27 - 30 May - Corris
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Twenty four of us have just returned from what was a memorable weekend in Corris.
First day saw the majority undertaking the Mawddach Trail; this being a nine mile walk from Barmouth to Dolgellau. This took in some beautiful scenery along the estuary. The weather was good to us and we sat in the sun overlooking the estuary - very nice and relaxing. Later we had a pub stop before the final leg back into the town. The first two nights we had communal meals in the mountain centre, thanks to Halina, Helen, Mark and Ursula for cooking the wonderful food for us all. The last night was a communal meal at the Slaters Arms who did a good job of providing us with 24 meals from a tiny kitchen (never before been done) On the last note I am sure all would agree that the centre was great, good facilities, clean, spacious and the best of all the ladies all had a single bed (no bunks) Thanks to all for making it a memorable weekend Paul Click here for photos of the Cadair Idris walk Click here for photos of the Mawddach Trail walk Click here for other photos of the Corris Weekend |
Corris week-end
Friday: It was a dark, gloomy start to the day as I set off for Stockport station.
By the time I had made my way to arrive at Tywyn on the central Wales coast by
early afternoon, the weather had brightened up considerably; and I had a pleasant walk along the beach to Aberdovey and then up to Corris from Machynlleth.
I arrived at the centre to find the group engaged in a hilarious game of ‘guess the name’. Example: ‘left on a jet plane and died on a jet plane’, answers please on a postcard to Joanne (I think it was). Also if you had a blank card you had to sing a song
for the other members of the team to identify the artists; this proved to be not too difficult as it turned out that the answer seemed always to be ‘Take That’.
Saturday I chose a walk with Pete & Helen (thanks guys), distance 9.1/2 miles, rated ‘challenging’ and centred on The Tal-y-llyn railway station at Abergynolwyn. We started off with a stroll through some woodlands thinking that it was rather easy going; but when we had finally climbed to over 600m and disappeared into the clouds, we thought differently. Thanks to Pete’s navigational skills we made it back ok in time for a ride on the railway and refreshments in the station tea shop.
We had an excellent curry meal back at the centre. Various people hurried off to watch a certain footie match at the local pub; they were very quiet when they returned, so we guessed that it had not gone well for the team in red…..
Sunday: I was delighted that, despite the inclement weather, a good number of us had decided to stick with the planned walk up Cadair Idris. Sure enough it was not long before we were engulfed by the mist and rain; but we pressed on ever upwards, or so it seemed, over increasingly difficult terrain before finally reaching the summit.
We huddled together in a stone and slate shelter for lunch with a surprising number of other hardy souls (no, make that ‘mad fools’ or another word beginning with ‘f’). We started back by scrambling down some scree and by the time we realized that we were headed in the wrong direction, it was too late to turn back. So some of us had a pleasant interlude at a hotel by a lake whilst a mini bus was summoned to take the
drivers back to the cars.
Paul had organized a meal for us at the local hostelry and we enjoyed delicious home cooked food washed down with copious amounts of the local ale; an excellent evening all around.
Monday: We split up and made our way back by various routes. I walked on to Barmouth by way of Dollgellau before continuing up the coast to Porthmadog and
finally inland and over the mountains to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
All in all a brilliant few days. Thanks to Paul for organizing it and thanks to all those who led the walks and helped with the excellent meals.
John H