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Last night's meal was fantastic, at a Welsh tapas restaurant called Olif where everything in the recipes is sourced in Wales. That included the chorizo! Highly recommended if you're in Betws, as is the Alpine Coffee House.
Today was definitely a day of two contrasting halves in terms of scenery. The morning was a stroll along the north bank of the Llugwy river from Betws to the Ugly House (if you know it you'll understand). It's a superb stretch of path along a dramatic valley (trees, trees and more trees) and very peaceful despite the A5 being on the other side. We were even able to get a good look at the Swallow Falls without the ridiculous entrance fee you have to pay if you enter through the gate on the south bank (yeah, let's stick it to the man!).
I need to eat humble pie at this point. I had always thought that the Ugly House was a gimmicky sort of place where they charged you to have a look at two rooms with crooked walls. How wrong I was, it's a fab little tea room with gardens run by a charity called the Snowdonia Society. I can heartily recommend the citrus sponge cake. And they have compost toilets, pretty rad' huh?
The afternoon was an ascent of Moel Siabod, at 872m the highest point on our walk and surely the least walked of all the 'important' mountains in Snowdonia. I have no idea why. It's a personal favourite and was the first mountain I ever walked up with Jen. Actually that's not strictly true, I took her up via a ridge scramble rather than a walk but she didn't finish with me so it couldn't have been that bad!
The views were superb as ever, despite cloud over the highest peaks. Arenig Fawr might have the best views of Snowdonia as a whole, but Siabod has the best views of the biggies. After 10 minutes of drizzle when we set off this morning the weather had improved dramatically, and the views were excellent. From the summit we could clearly see Moel Famau, just a few miles from home, in the far distance, where we had been only three days before, and in the other direction we could see the headland south of Abersoch where we'll be four days from now!
The descent to Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel was pretty tough as there is no path, so there was lots of tussock hopping to avoid the bogs. It did though mean that we could head downhill directly towards the door of the hotel. We were harassed by a mountain rescue helicopter on several occasions on the way down, either they thought we needed help or they were bored, it was hard to tell.
Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel is pretty iconic in Snowdonia, being as it is on its own at the base of Snowdon, and it was also the base for preparations for the Everest expedition in 1953. It looks and feels unlike any other hotel I've been to, full of climbing memorabilia and brilliant photos of the Everest expedition group. Dinner was announced by a gong, and we all filed into the 1930s dining room together for our 3 course meal. Our room is fantastic too, with a balcony and the option of a sauna (somewhere in the garden apparently!) if we want one.
Oh and we reached the 50 mile mark today, nearly half way to Aberdaron!
-- Posted from Kev's iPhone
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