#rhinogs

Hills included on this walk: Craig y Grut - Llawlech (Dewey), Mynydd Egryn (Dewey) Date: 2/3/2013 Distance: 19.8 km Ascent: 731m It's been a good couple of years since we've been to the Rhinogs and had one of the best mountain days ever on Rhinog Fawr so I've been itching to get back to this relatively unknown welsh wilderness. As I would also like to try my hand at more multi day trips and lead on to a long distance trail, plans have been made for a walk at the end of March which will follow the Taith Ardudwy way from Llandecwyn to Barmouth. This 41 kilometre walk will take in the upland area east of the main Rhinog mountains and hopefully give us an opportunity to add a couple of the lower hills in the range. Having never walked this distance in a weekend I figured a couple of training walks would be good so why not check out a section of the Taith Ardudwy while we're at it?

We started off with a visit to the beach at Barmouth catching a few rays and enjoying the waves crashing in at high tide before parking up at Tal y Bont to start the walk.

Waves crashing against the sea wall at Barmouth Beach

Fiona in her natural element

The free car park was right next to the start of the walk so we quickly picked up the path which meanders along side the Afon Ysgethin through deciduous woods until it reaches the tree line.  From here we crossed Pont Fadog and followed a track uphill towards Llyn Erddyn. It was just after the bridge that we saw the first waymarks for the Taith Ardudwy.

Woodland walk along Afon Ysgethin

Pont Fadog

Moelfre

Taith Ardudwy waymarker

We followed the Taith Ardudwy past Llyn Erddwyn looking up at the cliffs of Llawlech, our intended high point of the day.  Here the path forks and we left the Taith which continues left over Pont Scethin and followed a trail up to the summit of Craig y Grut. It's a trail that is used extensively by mountain bikers and we saw quite a few rattling down the hill.

Llyn Erddyn

Llawlech

Looking South to Cadair Idris from one of the cairns on the way up to Craig y Gruts summit.  Perfect lunch spot!

Craig y Grut stone pillar marking the summit - pretty unmistakable really!

Looking east towards Diffws from Craig y Grut - the wall remained our constant partner on this ridge

After soaking up the views and a quick con flab we decided to continue along the ridge to Mynydd Egrwyn.  Initially an easy walk down to Bwlch y Rhiwgyr before a steep pull up towards the summit.  This was made more interesting by the fact that we chose to follow the wrong side of the wall.  A few climbing antics and compromising positions rectified that and we were back on track.  As it had been relatively dry we weren't faced with too much gelatinous bog so the going was relatively easy.

Looking North East from Mynydd Egryn to Craig y Grut and Diffws

South to Cadair Idris and the Mawddach estuary

So far so good! We set off in high spirits to pick up our route back towards Tal y Bont, undecided at this stage whether to continue on the upland or drop down to the coast.  Initially we'd been toying with the idea of walking down to Llanaber and picking up the coastal path North however I made a bit of a school girl navigational error and didn't interpret the contour lines correctly resulting in a truly interesting, ankle wrecking  descent down Bwlch Cwmmaria. I once knew a bwlch named Maria.... Luckily there was a handy wall to grab hold of but the track was non existent, completely overgrown with heather and gorse up to our waists and no way of seeing what you were putting your feet on. But we made it down, joy! Oh no, I've led us in to a bog... Oh well, we hopped from heather to tussock to rock (I fell heavily on a slab and gave myself a corker of a bruise) and finally regained a trail.  A little more bog hopping and stream crossings before reaching the Taith Egryn.  This trail is named after Egryn Abbey which sits nestled just inland from the sea. Right now a clearly waymarked path seemed like a good idea so we followed it down to the A496.

Cairn circle on the Taith Egryn