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| Miners path "the zig zags" |
Simon – We need to bear off to the left soon or its going to
be a very long run
Me – Here's a path, should we follow it?
Simon – whats the worst that could happen?
Me – we fall off a cliff or down a mineshaft?
Simon – After you….
Despite the less than stable ground that we found ourselves
on we picked our way down the slate strewn mountainside back to our little
cottage at Blaenau Ffestiniog without incident. Our “run” over the hills had
taken us past what used to the heart of the welsh slate mining industry when
4000 men from the village would make their way up the various miners paths to
begin their working day – 12 hours of hard labour underground in complete
darkness, the only light coming from explosions as the slate was hewn leaving
cathedral sized caverns within the mountain. Surrounding us were hillsides strewn
with heaps of slate, the waste product of this industry, along with many
disused buildings, crumbling structures and rusting machinery. Where once upon a
time the place was a hive of industry, now all is quiet save from runners and
walkers exploring the area.
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| Slate fence posts |
Inevitably tourism has taken over as the major industry,
slate mining no longer profitable with increased competition from abroad and
from more cheaply produced building materials, and the mine has been turned
into a fascinating tourist attraction where you are taken deep underground. The
tour guide switches off the light “to give you a sense of what it was like”.
This, somehow, I doubt. I don’t think anything can replicate the long dangerous
hours of back breaking work, the noise, the smells (no toilet facilities) and
children as young as 12 were working in this environment. The workers were
allowed every Sunday off as well as two or three days holiday a year one, of
course, being Christmas day but lest you thinking Sunday was for a little
R&R the church had got that one covered – chapel had to be attended three
times on a Sunday and woe betide anyone who didn’t show up especially if their
foreman did.
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| A little train journey into the mines |
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| Descending into the depths |
Instead of building materials and roofing slates the
ubiquitous gift shops now sell little gift items and souvenirs such as place
mats, coasters and wine racks all crafted from slate. On the mountain itself
tracks have been formed for mountain bikers and a new mountain bike centre and
café now lie next to (and on top of) the mine and for £5 a van will drive you
and your bike to the top of the hill so all you have to do is pedal back down.
We settled for running over the tracks.
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| The steam railway was constructed to transport the slate.... |
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| ....and is now a tourist attraction as it weaves its way precariously over the hillsides |
Well it had to be done. Snowdon. Everyone who has been to
North Wales has climbed it (or so it seems) and there is nice variety of routes
to the top ranging from epic and scrambly to a huge “motorway” and, if you
really can’t be bothered to walk, you can always get the train to the summit.
Yes, really. This narrow gauge rack and pinion mountain railway was built in
1896 to carry tourists up and down the mountain and its steam and diesel
powered engines still do this today.
I wanted to go for the epic and scrambly route over Crib
Goch but I spotted other walkers heading in that direction fully equipped with
ropes and helmets and other mountaineering paraphernalia and as neither of us
were equipped with anything like that a swift revision of plans was necessary and
we settled for a less than technical ascent via the “Pyg track” and a descent
via the “miners track” (copper mines this time).
It was a nice warm morning and I was looking forward to a
leisurely stroll but within five minutes of setting off Simon had appeared to
have decided that this was to be a forced march. I think the crowds of people
that we were sharing the trail with were annoying him but lets face it, it is
Snowdon, probably the most accessible mountain in the country, if not the world
and on a lovely late summers day you are not going to have the place to
yourself. Not a chance.
As so often happens within 20 minutes of leaving the car park
the crowds had thinned out so I had no need to voice my reservations as to the
pace of the walk as fortunately it had slowed and we soon reached the summit. It may be an accessible
mountain but it is still spectacular and breathtakingly beautiful and just to remind
us that it is still a high mountain and subject the same vagaries of the
weather as any other mountain there was a cool wind and swirling mist shrouding
the summit.
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| Race the train up! |
Not only can you get a train to the top of this mountain you
can also buy a coffee in the restaurant and… a souvenir in the gift shop. Last
time I climbed Snowdon it was with someone who considered himself something of
a mountaineering purist and shunned all things deemed to be “touristy” and so
that time I hadn’t been allowed into either the restaurant or the gift shop so
this time, in a fit of childish rebelliousness, I marched straight into the
gift shop and bought myself some genuine, bona fide, tourist tat.
The descent by the miners tracks and over the causeway
between the lakes didn’t take long either but by the time I got back to the car
park my feet were on fire, I should have just gone for trainers and not big
walking boots on such a warm day. Once my feet had cooled off it was straight
to Pete’s eats for tea and cakes…a day on the hills in Llanberis cannot be
finished any other way!
