Today was a day of water. From the beauty of Llyn Trawsfynydd at the start of the day; a wander through a bog in the middle, where we somehow went wrong; to another reservoir, Llyn Tecwyn Uchal; and finally the Afon Dwyryd estuary at Penrhyndeudreath.
We began by crossing the bridge at Lake Trawsfynydd, where there were wonderful reflections across the water of the hills and mountains. We followed a trail marked as the Traws Lake path for a while, until we reached the dam, where we could see a single fishing boat nearby on the lake.
There were some mountain runners here, who looked to be suffering even more than us in the heat, as well as the usual mountain cyclists. As on other days we were grateful for a short spell under the tree cover as the heat started to bear down with the unseasonal,un-Welsh weather (26 C or more), bright and sunny.
After lunch, and in the knowledge we’d walked over half of a shorter day than the others so far, we thought the remainder of the day would be easier, and mainly downhill. But there we were wrong. A short spell through boggy ground got worse and worse, and became nearly an hour of fighting our way through tussocky grass, marsh and streams. At one point my walking companion, Keith, sunk down up to his knee as the ground swallowed him up. Only a slight exaggeration!
Eventually , to our relief, we emerged onto a farm track and, from here on, the going was good and we made no further detours.
We walked along another reservoir, and then began the long descent towards the estuary of Afon Dwyryd. Here you could only think how it would have looked even better without the dominating row of pylons, which hopefully one day the national park will find a way of diverting or burying underground.
Finally we crossed along the long road and rail bridge into Penrhyndeudreath, by which time we were floundering in the heat, and glad that the walk had been a bit shorter today, at only around 11 miles.
Across the Alps to the Adriatic 