foolhandy

I shall wax lyrical about yurting at Graig Wen next week when I’m back from further travels over the weekend, but I wanted to mention Cwm Idwal now. You can read the technical blurb about Cwm Idwal on its Wikipedia page and how it was voted the seventh favourite UK Beauty Spot on the BBC Wales site, but here I just want to get all emotionally unnecessary about it…

Looking at the map below it’s the lake (or cwm) highlighted by the blue marker.

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I first visited Cwm Idwal in 1993 as a teacher on a school field trip. I went back on the equivalent visit another seven times and never tired of the place. I’ve been back a couple of times since, including during the past week, and having seen it in glorious sunshine, torrential rain, low cloud and high winds I’ve never been disappointed with how it makes me feel. The atmosphere of the place, the views along the Nant Ffrancon Valley, the sense of peace despite the relatively easy access, it just blows me away. You can spend hours up there or, as we did this week, be back at the car park within a couple of hours without feeling at all rushed.

Until I visited Grand Anse, La Digue in Seychelles it was my favourite place in the world. Now it’s my joint favourite place, but with the advantage that it’s a little easier to get to!