Today was a complete contrast from yesterday, but in reality it was quite a relief!
We woke to slightly cloudy skies and a definite drop in temperature! As we scrambled, bleary-eyed from our beds everyone was advised to wear layers of clothing today in preparation for our mountain climb.
We needed a good breakfast in order to give us the energy to make it up the mountain and everyone stocked up well!
Mr Williams arranged for mini buses to take us up to Croesor where our walk would begin. This is a small village up in the hills where once, there were 600 inhabitants and now there are only 4 families. The school and chapel are deserted and there is an air of desolation about the place. However, the village is beautiful and such a contrast from Hitchin!
This is where we start the walk, up the Croesor valley and over the mountain of Cnicht. Mr Williams pointed out where we would have lunch – on the ridge of the mountain in front of us! We had a long ahead of us!
We traversed the mountainside and slowly and steadily made our way to the top! There were plenty of opportunities to stop and catch our breath and after 2 hours of climbing our reward was lunch on the mountain top! The views were spectacular but there was a bit of wet stuff falling from the sky!
We were in quite a sheltered spot so didn’t get too wet! We then explored the old slate quarry and village which was completely derelict.
The climb down was actually more difficult than the climb up as we had to be careful not to slip on the slate, but we all made it down safely with a couple of stops to listen to stories from Mr Williams about the Oakley family.
The train from Blaenau Ffestiniog arrived at Tanygrisau station where we were waiting and we enjoyed a steam train ride back to Tan-y-Bwlch. Unfortunately by now it was quite wet so we decided to walk straight back to the Plas where we would be able to do some water colour painting in the dry!
It has been a wonderful week, helped enormously by the weather, but the children have all been great! Thank you for entrusting us with your children, it has been a privilege to take them away and I hope every single one of them will come back with stories and memories to last a lifetime!