The Ham Nomads

13 May 2014. <GB-WLS> Llanberis (Mount Snowdon), & Bangor, Gwyn —

Woke up to the noise of sheep on one side, rushing vehicles intermittently on the other. Had a leisurely breakfast, then decided what we wanted to do. The weather is a bit iffy, hopefully will fine up by the afternoon. Forecast is for the same for tomorrow, and then worsening, so decided to do the Snowdon Mountain Railway today, Caernafon tomorrow.

Drove to Llanberis and found an all-day park. Weather cloudy, worse up the mountain. Bought tickets for the heritage (steam) train at 1:30, in the hope of improvement in the weather by then. The Heritage trips are in a carriage, the Snowdon Lily, which is a replica of the original carriages on this line, and is pushed up the hill by one of the three original Swiss steam engines that date back to 1896!

Llanberis village

Wandered the village and had morning tea in a little coffee shop beside a craft centre. The woman in the craft centre was delightful, and confident that the weather would improve by about 2pm. Wandered further into the village to find a wonderful mish-mash of colour. Apparently the local chippie had suffered a major fire on sunday night, so there will be no fish and chips from there for about 12 months!

The engine pushing us

Finally time to board the train. Sun trying to peek out. We set off. It's a narrow gauge rack-and-pinion railway, the only one in the UK. Built over a period of 14 months in 1895-96, and has been operating constantly ever since. The 4 miles of track take you up to the top of the 1086 metre Mount Snowdon! A spectacular one-hour ride up the mountain.

Warren near the summit

Susie at the summit

View from the top — nil!! The cloud was anchored to the summit. Actually, it was a fascinating experience. The peak was crowded with ramblers who had hiked up the mountain. After 30 minutes of soaking up the atmosphere and conviviality at the top, we made the return journey to the bottom. A fun day!

At the end of the journey

Dolbardarn Castle

Then we wandered across to Dolbadarn Castle, a round turret on a crag overlooking the lake and the village. Apparently Llewelyn ap Grufudd's elder brother Owain Goch was imprisoned in this turret for 22 years in the 13th century. The woodland scenery leading up to this castle brings strong images of Tolkien's Middle Earth and Enid Blyton's Enchanted Wood!

Llanberis from the Castle

By the way, there's a slate quarry here (now closed). Slate is a major product of Northern Wales, and is used for rock walls, roofs, sides of buildings, and even as garden mulch!

We then decided to call it a day, set off for the Abbeyfield Hotel in Bangor (not far from Caernafon) which offers hospitality to campervans, and which will give us a good jumping-off point for tomorrow's adventures. We had dinner here - Warren a lasagne, and Susie fish cakes. You can't beat good British pub food, and this was up with the best!!

Distance driven — today, 24 miles ( 39 km ); to date, 1,097 miles ( 1,766 km )