Conwy of an Eve, Snowdon of a Day

I had the good luck to phone Doug last night, who as it turned out was in Manchester giving his parents a lift to the airport. I persuaded him to come and visit, and a few hours later he was at my door.

In what I expect will turn into a pattern with people coming to visit, he was keen to use the opportunity to climb mount Snowdon. I was a little hesitant to go up there again, having already been up three times in my 3 weeks here - but after a ganders at the map found a nice route up that would be a first for the both of us.

We didn't set off until about 11:30, as we had originally wanted to rent out mountain bikes, but when we turned up at the hire shop they didn't have any that would be big enough for us. A bit of a ball ache, considering that we'd phoned up just 20 mins before and they'd said that it should be fine. Still, 11:30 isn't too bad.

We drove to Llyn Grynant, and set off up the Watkin path, then diverted up the Bwich Main ridge to the summit. A good walk, so much less busy than the other paths, and even than the relatively un-populous Watkin path.

We reached the summit in good time, and even though I'd braced myself for the swarms of people that I knew would be there on a un-rainy bank holiday Saturday, and i'd seen them like ants around the top as we climbed, I was still unprepared for the sheer lack of space on the top. This wasn't helped too much by the fact that it full on stank, thanks to some sewerage from the café that was open on top. Horrible, horrible, horrible - we didn't hand around long. That said, we did have the amazing luck of a view from the top - the summit cleared only for about 30 mins the whole day, which was when we were on the top. As we climbed down the cloud followed, and as we reached the bottom not even the Bwich could be seen.

We headed back down the skree slope, and then joined the Watkin, back down to the car. Doug was a little worse for wear, and once home and showered we headed straight out to grab some grub.

Went to Conwy to look about in the evening, got ice creams, and strolled around the town walls. Shame Doug wasn't a girl I was dating.