Day 18: Snowdonia (Eryri)

APRIL 21 - East of Caernarfon is the Snowdonia National Park, largest in Wales. The portion we visited today were the highlands, with numerous mountain peaks. The terrain is almost entirely grass, moss, and bare shale rock. It is a stark and dramatic landscape, very unlike the lowlands to the west and east.

View looking west across Glyderau. This vast park is also home to many small farms. Sheep and goats dot the hillsides. There are many cliffs for rock climbers.

We spent a few hours walking some trails around in the park, up out of Pen Y Gwryd. Here, spring is just starting; grasses and ferns are just starting to grow out, and trees are still budding.

We took an old diesel train to Clogwyn Station just below the highest peak (Snowdon, elev. 1085m). Obviously the mountain is not that steep.

I failed to capture a photo, but to the left of this view is a huge open pit slate mine. This region is known for its high quality slate, being quite flat and obtainable in large sheets. Most of the older gravestones I see are of this material.

The train ride is a few hours, and we get back to Caernarfon in the evening. It is another day without rain, the weather has certainly dried since our days in Ireland.

Might as well mention this subject, since it will probably occupy a lot of our bandwidth in a few months. Every day for the last few weeks we have seen many Ukrainian flags. They are posted on walls outside people’s houses, adorn telephone posts and city walls, and even occupy official flagposts such as this one in the old city Caernarfon. There is clearly a great deal of sympathy for what the Ukrainian people are going through, and especially in the case of Ireland, the parallels with their own historical timeline are unmistakable.

Eat dinner at Anglesey Arms, just a minute walk from the castle. Like a number of places we’ve dined, it is basically a pub with a restaurant attached. There is always a relaxed feel in these establishments, where most of the patrons appear to be daily fixtures, and the median age seems to be around 60.

United Kingdom (Wales)