Waterfall Wonderland – 16th November 2012

Walk: 11am to 3pm – 4.6 miles and 880ft of ascent

For the first time this week I dragged myself out of bed when it was still dark – 6:15am, after having been tossing and turning for a good while and then giving up the fight. Donna managed to stay in bed for an hour or so longer, then gave the Kindle a hammering for a further hour or so. We still had quite a bit of kindling leftover, so I set about making a fire out of it in the log burner just to get some early heat into the cottage to fight the frost outside, but all to no avail.

We’d had challenges all week getting fires up and running (and Donna was far more successful than me at it) as the logs and kindle that we’d been keeping in the cottage just never became completely dry – even though we’d kept them in the lounge. Even with almost a third of a box of firelighters my fire died out after a short struggle for life; so back to the storage heater. It’s great to get the cottage for such a good price, but there is a lot to be said for paying more and getting reliable stress free central heating. There’s one thing for sure, the song “I’m a fire starter” clearly wasn’t written about me!

It was a cloudy and dull day as predicted, but just the right temperature for going for a walk. The forecasters had said that the afternoon would be wet, so we headed out in the direction of Betws Y Coed for a relatively short walk to make sure that we didn’t get caught in the heavy rain.

We parked up in the village just over the bridge near the river – a bargain at £2 for 8hrs. The Tongan rugby players were still staying in the Royal Oak, and  three of them were down by the fast flowing water with one of them having his ‘ice bath’ in the water. They play the USA tomorrow in Colwyn Bay before heading to Scotland next week for their game at Murrayfield.

Our route took us along the ‘tourist’ path beside the river for the first mile or so, before the path became more rugged and started to rise up the steep slope above the river. This path continued to rise within the forest, veering left and right as you weaved your way through the trees – including many vast Redwoods that I later read had been planted in 1920.

This wasn’t the easiest walking we’d ever done, it was quite tiring with all the rise and fall, and with much of the route being over wet tree roots and mulch you had all on to keep your balance. Even though it was relatively chilly, the hard work was such that Donna had ‘stripped down’ to just her base layer. After just over 2hrs we reached a brilliant viewpoint above Swallow Falls: and as a bonus there was a bench there to take a break. Not great though was seeing a couple down at the viewing point below the road who flicked their cigarette ends into the river.

After 15 minutes or so we had started to cool down so it was time to set off back. We skirted along the cliff face on the muddy exposed path, then headed uphill towards the single track road that headed back down to Betws Y Coed, my knees were a little sore after the uneven walk up so we decided to use the road all the way back. Just before 3pm we arrived back at the car.

But before we left the village, there was still time to venture to the shops again. There are two Cotswold Outdoor shops in the village, the one entering from the A5 we had always assumed was just a climbing shop, but I had read somewhere that it was also a shop where they sold off a lot of their stock – presumably gear that had just been superseded by a new revision, or sizes that don’t sell well. Anyway, it was like a sweet shop for me, I don’t think I’ve ever tried as many items of clothing on in one shop in my life – I could have spent a fortune.

I did however show ‘some’ restraint, and came out of the shop with just one item. A Marmot Softshell made from Gore Windstopper which was £160 but was on sale for £90, a bargain. I always tend to go back with some outdoor clothing when we’ve been on holiday, but even for me this holiday was a little extreme having already purchased a £215 Rohan coat and some walking trousers and a mid-layer.

Now back to the car, and yes the rain had come whilst we’d been in the shop and we got a bit of a soaking going back to the car. On route out of the village we stopped off at Ty Gwyn as we’d read how good the food was, and I did fancy the Pigs Cheeks – but we were very disappointed at how rude the lady was when we went in.

I asked for a pint of coke and a lime and soda, and although the lady did serve us we found the manner in which she told us that it “wasn’t actually a pub” and that “she didn’t have to serve us” quite rude. We also asked of they were serving food, and she just said that it finished at 2pm and then she walked off.

When she came back we asked what time they started again tonight, and again she just gave us a time; there was no attempt to ask if we planned to come, if we wanted to book a table, just no hospitality at all. So after we finished our drinks we just went on our way and decided not to bother but to eat back at the cottage tonight instead. Our week was now nearly over…