Wales - 2015
12 September 2015 ........... Around the Afon Anafon
The Afon Anofon is a small river that flows out of Llyn Anafon and runs northwest through a steeply sided valley down to the sea at Abergwyngregyn.
Llyn Anafon is a small loch sitting in a natural hollow surrounded by hills that are really the northen end of the Carneddau - Foel-fras, the most northerly furth, is just a couple of kilometres to the south of the loch.
There are two interesting tracks that lead off from the top of the small public road above Abergwyngregyn - the first one stays low down but somewhat above the river, and the other one to the east heads around or over some of the hills to the east of the valley.
This trip wasn`t really planned, it was somewhat impulsive and I didn`t set out until late afternoon, with the weather slowly deteriorating - with a bit more planning I would have chosen a different route.
I headed up the lower track above the river - this is looking up the track from maybe a kilometre or so after the start - you can see the track heading away up and round up to Llyn Anafon, Druim is just out of sight off the right hand edge of the picture.
Down by the river there are some amazing sheep pens - although I am not sure if sheep pens is the right words to use, it doesn`t sound very welsh !
About two thirds of the way up the track I could see a place where I could cross the river, and headed up towards some very prominent crags above me - I thought I might see if I could get up to Llwytmor, but I didn`t ever get there.
It was hard going with quite thick vegetation, very wet, and quite steep - my footwear was not the best - this was definitely boots and gaiters country, and I didn`t have them.
However after a surprisingly long time I did eventually get up to the crags where the walking does get a bit easier.
Time for tea.
Heavy cloud was building up above me, and the odd spot of rain was felt - it had taken me a lot longer to get up to the crags than I thought it would, so I abandoned any thought of continuing up to Llwytmor. However I did get up to the next set of crags, and took some pictures - and as it turned out, the weather started to improve again, and sun came out to play, although somewhat intermittently.
A rather grey looking Penmon and Puffin Island.
Looking down on the quite distinctive lower set of crags just catching the sun, with Penmaen Mawr in the background - the quarry seems to have created quite a hole in Penmaen Mawr - I don`t know if the quarry is still working or not.
The crags are actually quite large, they stretch down the hillside for quite a way, and would have supplied a bit of scrambling fun if I had had more time to go and play.
The sunshine has now spread across to Great Orme, Llandudno, and Little Orme.
Having decided that I didn`t have time to go up to Llwytmor, it was time to head back down, and as I didn`t fancy going back the way I had come, I headed down a sort of shoulder below the crags, and down to Llyn Anafon to pick up the start of the track.
Looking down on Llyn Anafon, you can just see the start of the track heading away down - you can also just make out a bit of the upper track just below the skyline - according to the OS map, the track goes all the way to the top of Druim, which is just around to the right but out of shot.
I don`t know for certain, I think that Llyn Anafon was originally a natural loch, but there is now a low dam around it - the overflow has got a rather nice staircase.
Time to head back down the track - but after half a kilometre or so I was getting frustrated - it was obviously going to be a good sunset, and I was going to be deep down in the valley and not would not be able to see any of it.
Grrrr !
So I began to scheme - did I have enough time to climb up to the upper track and come back down that way instead, and be able to watch the sunset - I looked at the time - exactly one hour of daylight left.
Can I ?
Should I ?
I`m going for it - it took me fourteen minutes to get from the lower track to the upper track - here it is - and ahead of me is Pen Bryn-du, then Foel-ganol, and the un-named summit at the far end of the ridge.
45 minutes of daylight left - walking is too slow - time to do some jogging - not that I am good at jogging, it hurts.
However it was worth all the effort, as I could watch the sun beggining to set.
However before the next picture, a wee word about my camera, which is a mid range compact with quite a good zoom, but not much else to recommend it.
One of its characteristics is that it can only handle a limited range of light levels, and it has an auto exposure - so if you point it at the sun, it just closes down the aperture, and the rest of the world looks black - even though it is daylight.
I can actually use this to produce some quite good sunset pictures, and here is the first one of this trip -
The track heads off to the east of the next summit, Pen Bryn-du, and I knew that if I followed the track I would lose the view of the sun - so I left the track and headed up to the top of Pen Bryn-du - this is looking across to Foel-ganol - on the left you can see a wee bit of the lower track way down in the valley as it is climbs around the side of Foel-ganol.
Up on Foel-ganol now, and the sun is getting lower -
Can`t stop for too long, and down and up to the last, un-named, summit - and a whole mass of cloud has appeared, and is almost obscuring the sun.
However a gap just allows me to see a wee bit of a huge orange ball as it starts to descend below the horizon -
Slowly it sinks down until just the last bit is left, and then it was gone -
Now normally that would be the end of the web page, but not this time - this trip had another unexpected turn.
After watching the sun finally set, I had packed up and put away my camera, and was all set to head off down - I had to move fast, because at this time of year the darkness comes very quickly after the sunset - but I just happened to look off to the side and saw - through a gap in the neighbouring hills - away down the Lleyn Peninsula - the very distinctive shape of Yr Eifl. I really didn`t expect to see Yr Eifl from a hill above Abergwyngregyn.
Amazing !
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