After a busy bank holiday weekend Sarah and I took ourselves out to have a go a geocaching. It’s something we have wanted to try for a while and have had a few guests stay who have said how much they enjoy it.

Fortunately for us you can try Geocaching at Coed y Brennin, for £5 you can hire the GPS unit and go and search for five caches that are hidden within the woodland. It’s a bit like going on a treasure hunt where the GPS unit guides you to the correct location, once you have got within a meter or so you really have to start searching for the cache which can be hidden under a rock or tucked away in a hole covered by moss.

Within the box you will find a log book where you can record your name, leave some notes etc. You can also swap little items that are left in the box, so a good idea to bring with you a few oddities.

We really enjoyed ourselves and made us discover new parts of the forest which we hadn’t visited before, there are caches hidden all over the place so for us the next stage will be to buy a GPS unit and start planning a few more days out.

Ruins at Cwmorthin

The best sort of winter day…sparkling white mountains and cloudless blue sky.  We slipped our way up an icy path high above Blaenau Ffestiniog to the ruined houses of Cwmorthin.  The abandoned slate quarry buildings stood black and eerie today against the white landscape. The treacherous skin of ice on Llyn Cwmorthin was causing a cormorant no end of frustration.  My six layers of clothing just about did the trick but could have done with spiked boots on the way back down.  Stunning place, can’t wait to go back to explore some more.

Slate fence at Cwmorthin

Ruthin Craft Centre courtyard

A November day of being lashed by gales so time for a WWA (wet weather attraction)…

Ruthin Craft Centre has recently  been given a fancy makeover with Arts Council Wales funding and we made our first trip there today.  The picture makes it look a bit like the kind of industrial unit where you’d find a branch of Focus next door,  but it’s actually a really well designed showcase for contemporary craft and design.There’s a big, light exhibition space, arty shop, artists’ studios you can visit and a super nice cafe.

There’s an area where you can watch some beautiful artist-made short films which offer unusual ways of experiencing the landscape, architecture and culture of North Wales.  This bit is rather grandly called a “Cultural Gateway” but it’s just a quiet place to sit and enjoy looking at stuff you might explore as you head deeper into Wales.  The “Cultural Gateway” has also got good old fashioned pamphlets.  Good word, pamphlets.

Ruthin Craft Centre is about an hour’s drive from Graig Wen, and would make a good pit stop if you are driving here from North West England.   It’s free to park and get in, very easy to find and right on route by a roundabout.

The other great thing about the drive between here and Ruthin is that you get to see a herd of American bison (really) and go to the award-winning Rhug Farm Shop.

It’s been scorchio in Southern Snowdonia over the bank holiday.  Some of our guests have had sublime views from the top of Cadair Idris and many more have beaten the bank holiday traffic jam into Barmouth with a sunny stroll over the bridge and back.  Pretty much everyone has gone pink.

We took the morning off today and headed over to Corris with our bikes to do the Cli-machx trails.  Great name. The steady climbs and rufty tufty technical sections come to a peak with an intense bit of downhill stuff.  There’s big views across forests to Cadair and the Cambrian mountains and we didn’t see a soul.  I was feeling pretty chuffed with my improving skills until I came home and saw this

walk in the Rhinogs

At the weekend we waved off our very polite motorbiking guests on Sunday morning and headed for the hills. Driving up the lush green valley from Llanbedr you leave the trees behind and reach the lovely Cwm Bychan lake and the rocky wilderness that is The Rhinogs - it’s basically the area behind the hill tops you can see from our terrace.

We followed a medieval pack horse route through a pass known as The Roman Steps and skirted Rhinog Fawr in an 8 1/2 mile circle. The Rhinogs cover a massive area consisting mostly of splintered granite crags and rough heath. In a long afternoon of walking we saw more of the shy wild goats that live there than any other people.

We spotted our first mountain goat watching us from high on a crag, and after various “Is it a goat or is it a rock?” “No, I just saw it move it’s head” deliberations, we confirmed it was a goat with massive curving horns keeping guard over a few of its grazing hareem. A bit further on we got close enough to some more to see their sooty collars and long, silky looking coat.

Part of the walk ws well off any kind of beaten track, with the dogs and us scrambling uphill through thick heather and whinberry bushes. The bees were feasting on whinberry nectar in the warm sunshine so we did too - tastes a bit like pomegrante, though I think you’re supposed to wait until they ripen to a darker purple, and these were pink. Apparently they are a traditional remedy for night blindness and WWII fighter pilots used to eat whinberry preserves before heading off to battle.

The uphill scramble was well worth it - from the top of the ridge we could see Snowdon ahead, Cardigan Bay curving below us, the Llyn Peninsula on the other side and Rhinog Fawr and Rhinog Fach behind us.

So now we know what lies behind the skyline we see every day…