I left you with the sight of Carnedd Gwenllian.
Let's keep on the trail. Now I mentioned at the beginning of part 1 that this trek was my first using a map. It showed in the next section.
When we arrived down at Llyn (lake) Ogwen, I thought we'd stop for a late lunch, it was about 4-5pm at this point. So after about 30 minutes resting and soaking up the scenery I decided we do the last ascent up Glyder Fawr. Now I thought it would only take an hour from here to get to the nearest village. It took a little longer than that.......
My mates were exhausted. Rein had fallen ill a couple of days before so he was still worn out from it and Mike was just not used to this long haul trek. They were tired, I was still rearing to go, but I felt bad for not being more prepared. Got to start somewhere right. So I wanted to get to the top to start the descend down as quickly as possible. We still had plenty of light, it wouldn't start getting dark until around 9pm and even then there would still be enough light until about 10pm.
I still wasn't too sure on the path a the top as the map didn't have a clear path laid out. So I asked the guys if they were ok with me going ahead to scope the top. They were fine with it, as it would mean a little rest for them :P.
Take a guess which ones which, dman those Dutch and their orange shirts :D.
So Glyder fawr is behind this photo. The lake at the bottom is Llyn Ogwen this is where we stopped for lunch.
Final stretch.
I arrive at the top and drop my bag and started jogging to the left towards the clouds, I knew that the path towards the carpark where the bus stop would be is near by, but as I'd never been on this side of the mountain I wasn't too sure how long it would take to get to the path to start descending. I knew going the other way would take us closer to the village so I thought it would make more sense, the only issue with it, is that we had to cut down some fields that didn't have great footing but it was the best way to get down as the path that kept going right looked like it circle upwards and I wasn't sure for how long it would do this as the map wasn't clear.
So I turned back to the top of the path where Mike and Rein were almost to the top.
They didn't look too impressed with me haha.
We rested for 10 minutes and headed down. It took us about an hour to get down and cause they were so tired at this point I called my mum's partner and asked if he wouldn't mind picking us up, luckily he was only just leaving work so it was only a 15minute detour for him to make to pick us up. As we waited at the bottom of the Pen y Pass valley, I tried to make amends haha. They were happy enough, they were glad they did the trek but they were tired and grumpy I have to say.
When we got back home and had some tea, Mike and Rein just sonked out and went to bed, so I met up with some friends of mine for the rest of the evening.
This trek taught me a lot about my own view of hiking as well as the view for others.
Peoples abilities will always be different, even when you think someone might be able to keep up with you, you need to make sure they are on the same page as you or things might escalate badly for you and your group. It also works the other way around, sometime you might think that you lack the experience or the fitness, but there's been many a times where I've been able to keep with people that have had much more experience than I.
The mountains are a mystery.
The A5 road we crossed on the map below is where Llyn Ogwen is.
Till next time. You stay classy!