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.
On the Sunday we woke to rain and gale force winds not very
enticing!! Never the less sixteen of us set off for the Cadair Idris
and a group of six went on a lower level walk organised by Jack. As the
group ascended up Idris the weather got gradually worse with visibility
down to about fifty foot and the wind was really strong. By this time
all of the group was really wet due to the mist. On reaching the summit
some of us did cling on to the trig point to stop us being blown away!
We all had lunch in the 5 star summit hut dreading the return journey.
We was supposed to being undertaking the Mindfford Path Circuit but
unknown to all Chris and Paul had decided secretly to make it a linear
walk, this being where the fun began. We descended by the Fox's Path
which quickly deteriorated into a death defying scree slope!! This gave
several members the chance to show all their free style scree running
talents. The champion of all must have been Peter Nightingale who
started off with an uncontrollable slide which then developed into a
trot, followed by a full scale run and a death defying leap over a four
foot edge. Luckily at this point Peter decided enough was enough and
ending it by landing on his bottom with much nervous laughter and a look
of relief on his face that he had survived! Denise Carter came in
close second as she spent more time on her bottom than on her two feet
and at one point Jackie did join her as a duo. Forgot to mention that
on our ascent we gained two more walkers who asked if they could tag
along. After an arduous descent everyone was relieved to reach the
Gwesty Gwernan pub which was on the other side of the mountain to where
we should have been. lol We then had to get a mini bus to get the
drivers back to the car park at a cost of £2 per person (well worth it)
Quick mention Jack also took a wrong turn, maybe something in the
water!
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
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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