Wales - Day 11 - 14 Criccieth to Barmouth

Saturday 1st June to Tuesday 4th June  2019
Mileage 37 from Criccieth to Graig Wen Campsite near Barmouth
Parking Co-ordinates 52.72266, -3.99341

Saturday 1st 🐇🐰🐇⛅⛅⛅🌞🌞🌞

A Tree Bog🚽🚾

Today found us moving on from Criccieth to a small campsite near Barmouth called Graig Wen, and it turned out to be a little gem!  It describes itself as a 'back to nature' experience with choices for B&B, Glamping (in Yurts), pitches for motorhomes and caravans on the top site, or in the lower fields you can pitch your tent in wild meadows or in the woods.  Obviously, because of our size we were restricted to the upper 'proper pitches' but that didn't take away any of the sites loveliness because it sits right above the Mawddach Estuary and within Snowdonia National Park.

Our Home for the next 4 nights.

Therefore, we had plenty of choice for things to do because the site gave us direct access onto the Mawddach Cycle Trail, or with just a short walk we would find ourselves within the foothills of Cadair Idris.

This was taken from the campsite and you can just see the Trail running across the picture.

However, by the time we'd arrived and set up camp, then sat in the rare 🌞🌞🌞 for a while and had a late lunch it was well into the afternoon - where did that time go???   So for today we just satisfied ourselves with a walk down the very steep hill and through the lower camping fields that led us out onto the Mawddach Trail where we turned left and toddled some of the way along it's length towards Barmouth.

And along the way there were several info boards that told us more about the nature and history of the area.  The trail runs for about 8 miles from Dolgellau along the old track bed of the Great Western Railway which closed in 1964, and it links to the railway toll bridge which crosses the estuary in Barmouth.

Sheld Ducks

The estuary itself was formed at the end of the last Ice Age - around 14,000 years ago, and in times gone by it used to be much deeper than it is today.  Now it is flat bottomed because over thousands of years it has been filled with up to 46 metres of silt!
We also learnt about the Sheld ducks which are one of the largest ducks in Britain.  Many spend late spring on the Mawddach Estuary but in July most of them migrate to the Wadden Sea near Germany leaving their young and a handful of adult birds behind to act as nannies!


Sunday 2nd 🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️☁☁☁☁

Oh dear😧😧 this morning we woke to more of that wet stuff, and as it was occasionally torrential it kept us cabin bound until the middle of the afternoon - but 'hey ho' if you had to pick a place to be incarcerated this isn't a bad one!!  In the end we left the van at around 3ish and then it was another scramble down the steep hill to the Mawddach Trail and then a meander in the opposite direction for a couple of miles before we found a perch where we plonked ourselves down to sip coffee and to watch the goings on in the muddy precincts of the nearly empty tidal estuary.

John could even hear them slopping about in the mud!

Monday 3rd ⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅
28 miles 🚴🚴

Hip Hip Hooray - at last a half decent day!!!  So as you'd imagine we were quite quick to pack our picnic and get back down onto the Mawddach trail to explore a bit further than we'd managed on foot.

First we peddled along to Dolgellau which provided a very pretty ride and an excellent coffee stop on the outskirts of the town, and then we turned around and peddled back towards Barmouth, and there we needed to pass over the 'Troll Bridge' (which also carries the railway line) to enter the town.

The 'Troll Bridge' as we Crossed

And from a distance

Happily we never saw the Troll so we didn't have to pay,  instead we spent our money on chips to accompany our picnic and then we used the energy that they had provided to ride along the full length of the promenade that backs the wide panoramic sand and shingle beaches that continue for miles around Cardigan Bay.

The quieter end of Barmouth Beach

Next we turned our wheels back across the 'Troll bridge' (and luckily he was still absent) and pootled into Fairbourne who's claim to fame is probably related to it's Narrow Gauge Railway, but as we're not in 'peak season' at the mo it wasn't running today.  However, that wasn't what we'd come to see, for us the attraction was the peace, tranquillity and the fantastic mountain views that also included much of the estuary and Barmouth.

Fairbourne beach looking over towards Barmouth

Altogether we rode for about 28 miles and nearly all of them were off road so for us (apart from the very strong winds that we had to ride into on the way to Barmouth) our day was near perfect.


Tuesday 4th 🌧️🌧️☁☁☁☁🌧️🌧️

Oh dear!  The weather man today promised heavy rain ALL DAY - but happily he didn't quite get it right 😀!  We'd more or less resigned ourselves to either a wet soggy walk or another day in 😡, but after our hearty full English Welsh breakfast the skies cleared a bit and the rain almost stopped!    Therefore, we quickly dashed out for a look at Arthog's waterfalls.  To get there we nipped along part of the Mawddach Trail again (in the Barmouth direction) and then crossed a field which tipped us out onto the road (A493) just by Saint Catherine's Church at Arthog.  The ancient Church dates back to 1808 and it's still used for services but only once a month!

From there we crossed the road and immediately started our ascent up a very steep long slippery wooded path that passes by numerous small waterfalls. So all the time that we were climbing we were accompanied by the sound of rushing, tippling and occasionally crashing water as it made it's way down from high up in the foot hills of Cadair Idris.

When we finally got to the top the views down over the estuary were stunning, and if the weather had been more favourable we'd have certainly continued our walk to one of the lakes which was 2 miles further on.

Looks like there's a Troll on that Bridge

But as it was quite likely that more heavy rain was coming our way, and because we hadn't got any supplies with us we decided that we shouldn't push our luck and thus we started our descent.  And in the end we'd made the right choice because we hadn't been home long when it sounded as if someone from above was pouring gallons of water on our roof!!

Tomorrow is another moving day - and quite a long one - down to the St David's area in Pembroke!
Bye for now 😗😗😗

Click here to see our Welsh camping spots

Or is this the Troll just emerging from his burrow!!!