Legs and Borders

I've made a decision to ditch the plan of following Snowdonia Way and decided to create my own version of it. Why you might ask? Well the map provided by the app "Hiiker" was severely outdated (the bridge in Trawsfynydd has been decommissioned four years ago and it was still part of the path) parts of the trail were severely overgrown and non existent and the final straw for me way that Snowdonia Way did not include climbing up on Snowdon and instead it was meandering around it. What's the point coming to Snowdonia and not climbing it's premiere mountain? I've packed my gear in the morning and had quite a traverse though an overgrown bog until I've reached Penrhyndeudraeth and had a lovely bagel with a latte at a Gorilla Cafe, from here I've mostly road walked to Nantmor and took a Snowdonia Slate Trail (to which I would comeback later on that day) along the river to a pretty village of Beddgelert, here I've had another coffee and cake and got few ...

Hot day, I actually arrived yesterday just in time to take a picture with the partial sun eclipse (12th of August at 19:12) above me! It turns out that you can see it in the shadows cast on the ground or any surface for that matter. I've hiked about 5 miles and stealth camped by a little stream, unfortunately it is not legal to wildcamp in Wales but apparently farmers typically won't make a trouble if you're being respectful. Either way, I'm planning to spend those few night as away from human eyes as possible. Following morning I broke camp at about 7am and carried on along the stream, a sheep tangled itself in a blackberry bush and I managed to cut it out using a sharp stone I found in the stream, it hopped away happily few minutes later with a fair bit of the bush still attached I hope the farmer will spot it and trim it before it becomes a problem again. Just before midday I've arrived at Dolgellau, a pretty historically looking town, I've ate a breakfast at...

Amazing day of hiking, it's almost like Isle of Skye Trail had two faces, one before and one after Portree, the second one was why I came here for! Trail was following cliffs for first few miles until it reached the road and first outstanding part of the trail Old Man of Storr rock formation, place was teeming with tourists and with a good reason, the mountain was beautiful. From here path followed a ridge and then an endurance rollercoaster commenced of climbing cliffs, the view on both sides of the island was great and well worth the effort. I've seen quite a few hikers going south as well. Finally the Quiraing revealed itself, an otherworldly landslip at the end of Trotternish ridge, an absolutely spectacular rock formation with hundreds of tourists walking it's 4 mile circuit. It was truly worth to hike across the Isle of Skye to see this and I hope I will one day return and explore this special place again. From here trail dropped to the sea level and followed a coasta...

Big day, I used up the only sunny day best I could. To be fair trail all the way to Sligachan was very straightforward, a lot of roadwalking, no climbs at all but the surroundings were very charming. I had a quick coffee at Sligachan and carried on through surprisingly muddy track along the Loch Sligachan it was only an hour though before the trail was running along a perfectly dry and even road again. I've arrived at Portree just after 5pm, had a portion of chips, resupplied at a Coop and hiked out of this extremely busy but very beautiful place, it was my last shopping before the end of trail as there wasn't any more towns along the way. Trail leading out of Portree was surprisingly tough, after walking along the coast there was a long climb up to the top of a cliff followed by a windy and boggy walk on top of it. I've managed to find fairly sheltered spot here and decided to call it a day with nearly forty miles covered today my legs were not having it any longer. Good n...