My bivvy a month campaign is going well this year with some pretty fine camps. This one was up there with the best!
Again on familiar territory within the Snowdonia National Park in north Wales, I headed up the second highest mountain in Wales & England. At 3490 feet Carnedd Llewellyn is just 70 feet lower than Snowdon, the highest. As I was starting off from a car park at 1230 feet, there was going to be a grueling climb to the summit.
I’ve been here many times before so I knew what to expect. The hard work is rewarded by fine views over the rest of the mountain range.
As the wind was blowing a bit my plan was to bivvy within a ring of stones just off the summit as I’ve used it before. The going was tough in places but the views were magnificent. I only saw a couple of walkers who were descending and no other bikers.
Once I got to the summit I chilled out for a couple of hours and took in the scenery before setting up for the night. As part of my video above, I briefly went through what kit I had packed for this trip.
As the sky darkened the wind also dropped. It was at this point that I heard the sound of a pipe being played and then out of the mist 2 young hippy types emerged barefoot (at the end of the video). After a brief chat they carried on playing for a few minutes as they soaked in the sunset. They were harmless enough and were probably saying “look at that weirdo up here on a bike!”
The night sky was an array of stars as there was no light pollution. The Milky Way was directly above me, Mars, Saturn and Neptune were also on show as well as about a dozen shooting stars!
The morning had whispers of cloud hitting the summit, so my breakfast had a view one minute and nothing the next.
After packing up and leaving no trace, I left the summit and headed to Wales’s highest lake, Llyn Llyffant. It’s very small tbh but it is also a memorial for 2 crew men who died in 1957 when their Canbera aircraft crashed into the mountainside. The wreckage is still there to this day.
From the small lake, it was off piste riding down into the slate valley of Eigiau.
Bivvy a month number 7 done!
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