well worth the travel time, it is a place not to be missed, especially in the months of May and June, thats when all the Azalea's and Rhododendron are in bloom!
Just come and have a look!

 Look at the wonderful colours here in this first photo, the first time we came to Bodnant we couldn't believe our eyes at the sheer beauty of it all, there are acres of gardens, a wonderful pond full of the most gorgeous waterlillies you could ever imagine, but I will show you those later.

See how vibrant the colours are, these are Azalea's in these two photos, and as you can see the colours simply glow!!!

There is a walk way that is like a terrace, and along there are a couple of viewing places where you can sit  and look down into this small valley, what it lacks in size it surely makes up for in glorious colour!!
As you walk along the top terrace you come to a path that takes you down into the valley so you can see a wonderful waterfall and a path follows the rivers all the way through it!! Plenty of places to sit and enjoy the lovely surroundings.

As we walked along one of the many paths in the grounds I couldn't help notice all these blossoms that had fallen off a Rhododendron, making for a really pretty carpet of petals.

I can't think of enough adjectives that will do this garden justice, it is a place we find ourselves coming back to time and time again, and never tiring of it!

Just one perfect spray of blossom from a Rhododendron.

This Rhododendron was around 15 ft high, and just as wide, a solid wall of amazing colour!!!

You would think that putting all these different colours together would just make a terrible clash wouldn't you, but No! they look fantastic!

If you do come to visit North Wales in the spring, whether it is for a long weekend or a full week, make a point of paying Bodnant Gardens a visit, it is a must see, from the wonderful Laburnum arch to the pond terrace with trees that are hundreds of yrs old,to the spectacular river valley, you will be glad you did.

I always envy the people who have never been to Bodnant before, you can hear them oh-ing and ah-ing as each corner gives them yet another surprise, or opens up a beautiful vista to feast their eyes on.
You never know we just might see you there!

The Miners Track on Mt Snowdon

Hello, do you fancy taking a walk on the miners track on Mt Snowdon??? ok then!
This is the the easiest of all the paths that you can walk up Mt Snowdon, until it joins up with the Pyg Track, which more or less runs with the Miners track but higher up the mountainside.
The Miners Track finishes at the base of Mt Snowdon, and so then you have a scramble to get up and join the Pyg Track.
Once up there, you are more lightly to get low cloud, heavy mist, that you can't see through, and you could easiely lose your way, just like we did once!!! and we really didn't know which way to turn, we heard voices and thought we would follow their sound, but we ended up right on the edge of the mountainside, with hundreds of feet sheer drop off the edge to the last of the lakes at the base of Mt Snowdon, not a nice way to go!!lolololol. luckily we had brought a compass and map of the paths and we managed to find our way back onto the Pyg track, and our way to the summit, but the cloud and mist was so dense that we couldn't see anything!!!lolol, but we did enjoy a cuppa in the cafe up there and a well earned sit down in the warm, the higher you go the colder it gets, so always carry another layer of clothing with you in your backpack!!! the sun may be shining and warm on the ground, but 3,560ft (1085metres)) high on a mountain it can get very cold and windy.

 This is the start of the Miners Track, looking back to the car park at the top of Peny y pass.

Within a few minutes of walking you feel like you are the only people on the planet, the air feels different, tastes different, and we were lucky that it was a reasonably clear day to enjoy the fantastic views!!!

After a while you come to the first of the lakes, or Cwm, and you can see all the way around where you are going to walk the path disappears around the corner of that hill towards the left of the photo.

 Anyone that has seen the James Bond film, "The World is no Enough" will recognise this pipeline, it runs down the side of Snowdon, it's the pipe that James Bond escapes in, he slid all the way down the inside of it!! ((well not really,lololol, but in the film he did!))

Nearly halfway on the Miners Track and you come to the middle lake, ((Cwm, I'm sorry I cannot remember their names at the moment) and the miners built a long stone causway across it, as you can see in the photo below.

