Rainforest

Earlier this week I spotted that a guy I've been just about in touch with since I tutored him thirty years ago was leading a tour of a piece of ancient temperate rainforest in the Ffestiniog valley. So, rather than spend another wet day on the railway centenary, I signed up. Although I taught him maths, he's now a renowned lichenologist and runs an ecologically sound cattle farm in mid Wales.

To get to the walk meant a final train ride last night, dinner in Beddgelert, and then a three-hour walk in the rain to a stopping point where I could sleep for the night. Hence my night was spent in a sleeping bag, in a bivvy bag, under a tarp, under this tree in the shelter of the wall: early immersion into the rainforest experience, but I stayed dry!

In the morning I walked through Tan-y-Bwlch railway station - where I spent a week aged 7 - and down its nature trail, where that 7-year-old discovered that he loved running up and down hills on rough trails!

The walk then took me up through misty wet woods to the car park of the former Trawsfynydd nuclear power station. It was surreal to see its vast, forbidding buildings emerge through the misty woodland. There I found co-leader Ben and moth expert Billy eulogising over the contents of a moth trap they'd just picked up. There were some impressive specimens, and some rarities that were underwhelming to see. [They were all released safely.] That set the tone for a day when I had the healthy experience of being in the company of experts in a field in which I know little, as some of the participants were also very well informed. We made a five hour 8km descent of some wonderful ancient woodland: Joe was great at telling us about the lichens, mosses and liverworts we saw, and Ben told us what birds we could hear.

After shuttling with a minibus and cars, and calling in to the Oakley Arms for a pint, I find myself in my BnB for the night. Now I can have a much-needed wash and charge my phone and external battery!