Day 34 23/7/19 West Wales.

Day 34 23/7/19 West Wales.

Much better day today, weather wise, quite hot in fact. We decided to go and look at the Snowdon Mountain Railway at Llanberes even though we knew we couldn’t get tickets, especially for the steam train, you have to book well in advance. This was about 25 Miles away.

Welsh names can be more than a mouthful

Scenery is stark but beautiful

Hardly any trees

Probably because there is very little topsoil

Dam nestled in the mountains, we hink this is Hydro although there is an abandoned Nuclear power station nearby.

Another unpronounceable village name

 The rack rail, using the ABT system was built in 1896, after much controversy to carry passengers to the summit of Mt Snowdon. Prior to this you had to walk or ride a pony. One of the original steam engines, Enid, is still in service and the company owns 7 of the 8 original locos, one was destroyed on opening day (the track was modified and there have been no further incidents.). Diesel loco’s have also been added to the fleet in recent times. The loco is never actually attached to the carriage for safety reasons and just pushes it, only one carriage can be pushed so passenger numbers are very restricted. Steam is very expensive as they use 7cwt (355 Kg) of coal and 400 gallons of water per trip.

 

Enormous (now abandoned) Slate quarry opposite railway station

Loco No.6, Padarn, built in 1922

Steam loco's have to be alternated so they can re-loaded with coal and water between trips

The diesel, not as much fun, just drive in, unload passengers, and drive out again

From there we took a scenic route back to our cabin.

Travelling up the valley from Llanberis

Plenty of stone for building walls and houses

And a lot of stone walls

Interesting iron bridge

Not many vowels in this one

Wonder what is on the other side of the crest

Sheep find shade in odd places

Speck on the wall is a Rock Climber

Geese enjoy the lake before wandering off into the long grass

Navigator/ gate opener is much happier today.

Sheep can be a hazard

Another hazard, un-exploded bombs, the area is used by various air forces for practice.

Squirrel near our cabin

Thought he was hiding