Snowdon Camping Trip

The Journey:

Earlier in the week i had a great idea for something to do this bank holiday, i thought "lets go climb Snowdon". A quick Google found a good looking campsite right at the base of Snowdon (Cwellyn Arms), cheap, close to the walks, run by a pub, and allows campfires .... perfect!
I phoned them up expecting them to laugh at me phoning two days before a bank holiday, and asking if they had space - but i was in luck, they did.
So Clive and me, set off to North-Wales to go camping. we left work at about lunch time, dropped my car off at home, and went. our plan was to get past Birmingham before it got so busy we would end up stuck in traffic for 10 hours, which was great, until we got to the A5(the road into wales).
On this road there are a bunch or roundabouts, we got the the first one and its was solid with cars, ALL going the way we were. This was so crap, we had been sitting in the car for almost 3 hours and we were now stuck in traffic. We decided to gave it to the next roundabout to get better, if it didn't we would find a different way there. So, some time later when we fianly made it to the next roundabout. There was a que of cars right round the roundabout, HOW LAME!!! Using the trusty TomTom, i clicked the "Avoid part of route" button and in a few seconds it said to take a different exit on the roundabout, there were no cars heading that way so we agreed. we were now driving unhindered through some small towns, when all of a sudden "in 100 yards turn left" eh ? we couldn't see where it meant ... it wanted us to turn down a tiny dirt track ... it looked like someone's drive way!!!
So here we are driving along this tiny single track road, just wide enough for Clive's car huge hedges either side of the road. at one point there were even chickens walking across the road! anyway we made it and we were on time. The TomTom took us right to the pub where we had to check in and get the tickets for the tent.

The Camping:

We go the tickets for the tents, and were warned not to take wood from the forest behind the campsite, or the forest police would be after us. Not wanting to upset the forest police we bought some wood (£3 for a bag - not to bad really), and headed down the road to the tent field. There are 2 sections to this campsite, a "posh" field - no fires aloud(except in fire pits), all nicely cut grass. Then there was the field, basically a free-for-all - campfires are aloud on the ground here. Obviously, we went here.
The facility's on the site were good, there is one toilet block for women & blokes ( i thought this was bit weird as EVERY WHERE has 2 separate ones - not really any problem tho, just abit weird) there were 3 toilets & 3 showers - this was ok - as long as you didn't need a shower / need to go to the toilet at the peak times.
This site is RIGHT at the base of Snowdon so is primarily for walkers, as such its perfect. For anyone wanting more ( s hops? entertainment? ) its no good.
Next we set up both the tents, this is the 1st chance i got to test my new tent (F10 STD2) and all i can say is "W OW!"
Its bright Orange - Big bonus, its a ridge tent - so looks old skool, and is so easy to put up. It's now my tent of choice over my Vango Equinox (which is a awesome tent - it just cant compeat with the F10 on the "style" front)
Once the tents were up, i unpacked. Other gear that was having its 1st outing was my roll mat & sleeping bag(s). The roll mat (Fat Airic) was great - no problems 5/5 for this, definitely a good deal, the competition to this mat is at least double the cost. My new sleeping bag(s) are a "sleeping system" basically, 3 bags & a liner. The 1st bag is a 0 degree bag, next is a -10 degree bag, the 3rd (not really) you zip the 2 other bags together to get a "extream" rated monster bag. Into this you can put a liner for a few extra degrees, and a bivi bag over it for a couple more. I only took the 0 degree bag - looking back it was not the best decision i made - not the end of the world either. The first nig ht i wasn't c old, but i wasn't warm. The next night i got the liner & a bivvy bag i had in my ruck sack - this made it a little bit to warm. So all in all new gear was spot on. There was quite alot of rain and wind in the night, and my tent was great. Sleeping under canvas insted of nylon makes such a huge differance. Normaly with nylon you get the tent flapping in the wind all night, but canvas is prity much silent, when it rains it sounds so much cooler; its worth it just for that. There is also the bonus of no condensation with canvas.

The Walk:

We woke up at about 7:30, made breakfast and then got out the map. We worked out where we were, worked out where the sumit was on the map, and started walking; Looking back this wasn't the best plan. we should have planned a shorter route, and had a car waiting at the bottom read y for us to come back in; oh well.We took the Snowdon Ranger Path up and came down the Rhyd Ddu Path. I got tired about 30 min into what would be a 9hour walk. So you can imagen that i was pritty worn out by the end, and why of them 9 hours we spent 4 hours "stationary" (me resting). On the way up there were some amazing views ( check out some of the photos in the gallery ). The funny bit tho, was watching all the "Pros" walk by with their "Pro" gear, then following the "Pros" were their framily, who were wairing trainers / shorts etc, all worn out and fed up. The best bit - getting to the carpark at the end - knowing "I DID IT". Oh yes that was great ... 5 seconds later was not so great when i rememberd the 2k walk back to camp. Quite upseting.

The Aftermath:

1 blister - i thought this was quite good for me as i consider walking to my car a long walk. Other than that the fact i was unable to use my legs for just over a week because they were so aky, there were no major problems.

Trip Stats:

Distance Driven	To wales
TNT Lorries Spotted	14
Ammount Spent	About £40 each
Crazyness	4-5
Crazy Re-Routing Bonus	+10
Near misses in the car	Lost Count
Total Score	OMFG my legs hurt like hell x 10

Walk Route:

Google Earth	Google Maps
	Link