Snowdonia to The Llangollan Canal. - Tuesday 19-4-2022
Another sunny morning saw us heading to Betws-y-Coed and up through the mountains to Llanberris, where the rack and pinion railway carries the infirm sightseers up to the summit of Snowdon. Having done that before we stopped only briefly for some shopping and a few photographs, then carried on to spend the afternoon in Caernafon.
Arrived at our campsite between Caernarfon and Beddgelert late afternoon, and was soon ensconced in the onsite pub and brewery.
Sunday was really warm and sunny, and we stayed on site all day untill beer o clock then went to the pub.
The next day the weather wasn't quite so good, and we went to the Dorothea Slate Quarry at Nantlle. We have been here many times before and it is a really interesting and peaceful place. It used to be really quiet and unvisited, but unfortunately civilisation seems to have arrived, and now there are health and safety signs, paths blocked off, and lots of people, with drones!
It started to rain so we cut our visit short and went down to Beddgelert. Soon after leaving the quarry, and maybe 200 feet lower, the sun appeared and the rain stopped.
Beddgelert is one of my favourite welsh villages, and we stayed a while enjoying the sunshine and scenery, before returning to the campsite [and the pub].
On tuesday we headed for Llangollen, for a trip on a horse drawn canal boat. The Llangolan canal start here, and joins with The Shropshire Union Canal Network.
A notable feature of the canal is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, built by Thomas Telford. Opened in 1805, the aqueduct is more than 300 metres (980 ft) long and 38 metres (125 ft) above the valley floor.
It has 19 stone arches, each with a 45-foot (14 metre) span.
Unfortunately the trip did not take us over the viaduct, but the other way up to the very start of the canal and the horseshoe falls, which was built to feed the canal from the river Dee.
