Walkers in the U.K. are usually torn between their love for the Lake District and Wales. I've not spent enough time walking in the latter to choose a favourite, so I was pleased that our walking group was heading out to North Wales yesterday. And the weather was all set to be nice and dry. It was a lovely drive along a coastal road past Conwy and several castles. The morning coffee stop was in the tourist village of Betws-y-Coed which provides this interesting signpost in case you're a Canadian who needs to situate herself geographically.
But no time to stop and enjoy the sunshine. A fifteen minute drive away and it was gray and slightly misty when the coach dropped us off near the banks of Lake Ogwen.
We headed to the northern side and up. I'm not sure which mountain we were climbing, but it's part of the Carneddau Range.
This part of Wales felt very bleak and stark to me. The terrain - bits of bog and tufts and stony paths - wasn't too hard underfoot, but it was fairly steep. This is a view looking back at the lake once we'd begun our ascent.
A little bit of sunshine does wonders for the surrounding views though.
We could have kept going right to the top but it would have involved a rocky scramble and the summit was hidden in cloud anyways, so we decided getting up to this hidden tarn was good enough. It provided a suitable place to have lunch and was very peaceful. The bleak can still be very beautiful.
We came down the same way we went up and proceeded along a lovely path to Capel Curig. On the drive up I saw lots of meadows with newly born lambs but the terrain we were walking through was a bit too wild for them. Fine for these hardy fellows though.
And here was our path to Capel Curig both looking ahead. . . 
. . . and behind.
Just steps from Capel Curig is this view down another valley. If you headed in that direction, you'd eventually come to Snowden, the highest peak in Wales and definitely on my list to tackle. But that's for another day.
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