The 'Tour du Snowdon' - A mini expedition

I'm just back from taking some young students on a three-day 'mini-expedition' around the mountain of Snowdon. We've traveled by train and bus but mostly on foot around the base of the mountain as well making as a thwarted attempt at the summit. Having set off from Llanberis on Tuesday, we slept at the picturesque Snowdon Ranger Youth Hostel, near Rhyd Ddu after watching a fabulous sunset over the lake. As is quite often the way with expeditions, things worked out great in the end, but not always as planned... 

I was very excited to be climbing aboard the Snowdon Summit Railway Train, for the first time in my life to begin the expedition. The plan was, to take the train to the summit and walk down the Ranger path to the YHA. Imagine the crushing disappointment when having only made it to the halfway station (which is nowhere near halfway!), we ground to a halt and were eventually told that a broken down train up ahead was blocking the tracks, so we would be heading back down to Llanberis! Bummer! Especially as one of our staff had already jogged up to the summit to help with the hike down! The only consolation was that it was pouring with rain and the views from the carriage window looked unlikely to have been much better at the top!

Back down in Llanberis, Plan B was constructed and swiftly executed and by mid-afternoon, we had traveled my minibus to the far side of Snowdon, where we walked to the YHA via a nice lakeside trail as the weather began to clear up.

A well-received class on skimming stones was taken before arriving at the Hostel in time for the evening meal and subsequent mega sunset. 

The West Highland Railway runs just behind the Hostel and provided our transport to Beddgelert the next morning.

This was another 'first' for me and great fun. It felt a bit like being in an Agatha Christie novel as we chugged along in the old wooden cabin.

We disembarked at Beddgelert and walked over to the famous grave for some folklore, storytelling and sightseeing....

Before hiking to Sygyn Copper mine, where our explorations took us under ground...

Finally, the weary team arrived at Bryn Gwynant Youth Hostel just as the rain started again.

Today (Thursday) dawned much brighter and we enjoyed a hearty breakfast (in the dining room with a view) before packing up and continuing along the trail.

I'd not walked the path that took us up and along the side of Llyn Gwynant. We heard the Cuckoo while we walked and enjoyed the views.

It took us ages to walk the lake as the team was very tired by now. Arriving at the eastern end of the, we had some challenges set up, including a rope bridge river crossing that most of us made across without incident, but not all. With another day (and a night at Pen y Pass YHA), a complete circuit could have been made, back down to Llanberis, but we'd come far enough...