It’s odd how alert one can become, and how threatening otherwise innocent things can feel during the night. At around 02:30, a car pulled-in to the layby in front of our van. Lights on, engine running. Just stayed like that for a good 10-15 mins, then drove off. One’s mind is turning over what to do if they start banging on the van, or shouting or honking their horn. All things that have been experienced by hapless motorhomers stopping overnight away from campsites.
In the morning, we drive through Beddgelert, turning North up towards the Snowdon Ranger Station beside Llyn Cwellyn Here is a car park and a trail (the Snowdon Ranger Trail, obviously!) that leads up Snowdon’s Western side begins from here. Paying for 4 hours of parking, we begin our ascent: it’s a continuous climb, and it’s always steep (ish). We make it past the zig-zags, and slowly make our way above Llyn Ffynnon-y-Gwas, where we watch the tiny (in the distance) Llanberis steam train making it’s way up the Northern ridge to the summit, way above us.
The climb gets much steeper from here, and it still looks quite a long way to the summit. We know we won’t have time to get to the summit & back before the ticket runs out on the van, so we’ll have to save our conquest of Snowdon for another time. [Edit – Sept 2017: Having just climbed Cadair Idris last month, we know we can do Snowdon!]
Heading further North towards Anglesey and keeping an eye open for likely-looking overnight spots, we just happened to come across a small campsite at Waunfawr, with a pub attached: Tafern Snowdonia Parc. And attached to the pub is a brewery – The Snowdonia Brewery, or Bragdy Eryri. Well, it would have been rude not to!
We ate & drank – possibly a little too much, but there was a good range of beers to be tested. Truth be told, not the world’s greatest beer but still a great overnight stop and we had a good night’s sleep.