Looking back across the causway .

Once round the corner of the lake, the track alters quite dramatically, from reasonably smooth and easy walking to a very ruggard path made of large stones, this is where your walking boots start to come into their own, trainers won't stop you getting a broken ankle on here if you slip, your ankles need support, sorry if I sound as though I am telling what you should do, but I am only trying to help you have the most enjoyable time possible, with no accidents.




The next time we attempted to get to the top of Mt Snowdon we made it, luckily we chose a day where the weather was good clear and suuny, and it stayed that way nearly all day!!!

This is the path you have to climb to reach the Pyg Track, it's a bit of a hard slog, but the views as you climb are well worth it!!

Once you join the Pyg Track and look back you can see the long long path you have walked along, but come on, we haven't finshed yet, theres still a long way to go before we reach the top!!!!

As you can see the paths gets a lot of wear, more than a million people a year go up Mt Snowdon, and the paths get worn, but since we were last up there they have built much better paths I think!

Oh wow!!!!! just look at that view!!!! standing there looking across that valley, makes your heart sing, it is just so very very beautiful!!! there isn't a feeling in the world to match it!! it is so exhilarating.

Suddenly, as we reached the marker that tells you you are at the end of the pyg Track, the mist came down, but thankfully it didn't stay for very long, it was a little bit breezy up there and it soon dispersed!!

Once you reach the top of the Pyg Track you join the Llanberis Track, along which the mountain railway runs.

After one last short climb the summit is in view,

 And it seems as if you can see for Ever!!!!!!!!!!

Well done!!!! you've made it to what feels like the top of the world!!!!!!
 Croeso i Cymru , Welcome to Wales!!!!!

I've added this small map as I thought it might be of some use to you,
1, The Llanberis Path

2, The Pyg Track

3, The Miners Track

4, The Watkin Path

5, Rhydd Ddu Path

6, The Snowdon Path

7, The Snowdon Horseshoe Path.

There are lots of other beaches like Dinas Dinlle that are just right for relaxing, but there are other beaches that have marinas for the more adventurous who have a love of sailing.
I will take you to as many as I can in the coming weeks and months.

Today I want to show you a spectacular walk, it is a walk in one of the most beautiful valleys left behind from the ice age, it looks as if it has been scooped out by a giant hand, leaving mountains and hills all around a lovely Cwm, (lake!)
2 thirds of the way round the lake there is an opening in the base of the mountains, it's more like a large deep crack, and you can climb up in it to the top and it's called The Devils Kitchen, but be warned everyone, if you venture up the hills and mountains of  Snowdonia, you must wear proper footwear, although there are lot of pathways, most of them are made of large stones and rocks, and without the proper walking boots you could easily break an ankle, you must wear the proper gear, and that way you will be safe and be able to enjoy the surrounding countryside in all it's glory!

This is the start of the path that goes all the way round the Cwm ((Lake)) and if you look very carefully at the top right hand side of the picture you can see that deep crack I was telling you about, that is the start of the Devils Kitchen.

Looking back to the path that leads you into the valley.

This is about the halfway mark, and on a hot sunny afternoon we were very grateful to be able to sit in the shade and admire the fantastic view!! and see just how far we had walked.

Nearly back to the beginning of the path, and No! we didn't venture up into the Devils Kitchen, lololol, perhaps another time. This is the far end of the Cwm (Lake) you can see in the picture above.

Another view of the hills and mountains surrounding the Cwm, absolutely stunning!

And a wayside marker telling you just exactly where you are and some very interesting details.

Dinas Dinlle Beach

Here is our beautiful local beach, the water is first class, clean and safe, and there are miles of soft clean sand as well, never over crowded, a place to come and relax!

We also have some pretty spectacular sunsets too, people come and sit on the seats all along the beach waiting to watch the sunset, they are rarely disappointed!

There times when we have gone to the beach and find we have the whole of it all to ourselves, it's wonderful.

Take a walk with me!