We've been meaning to check out this bothy for a while now, so it was good to make a little holiday trip of it after a leisurely start at The Cottage. It felt like spring had already arrived in the valley, with daffodils, crocus, snowdrops, gorse and heather all in fine colour.
The footpaths didn't seem to have seen much traffic in a while and we didn't see anyone else all day. Someone had had fun while clearing this log from the track though.
As we gained height from the valley floor, we passed quite a few little 'dwellings', hideouts and bothies that seemed to have temporary residents. Most of all, it was great to be seeing a different view.
It was boggy terrain above the forest and old quarry that we passed through, but we found the Bothy as the sun came out. The sunlight actually felt warm on our faces, which was bliss.
There was no one around, so we sparked up the fire (having carried in a small sack of wood), and set about making a brew.
It was turning in to a much better day for being outside rather than sheltering in an old bothy, so after a nice rest, set out across the hillside.
Upon the tops, there were also quite a few old abandoned farmhouses in this area and again, quite a few little shacks and hideouts that seemed to have (or recently had) residents living there.
There is a fantastic view of Moel Hebog (one of the first peaks of Snowdonia that I ever climbed; with Paul and Beks when we were still at school!) and the Nantle Ridge, but seeing them from 'the other side' made them look completely different.
Naturally, we had a pair of Uncle Ken's binoculars at hand for some bird spotting as well as peak identification!
Although it looked like we had the freedom of the hills laid out in from of us, the months of wet weather have turned the boggy ground into almost impassable quagmires in places, so after trying to negotiate a route to the head of the valley, we soon aborted for fear of getting stuck in the wet, muddy ground. We instead found a nice route back to the disused quarry where we found a fantastic vertical waterfall, which I made a mental note of, to come back and climb if we get a good freeze.
Great to be out exploring a new part of our 'local' mountains...
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