Forecasts of 45mph winds, with gusts up to 65mph, meant that it didn’t seem like a good idea to climb a mountain in Snowdonia last weekend.  So I decided to do some fairly low level walks.  On the Saturday I walked from Capel Curig to the pass near Crimpiau, and down to Llyn Crafnant.  I then walked around the western shore of the lake, before heading over the ridge to Llyn Geirionydd.  From there I walked through the woods back to Capel Curig.  Every so often bright sunshine broke through to create more rainbows than I have ever seen on a hike.

A rainbow above Nant y Geaullt, near Capel Curig.

The rain coming down on Llyn Crafnant.

A disused slate quarry near Mynydd Delyn.

Llyn Geirionydd, with a faint rainbow just visible.

A little bit of the Snowdon massif suddenly appearing through the clouds.

On the Sunday I took the wide and well-constructed tourist path up to Aber Falls.  All the rain over the last few days had meant that it was a good day to see an impressive waterfall.  I then broke away from the tourist route to walk up the scree and scramble above the Falls rocks to the valley behind it.  This was a pretty, quiet valley with views to the frozen tops and out to the sea.  After walking along the river into the cwm, I spent quite a few minutes working out how to cross the full stream.  In the end, I just found a shallow section and ran through.   I then traversed below the tops before dropping back down into valley not far from another waterfall.  It  was such a great little walk that I didn’t mind the multiple hail showers.

Aber Falls.

Aber Falls.

The top of Aber Falls, with the sea and Anglesey in the far distance (although, unfortunately, they didn’t come out too well in this photo).

The Afon Goch at the start of the walk-in to Cwm yr Afon Goch.

Rhaeadr-bach

I was a bit disappointed that the weather stopped me from heading up to the tops to enjoy the snow and ice, but I still had a good time walking low down.