Abergwyngregyn to Deganwy. The hilly day.

A hot and sweaty 250m climb up a steep lane was a jolt at the start of the day. The little car park at the top was already full as we are on the edge of the Carneddau. a popular walking area. Having said that I saw no one for the next few miles.  The track heads up alongside ugly pylons presumably taking hydro electricity to England. I was musing on their incongruity and how it could have been avoided when I saw men hanging from one of the pylons – repairs underway, looked very scary as I know they don’t always disconnect first.    From up here there were obviously good views to the coast and Anglesey and  down to the A55 corridor. I was feeling quite superior that I had chosen the high route. Then it was steeply down to the edge of Llanfairfechan where farmers were repairing a wall with awkward angular rocks, they commented on the easier ‘flatter’ stones we use in the Pennines.                   A complicated series of tracks through sheep country gained height once more for a couple of hours of exhilarating walking on snaking green paths through heather and gorse. Waymarking was sparse and I needed to keep referring to the OS map. Stone circles, lonely farms, idyllic streams, wild ponies, buzzards overhead, stonechat chatting. The old Penmaenmawr  stone quarries were skirted where once stone was lowered to jetties on the coast and apparently in their heyday dust covered the local villages. 

As I approached the Sychnant Pass there were more walkers in the hills. On the other side multiple paths cross Conway Mountain but curiously the NWP chooses to traverse below its summits. I couldn’t miss out the high point and was awarded with stunning birds eye views down to the boats at Conway, the Great Orme at Llandudno and the Carneddau foothills I’d been traversing.  Surely a mistake to bypass the ever so close summit on a North Wales walk. At one point I looked straight down to a caravan park cut of by roads and railways, I wouldn’t have though the ideal holiday. The walled town of Conway is always busy and today there was a fair in full swing. The day was sunny and warm so I continued past the Castle and over the bridge to walk the promenade to Deganwy, this deteriorated in new housing developments denying coastal access – who allows this? A sour end to a wonderful day’s walking.