previous day
Day 16
Next morning the views were gone. Once again I awoke with the tent enveloped in thick mist and with rain beating on the roof. I was not tempted into a delayed start however because I was anxious if possible to get off the Aran ridge before setting up camp tonight. I had written in my log last night, while the sun was setting behind the silhouette of the Cadair Idris ridge, that the ideal place to camp would be on Bwlch Sirddyn which is crossed by a right of way and hence, hopefully, exempt from access controversies. This implied a long hard day so I was up and away before 7am.
There were no navigational problems along this ridge because, as the book informed me, there were fences to follow all the way. Waun-oer, with its unusual round trig point, is followed by a sharp drop and reascent to a stile near the summit of Cribin Fawr. Here the book told me to climb over and select the highest tussock but instead I dumped the rucksack and set out for what I predicted to be a two hour diversion to Maesglase. This is a pleasant bit of ridge, quite narrow although not narrow enough to be exciting. These hills lack any cliffs as well so it is perhaps not surprising that they are little visited by hillwalkers. I must confess that whereas I had climbed most of the other big hills in Wales before we obtained the table of two-thousanders these three were not visited until we were ticking off these summits. Moreover I had never visited them again until today when once more it was only to bag them for their altitude. For this reason I was particularly sorry to be doing them in bad weather although sometimes a boring hill seems more impressive in the mist and even today I was getting tantalising glimpses into the valley on the north side of the ridge. Similarly at the summit, the mist was swirling around enough to make the sharp drop ahead quite obvious although I could not see right into the valley.
I arrived back at the rucksack ten minutes ahead of the estimate, climbed the stile and selected an appropriate tussock. I was no longer on the book route but a bearing on the fence suggested that it would probably lead to Ochr y Bwlch and so it did although its line became too steep to follow with comfort and I eventually picked up the track which takes an easier zigzag course to the same goal.
On the far side of the main road was a welcoming stile with no unfriendly notices about keeping to permissive paths. Somewhat less welcome was the gradient of the grassy hill ahead with no sign of a path. It reminded me of the brutal direct ascent from Dunmail Raise onto Steel Fell which I had once done on a watershed traverse east to west across the Lake District. As I struggled up onto the flatter ridge above the mist was dispersing and by the time I reached the insignificant grassy outlier, Pen y Bryn-fforchog, it was a clear and sunny day.
The clear conditions were certainly an advantage in picking a route across the very rough terrain between this top and the main southern outlier of the Arans, Glasgwm. This end of the ridge must be little visited and is boggy and for the most part trackless. What tracks there are seem to be used more by sheep than humans for they seldom persist far in a useful direction for progress up the hill. Yet the area is quite attractive with outcrops of rock and heather; another unspoilt wilderness of wildness and wet. Forestry lies on the east of the ill- defined ridge hereabouts, yet the forestry too is ill-defined with a ragged border which enhances rather than diminishes the landscape as the ruled edge of regimented conifers would do. I found a sheltered corner amongst rocks by a small stream and enjoyed lunch with a brew up.
Glasgwm has a sizeable tarn, Llyn y Fign, just below the summit and with the good weather now I was able to photograph it with the Maesglase peaks behind, of which I had seen so little when I was on them earlier in the day. There is a substantial drop to the boggy col above Cwm Cywarch where the only right of way crosses the Aran ridge. Here was an array of signposts and a waymarked path leads directly towards the highest summits. However I crossed straight over it and headed directly to Gwaun y Llwyni which lies slightly off the main line of the ridge. From here I continued along the eastern cliff edge to the memorial for a soldier killed by lightning in this vicinity.
Here I had to make a substantial diversion, a drop and reascent of 500 feet or more, to the two irritating and insignificant outliers, Gwaun Lydan and Pen yr Allt Uchaf. When I had written a prologue to this walk I had written in a positive way about these diversions, describing them as 'just enough to emphasise that this is a little more than a simple A to B walk'. I thought ruefully about that remark written in comfort at home and now to be put to the test in the real world on the hill when I was already tired and very much pressed for time.
I knew that there were other walkers about, I had seen one climbing parallel to me on the waymarked path and also seen tiny figures on the skyline higher up the ridge. Yet I also knew that I was desperately short of time both to get to the Milltir Cerrig tomorrow and, more crucial at the moment, to get to a suitable camping area tonight. Hence I took the risk and left the rucksack by the fence close to the memorial. The thought of dragging it back up here again was just too much.
I had only gone down a short distance when ominous black clouds began to gather. I thought of that memorial and the mess which I should be in if a thunderstorm started when I was down much lower with the rucksack abandoned up on the ridge. But I did not turn back and was lucky because the clouds dropped nothing, instead they gathered as thick mist round the highest summits. There was no mist on my two tops and no difficulty in climbing them, although whether they were worth climbing was another matter. For me of course they were, simply because to omit them would have destroyed my walk. As I climbed back up I met a couple who asked me if it was my rucksack. They were wondering if somebody had fallen over the edge!
The three highest tops were now in mist but the rocky scramble up to the trig point on the highest summit, Aran Fawddwy, was still enjoyable. Once again the book description was invaluable in confirming my arrival at the summit of the most northerly two- thousander on the ridge, Aran Benlynn, where I turned round and retraced my steps until I could just see the cairn on Erw y Ddafad-ddu looming out of the mist again whereupon I turned sharp left and downwards and very soon dropped out of the mist to see Craiglyn Dyfi below. I must admit that the awareness of my trespass added a certain frisson to this lovely descent.
A picture seemed called for but I did not stop long as I wanted to traverse Foel Hafod-fynydd and find a campsite before night fell. I was nearly down onto Bwlch Sirddyn before I found a trickle of water and what looked like a fairly flat spot amongst sheep pastures. It turned out to be far from flat and was a very uncomfortable site but at 8pm with dusk rapidly approaching I had little choice. The discomfort was assuaged by a good deal of satisfaction with this long hard day and I was now fairly confident that I would make it to the Milltir Cerrig before nightfall tomorrow.
next day
Across the Dragon's Back index . . . . . . Welsh Marilyn index . . . . . . my homepage . . . . . . GeoCities Yosemite 1