Moel Siabod

We were up just before 08:00 on another lovely morning (although it was supposed to get cloudy later with rain) and ate some cereal in the tent and then read for a while.

We were going to have breakfast at the Pinnacles Cafe in Capel Curig which has a “rush hour” at 09:00, so we waited until 09:30 and packed up everything and left the tent to dry out after last night's condensation, and then parked in the free car park behind Joe Brown's shop.

We found Ralph Johnson plus 4 or 5 others having breakfast there already. Ralph was telling us they had bivvied out last nigh somewhere in Cwm Idwal, although they had neglected to bring enough gear so hadn't had much sleep!

After breakfast, we had a quick look around Joe Browns and managed to get away without spending anything (!) and then drove back a couple of miles towards the camp site to park in the layby by Pony Cyfyng.

We got our boots on and followed the minor road over the bridge and then uphill until it veered off towards a farm with “Private Road” painted in large letters on the tarmac next to “Footpath” pointing towards the obvious signposted ahead.

This path was really nice and continued up the flanks of Moel Siabod until it levelled out and then continued as a rough stony vehicle track passing a few gates then becoming a narrow footpath near a small unnamed lake which was obviously artificial as it had a small rogh dam holding back the water to form the lake.

We followed the path made of waste slate material from nearby quarrying passing spoil heaps and the remains of old buildings and arrived at another small body of water formed in a small slate quarry, again with quite a few remains of old buildings nearby.

It was quite gusty and windy today and had become cloudy as we were walking and we decided to have a break and have lunch in the shelter of a wall formed by old pieces of slate.

As we did this we could see the top of Moel Siabod disappear into the mist along with the ridge of Daear Ddu ahead.

We were planning on a short walk today as the weather was supposed to deteriorate, we wanted to get the tent put away dry and also miss the traffic heading home later in the day. So we finished lunch and then made our way back to the car then pack everything away and head for home.