Posts about the Cambrian Way
Beddgelert disappears behind me as I tackle the steepest part of the walk and head for the climax of this trip. This is a time to enjoy the finest mountains in Wales, but also to get used to seeing people again, for soon I have to re-enter civilisation. Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 9: Beddgelert to Conwy”
And now things get serious with the most controversial section of the Cambrian Way. Rough walking over demanding terrain, nowhere to stay overnight, but in the eyes of Tony Drake the most rewarding part of the whole route. Except in my case, I don’t have the accommodation issue… Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 8: Barmouth to Beddgelert”
Ah, a short one but a good one. Two of the best 100 (according to Trail) mountains in the country, and depending on where my main training trip before the Cambrian Way takes me, this stretch could see me pass through the halfway mark in the Trail 100. But then if it doesn’t, it will be in the Rhinogs instead. Either way, this section could be, and should be, one of the best chunks of the walk. Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 7: Dinas Mawddwy to Barmouth”
A quick section to plan this one. On paper of a similar length to the previous section, I knew I could knock this one out quickly, so that’s what I’ve done. It may be longer and hillier (slightly) than stage 3, but it’s not caught my imagination in the same way. Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 6: Devil’s Bridge to Dinas Mawddwy”
Assuming that I don’t roll into Llandovery a bedraggled and broken mess of a walker, and head promptly for home, I’ll depart Llandovery and enter a whole new world – one of deep valleys, woods and wild rounded hills. It looks absolutely enchanting, and whilst it clearly won’t match the more dramatic scenery a couple of days behind me, it looks like it has a charm all of its own. Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 5: Llandovery to Devil’s Bridge”
Could this be the most problematic section of the walk to plan ? It was certainly starting to look that way. It’s the longest section according to my initial carve up and with me needing to make sweeping assumptions about the daily distances I could make by predicting my fitness and the effect of any weather conditions. There’s not really much in the way of bricks and mortar between Abergavenny and Llandovery, unless you’re up for a detour off the route, and there are also some alternative routes to consider. And all this in order to make an overall northerly distance gain of 12½ miles. So it’s no wonder that after my initial burst of enthusiasm in planning the first stage, my willingness to tackle the second dissipated somewhat. Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 4: Abergavenny to Llandovery”
It seems no one spotted the “deliberate” mistake in my last planning post – indeed I was even complimented on the reasonableness of my 24 day schedule. Except, if you’d added up the days for each section you’d have come up with 27, making it even more reasonable. It was only sitting down to start looking at the first two stages in detail and pulling all of my scribbled notes together that I spotted this slight chink in my numerical armour. Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 3: Cardiff to Abergavenny (Stage 1)”
I’ve now had a chance to walk through the route on Anquet, referring to the Cambrian Way book and the various blog accounts of the walk I’m using to assist in the planning. Not wanting to plunge into the detailed working out of daily walks and where to stop overnight at this stage – it’s far too early and there are just too many moving parts – my aim right now is to carve the walk up into a series of smaller sections which will be easier to plan. Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 2: The First Rough Plan”
How do you go about planning such a long walk ? Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 1: The Approach”
A week and a bit ago, I did a post asking for some views as to which of 4 possible options for my main long distance walk for next year I should do. Here are the results and the decision. Continue reading “Which Long Distance Walk for 2013 – The Results”
