September 15, 2008

It is a cloudy and misty morning. It will be the Precipice Walk today. The Precipice Walk is a lowland hiking trail on a steep slope. We drive on the winding narrow road with cat's eyes, J, as usual, at the wheel here in Wales. We make a stop in Dolgellau to shop and eat a simple lunch in a cafe, a ham and cheese sandwich and a salad. The houses in Dolgellau are built, as everywhere else here, of stone. In a bookstore I buy the maps (OL17, OL18, and OL23) covering the Snowdon National Park, and a book about the national park. Maybe good to have, and I collect maps of all the places I have been to.

We drive on to Coed y Groes and park the car in the parking lot where the Precipice Walk begins and ends. After a hundred meters on a road we join a small lane heading through the forest. We follow the lane up to the little lake, Llyn Cynwch, thence on a path up a slope along a hill with a nice view back towards Llyn Cynwch. The haze provides a dreamlike atmosphere. Beautiful stone walls crisscross the landscape. Gorse is flowering. On a good, but wet track, we walk on the slope of a hill and come into a valley (known as a 'cwm' in Wales). This is the 'precipice', the slope is steep and down at the bottom of the cwm a road and a river wind their way through. The path continues on the steep slope. The haze and far-reaching views over the valley and the hills provide interesting light transitions. Rhododendrons grow wild on the slope. Perhaps they think that there are too many rhododendrons because we come across a sign which says "Rhododendron control". Or is it to maintain a good stock of them? When we leave the steep part, a light rain starts to fall. The path takes us around the hill and we reach the other side of Llyn Cynwch lake. Some men sit and fish. We walk along the lake and then we are back to where we started. A short easy hike of five kilometers, but with very nice views from the steep slopes.

In the evening we go to the local pub to eat. The pub has two sections, one to have a beer in, one to eat in. In an anteroom to the dining room we sit down with a beer and study the menu. In the meantime, we talk with the owner. He and his wife took over the pub only six weeks ago. It is nice in local pubs, I hope it will go well for them. "Fish and chips", I must try, with a Smiths beer. After the experience, I think things will be going well for them.

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