We were greeted in the plush surroundings at Plas Tan y Bwlch and, after check-in and dinner on Sunday, we received our briefing for the week before retiring to the bar and getting acquainted with our new colleagues.
I like walking. Circular walks are OK, linear walks are better, but a walk over several days from coast to coast is altogether more challenging and adventurous.
Monday
No blues apart from the skies and almost the sea. We walk out of Conwy up the North Wales Path. Bracken, blooming heather and wild ponies within minutes. Conwy Castle, completed 1287, captured briefly by Owain Glyndwr's men who gained entrance dressed as women and slaughtered the guard. The river ran red for many days, or so said our guide. History through rose-tinted specs?
We emerge from the footpath at the top of the Sychnant (dry valley) Pass. Puffin Island is in view, a thriving community for puffins until brown rats arrived in 1890. The Countryside Council for Wales have just eliminated the rats so the few remaining puffins can go forth and multiply. It's also home to 36 per cent of the cormorants in Wales.
Further along we come to the Sychnant Pass Stone Circle. One of the largest stones has been blasted apart and you can see the drill marks into which the explosive was stuffed. Was this high chapel incitement against paganism or just hooliganism?
Next is Caer Bach (little fort), an Iron Age hillfort a short scramble up from the main path. The remains of walls, ditches and ramparts are plain to see. What was its purpose? Did it guard an ancient trackway below? What was its relationship to the much larger Pen-y-Gaer hillfort that can be seen in the near distance? We hypothesise and let imagination infill the missing detail.
As we make our way to today's rendezvous with the minibus we pass several standing stones. One of our group gets out his dowsing rods and shows the "forces" at work between stones. Am I convinced or sceptical?
Tuesday
With sunshine and packed lunches we walk from Pen-y-Gaer hillfort alongside a leat built to divert rainwater into connected reservoirs and power schemes.
Llyn Eigiau is set in a beautiful valley scarred by a long and oddly shaped dam wall. We look at the flimsy walls which broke in 1925, sending a torrent of water through Dolgarrog killing 16 people. The death toll would have been higher were it not for the film being shown at the village hall. The church was swept away with its bell tolling.
Lunch stop outside the deserted farmhouse called Eilio. A witch's cauldron perched on top of a stone wall not far from Pen Llithrig y Wrach (Slippery Witch's Head).
Onwards to Llyn Cowlyd, the deepest lake in North Wales supplying water to Llandudno and which gets a mention in the Mabinogion. An owl consults a large salmon which drags the owl deep into the waters. Upon agreeing to remove the heads of fishing spears stuck in its back the Salmon shares his knowledge and secrets about the lake. A likely tale?
As we walk down the slopes towards Capel Curig the views of the Glyders and Tryfan are just brilliant.
The walk continues...
