Had I had ear plugs in, the gentle rocking of the van most of the night would have been like being in a cradle, but without them, the roars of the gusts kept me awake most of the night, despite being dog tired. We woke up stiff, but to a glorious day. Having pulled up in near darkness, we only appreciated in the morning the fantastic setting we’d camped in.

We had been a little ambitious with our walk, so decided to do something a little gentler (no mountains!) today. The gentleman in the Llanberis tourist information suggested a walk round Llyn Padarn (Lake Padarn). We’ve walked up in the slate mines high above Llanberis, but have never walked round the lake and looking at the map there seemed a lot of things to see and do on the way. It was supposed to be 5 miles and, it being round a lake, we assumed it was flat, but nothing in Snowdonia is flat!

Geoff doesn’t like walking in trees (“spoils the view”), so he decided that we would start our loop at Brynrefail at the northwest end of the lake, but rather than going through the woods, we’d do a short climb and join the path higher, all the while enjoying views of the mountains. So an hour later, we’d double backed, turned round, got the OS map and GPS out, had various discussions about our respective senses of direction and finally found the right path. Predictably, we should have followed the recommended route in the first place.

It’s a lovely walk, through villages, forests, fields and with a lot of archeological history too. Unfortunately the cafe and adventure park in the country park were closed, as was the quarry hospital, but this just gave us more time in the amazing National Slate Museum, at the southeast end of the lake. It houses the biggest waterwheel on mainland Britain, has an exhibition on life in the quarries as well and demonstrations on all aspects on quarry workings. It’s well worth going to, especially since the whole place is free.

By the time we were back at the car, it had been another five and a half hour walk. We stayed at Pete’s Eats, a famous cafe in Llanberis and went to the pub to plan tomorrow’s adventure.

See photos of today.

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