At last! A walk!
Jul. 29th, 2024 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heleninwalesAfter postponing all week due to poor weather or having commitments I didn't want give up, we finally got our walk yesterday, i.e. Sunday. I'd actually been looking back at my LJ posts from last year and realised that though we've walked in the woods at Abergwynant quite a few times, I hadn't seen the owl sculpture since last year.
First I drove us to Penmaenpool where I managed to get a parking space on the shady side of the car park. We then walked along the Mawddach Trail to the gate into the woods. To our surprise, there was an event using the trail, so that gave me my weekly photo.
I thought I would struggle to find a photo for this theme because there are no events in town this week, but by great good fortune we discovered that our walk yesterday was following part of the ultra-marathon route. This part is level, but we later saw markers up in the wood on narrow twisty paths and steep ups and downs. Somewhere I would not like to run.
Quote from their website: "Ultra X Wales is a multi-stage ultra-marathon that takes place over two days around southern Snowdonia in western Wales. It offers three races; Ultra X 110 Wales, Ultra X 50 Wales & Ultra X 25 Wales. The course takes participants on looped courses starting and finishing in the event campsite, following a number of famous trails and stunning ridgelines, bagging several of the highest peaks in South Snowdonia." https://ultra-x.co/wales/
The weather was hot, so it was lovely to walk in the shade. Here are the steps up into the heart of the wood.
One of the broader paths through the steep woodland. The trees are growing on a steep hillside, so none of it is level, unless a path follows the contours for a while.
The woods are cool and damp, even in hot weather and ferns and lichens grow well.
There are a few wooden carvings dotted around the woods. Here is a large frog surveying his pond.
A bench with a view. One of the viewpoints in the woods.
It is an nformative bench. The carvings on the bench show the distant mountain and the names of the significant points.
And here's another bench, this time with owls.
On a hot day, these woods are still pleasant to walk in. We didn't see a soul all the time we were in the woods, whereas when we returned to the Mawddach Trail it was very busy with walkers and cyclists.
On the way back down to the Mawddach Trail we came across another part of the UltraXperience marathon route.
Back on the Mawddach Trail and not far from the car park. Cows on the move! The tide is out, but I'm not sure whether this herd of cows is supposed to be wandering around on the sandbanks and crossing the channels of the river. Here the matriarch (clearly in charge) is looking back as if to say, "Are you all following me?"
Reassured that the herd is following on behind, lead cow strides out for pastures new.
Finally we walked back along the popular trail to the car park and thence home --- where we found our neighbour struggling to assemble a new lawnmower. She had got most of it done, but couldn't fix the handle in place. So we stopped to help and we struggled and struggled and couldn't get the nut tightened on the screw shaft. I went got some oil, which helped a lot, but it still wasn't working as a vital piece didn't want to fit in a hole it was meant to fit in.
And then, at the point where it seemed impossible, I read the instructions and saw we had the vital piece the wrong way round. We must have struggled for at least 20 minutes and I don't know how long our neighbour had been struggling before we came along, but if someone gave us one to assemble tomorrow, we'd have it done in five minutes. So the moral of this story is, even if it seems obvious how something goes together read the instructions, or as we used to say RTFM!
First I drove us to Penmaenpool where I managed to get a parking space on the shady side of the car park. We then walked along the Mawddach Trail to the gate into the woods. To our surprise, there was an event using the trail, so that gave me my weekly photo.
I thought I would struggle to find a photo for this theme because there are no events in town this week, but by great good fortune we discovered that our walk yesterday was following part of the ultra-marathon route. This part is level, but we later saw markers up in the wood on narrow twisty paths and steep ups and downs. Somewhere I would not like to run.
Quote from their website: "Ultra X Wales is a multi-stage ultra-marathon that takes place over two days around southern Snowdonia in western Wales. It offers three races; Ultra X 110 Wales, Ultra X 50 Wales & Ultra X 25 Wales. The course takes participants on looped courses starting and finishing in the event campsite, following a number of famous trails and stunning ridgelines, bagging several of the highest peaks in South Snowdonia." https://ultra-x.co/wales/
The weather was hot, so it was lovely to walk in the shade. Here are the steps up into the heart of the wood.
One of the broader paths through the steep woodland. The trees are growing on a steep hillside, so none of it is level, unless a path follows the contours for a while.
The woods are cool and damp, even in hot weather and ferns and lichens grow well.
There are a few wooden carvings dotted around the woods. Here is a large frog surveying his pond.
A bench with a view. One of the viewpoints in the woods.
It is an nformative bench. The carvings on the bench show the distant mountain and the names of the significant points.
And here's another bench, this time with owls.
On a hot day, these woods are still pleasant to walk in. We didn't see a soul all the time we were in the woods, whereas when we returned to the Mawddach Trail it was very busy with walkers and cyclists.
On the way back down to the Mawddach Trail we came across another part of the UltraXperience marathon route.
Back on the Mawddach Trail and not far from the car park. Cows on the move! The tide is out, but I'm not sure whether this herd of cows is supposed to be wandering around on the sandbanks and crossing the channels of the river. Here the matriarch (clearly in charge) is looking back as if to say, "Are you all following me?"
Reassured that the herd is following on behind, lead cow strides out for pastures new.
Finally we walked back along the popular trail to the car park and thence home --- where we found our neighbour struggling to assemble a new lawnmower. She had got most of it done, but couldn't fix the handle in place. So we stopped to help and we struggled and struggled and couldn't get the nut tightened on the screw shaft. I went got some oil, which helped a lot, but it still wasn't working as a vital piece didn't want to fit in a hole it was meant to fit in.
And then, at the point where it seemed impossible, I read the instructions and saw we had the vital piece the wrong way round. We must have struggled for at least 20 minutes and I don't know how long our neighbour had been struggling before we came along, but if someone gave us one to assemble tomorrow, we'd have it done in five minutes. So the moral of this story is, even if it seems obvious how something goes together read the instructions, or as we used to say RTFM!
