I'm sure Michael Fish must be back at the Met Office!!

Naively, and probably stupidly, we put our faith in the weather forecasters and decided that today's forecast was going to be horrific so we'd take a day off and go sightseeing. I mean, it wasn't like they'd sat on the wall and given us a fifty fifty chance of poor weather - they said it was going to lash down today and did it? Did it buggery!! We've had one shower which lasted 20 minutes. 

But, moaning aside, we've still managed to have a great day. Regardless of the forecast, Tim needed to have a day off from climbing and so, following a breakfast of sausage, bacon and egg butties, we headed off in the car to the Royal Town of Caernarfon. Caernarfon is a beautiful little town (although in 1955 was actually in the running to become the capital of Wales - Cardiff won 136 votes compared to 11 for Caernarfon) which sits on the eastern bank of the Menai Strait facing the Isle of Anglesey. The town is dominated by its castle, a hugely impressive structure built in the thirteen century by the English following the defeat of Llywelyn Ap Gruffydd - ruler of Gwynedd - at the hands of Edward I. 

Here's some pics of our visit:

Obviously I was simply holding this ice cream for the person who kindly took this photo for us!

So as you can see, Caernarfon is lovely and we spent a very pleasant couple of hours there. But, by about 11ish it still hadn't rained and, in fact, didn't even look like raining so Jacko and I started to get twitchy and decided that we ought to get back to the cottage, get our gear on and get climbing. We discussed it with Tim who decided that he really needed a rest day but he was happy to chill at the cottage and watch the cricket whilst Jacko and I walked. So that's exactly what we did, Tim drove us back to Camp Talysarn and by 1230 Jacko and I were walking again and heading for Craig Cwn Silyn, a really rugged peak which dominates the Talysarn skyline at 734 metres (2408 ft). Within 10 minutes of leaving the cottage, you guessed it, it bloody rained! But it only lasted for 20 minutes and so we walked through now deserted slate mines towards the mountain. 

Not a native of Wales I believe!

 And so we started the climb, and what a climb! We climbed a lung busting 700 metres in less than an hour!

The view from the top was unsurprisingly beautiful, although it really was bitterly cold on the top. 

This peak was in fact a slightly lower one at 700 metres called Garnedd Goch. We then walked along the ridge for half an hour to Craig Cwm Silyn. The going was really hard under foot because the ridge was literally covered in loose rock. 

But we got there and the views were stunning, looking across to Snowdon and Moel Hebog, impressive mountains which we'd already climbed earlier in the week. 

So after spending a few hours up on the ridge we headed back to base camp. It was incredibly hard to navigate because the footpaths clearly marked on the new Ordnance Survey Explorers simply don't exist or are so irregularly used that they are literally disappearing - really sad. 

Anyway just to show you how brave Jacko and I really are, take a look at this vicious bunch who had lain in wait for us as we made our way off the mountain. Didn't bother us though, we never flinched. 

So there you go, another fabulous day in Wales, a really enjoyable half day visit to Caernarfon - we also had tea and Welshcakes in the market square - followed by a 5 hour challenging hike - brilliant!

We've dined on Chilli, Rice and garlic bread (it's the future apparently) I'm blogging and Jacko and Tim.......yep, curled up watching Harry Potter - eh-ugh!!

The forecast isn't great for tomorrow (really?) but I think we'll just wait until tomorrow and stick our heads out of the window before we plan our day - all I know is that it will be another fab day in Wales. 

I hope you enjoy the photos. 

Russ