Wales - 2014
25 November 2014 ........... Elidir Fawr and Foel-goch
This was one of these days that didn`t go according to plan - and as it turned out, that was the best bit about it.
I was driving home just before lunchtime, and I realised that it was a very nice day, with excellent visibility, and I really should be doing something constructive with it.
So after a quick lunch, I headed off to do a quickie up to Carnedd Filiast - and by the time I got up to Deiniolen the weather was really warm, so I skipped the boots, and headed of in trainers - it is an easy walk up to Carnedd Filiast.
What a difference not having boots on makes - you can just go so much faster.
It seemed to take me no time at all to get up the road towards the dam, and as I got closer, I reckoned that going up Carnedd Filiast would be a waste of a good afternoon, so I changed the plan - and headed up Elidir Fawr instead.
It was a good move - even by the time I was starting to climb away from the dam, the cloud was arriving on Carnedd Filiast.
Ten minutes later, and it looked like this -
My love affair with climbing mountains in trainers continued all the way up Elidir Fawr - it was just so much faster, and much easier clambering across all the blocks of stone that envelope the whole summit.
When I grow up I want to be a fell runner !
Up on the summit, and it is quite clear that the cloud - it was a big bank of cloud - was coming in from the west - this is looking past the ridge that heads round to Mynydd Perfedd and Carnedd Filiast, and across to the Carneddau - which so far were out of the cloud.
Round to the right, and no sign of the cloud - this is looking across to Foel-goch, then up the ridge to Y Garn, with the rest of the Glyders in the background.
Round a bit more, and I am rather looking into the sun to get this view of Crib Goch, Garnedd Ugain, and the north ridge of the Snowdon block.
Looking past Snowdon, and the sun is having a bit more of an effect on this view of the Eifionydd - Moel Hebog on the left, and the Nanttle Ridge on the right, leading down to Craig Cwm Silyn.
And the big block of cloud trying to push its way in.
So what to do now - the easy and cloud free option was to drop down to Elidir Fach, then on down to the road below the dam.
But I still had plenty of daylight left - and I was getting the impression that the cloud was breaking up a bit - so the more attractive option was to head east down to Bwlch y Brecan, and go and say hello to Foel-goch again.
Foel-goch is a good viewpoint in pretty much all directions, though not really as good as Elidir Fawr - this is looking over to Y Garn - I was really tempted to head over to it, but I worked out that I probably didn`t have enough hours of daylight left to get up to Y Garn, then all the way back to the dam before it got dark.
So sadly I didn`t - as it turned out, I was right, I wouldn`t have had enough daylight.
From Foel-goch, you get an excellent view of the west side of Tryfan -
and also to Glyder Fâch and Glyder Fawr -
This is looking back to Elidir Fawr -
Round a bit to the right, and this is looking northwest from Foel-goch along to Mynydd Perfedd, and Carnedd Filiast right at the back.
It is really surprising how quickly it gets dark at this time of year - even while the sun is still in the sky, the light level is dropping.
By the time I got up to Carnedd Filiast, it was almost sunset - this is looking past Elidir Fawr down the west side of the Lleyn Peninsula to Yr Eifl.
Cup of tea time, and as I watch, the sun is sinking - a long focus view of the sunset behind Yr Eifl - there was a fascinating red flare across Yr Eifl, I don`t know what was causing it, you can just see it in the picture.
Time to head down, and I worked my way down to the road just below the dam. Just as I got to the road, I looked up, and realised there was now a much more splendiferous sunset - and I couldn`t see all of it - I was stuck behind the northwest ridge of Elidir Fawr - very sad !
By the time I got down the road and away from the ridge, the sunset was long gone and it was dark.
But what a superb and totally unexpected afternoon !
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