Wales with Ben
Not too long ago, at my grandfathers funeral I discovered that I had a distant cousin on my fathers side that shared the same first name as me, that's right, two Ben Harrington’s, something i’m sure will cause some confusion to anyone trying to build our family tree. So as well as sharing names, we also share interests in photography, and exploring!
We decided to get together and go for a camping trip to Wales, the weather forecast wasn’t looking too grand, so the big hills were off the cards, instead we decided to do things closer to sea level, much closer! We visited Llanddwyn beach on the Isle of Anglesey - my favourite beach.
At the northern end of the beach is the peninsula of Ynys Llanddwyn, which becomes landlocked when the tide is in, we removed our boots and waded across. The peninsula is home to the light beacons of Twr Bach, Twr Mawr, and some pilot cottages, a long time ago the beacons were there to warn ships of land, and the cottages housed the pilots that would navigate the ships through the straight to Bangor. you can see Twr Bach in the opening and top image to this post, alongside a boathouse on the beach.
The island is also home to a heard of horses that graze around the old monastery ruins that are there, this is the second time I have found them there, and they don’t mind you being close. If you are lucky you may also come across some seals in the bay, or on the beaches.
Our next destination was Dinorwic (or Dinorwig) quarry near Llanberis. Back in its heyday during the 1800’s this was one of the largest slate mines in the world, distributing slate all over the globe until its closure in the late 1960’s. Now its just been left to time, overlooking the Snowdon range across the valley.
The upper levels have an abundance of derelict buildings, caves, and pits to explore, all of which are potentially pretty dangerous, so common sense is required if you want to survive your visit. This site is huge, when looking at it from LLanberis, its like mankind has come along and turned the mountainside inside out, you could spend days looking around.
Whilst the upper levels have been abandoned, the lower area is off limits, as its home to the Dinorwig hydroelectric power station, which harnesses energy from water transfer from a nearby reservoir up the hillside.
Our evening was spent eating pizza, and we camped in a nearby campsite along Pen Y Pass, I stayed in my van, and Ben braved the strong winds in one of my tents!
The weather forecast the following day wasn’t much better, showers were due, and we decided to go for a walk along the Afron Llugwy, starting at Betws Y Coed. Here the river has some heavy woodland cover, making it a good activity for a dreary day, and the water passing you by is filtering down from the likes of Moel Siabod, and the Glyders, further upstream and in the winter season the river can get pretty high!
We arrived here pretty early, maybe 6-7am and it was dead quiet, upon our return around lunch time it was heaving with people. Betws is a popular tourist area, so I would highly suggest coming early if you want to do this walk!
So with that came the end to our Welsh weekend, and a sad return to reality..
