Big walk today!!! Tarren Hendre From Pennal

Good 4 and a half hour walk today, up Tarren Hendre (633) from Pennal. Tough in parts but with fab views and short enough that you can push it if you wanted.

We parked up in Pennal opposite the Riverside Pub near the church, don't ask me which church they must be big sinners in Pennal as for a small village there seems to be an awful lot of churches.

Then with the main road behind us we headed off down some narrow roads with the forestry to our right.

We continued over to the right and towards Pennal Isaf before climbing upwards to Mynydd Cefen Caer. Traversing to the right with the top of Mynydd to the right and the sharply dropping valley to the left, you can pick out the path on the other side that you need to follow up Tarren Hedrun.

You then follow a well defined path all the way round in a horse shoe shape until you start to climb again, this time all the way to the summit of Hendre. The path isnt great but its easy enough to follow as it runs along the side of a fence, you can also forget any form of sign posting from this point on.

About 15 mins in you come to a stile on the edge of a new bit of forest..ignore it! but do have a look at the fantastic view back across to Caider Idris (893) and the top of Tarren Gesail (667). Continue up the marshy path for 30min all the way to the top of Hendre. Here if your lucky you get awesome views back across to Borth and Barmouth, I wasn't it was getting very hazy and foggy on the top.



From here we started to wind our way along a flat summit back in the direction of Pennal, again forget any sign posts, just kind of vear diagonally across the top until you start to drop down towards 2 small hills. kind of do an S shape across the top of these and then continue dropping down to the right and onto a farm track.

Here it kind of goes a bit pear shaped as you now follow a private farm drive keeping your fingers x that the local farmer doesnt have an arse with you until you hit the small road that you started the walk on.

Keep an eye out on as you drop off the second of the 2 small hills and onto the farm track we saw 2 Red Kites, 3 Buzzards an Owl of some sort and to top it all off a Goshawk. How cool is that, all to the back drop of the Afon Dyfi .

Map

Dyfi Forestry

It was our 4th anniversary today

Today was our anniversary and we decided to celebrate it in style by going to the C.A.T. (Centre of Alternative Technology) cafe in Machynlleth. We sat with all the other ageing hippies warming our hands around a bowl of split pea and pumpkin soup and a homemade bread cheese roll...yummy !!!!! It always seems to take longer to eat our food in their than we anticipate and half an hour later we are still sat there reading the wall to wall advertisement flyer's....ranging from courses in stain glass window making to joining a seed collectors club.

I was on a mission to produce a card by the evening that did not have a picture of a bear on the front holding a heart, which contained the right words without being too soppy. An hour later I came out of a shop, with a smile on face with what I thought was the most unique and poetic card. It was only when I opened my card later that evening I discovered its identical twin in my hand from my girlfriend.

Oh my god !!! I thought...it's finally happened after four years...the transition to Lesbian Morph...my identity blended into her's to such a point that we can't even buy original things for each other. Oh well !!! at least I'll know what I'm going to get for Christmas. Love you baby!! Happy Anniversary.

I Am The Connect Four Champion!!!!

I am now getting my dinner cooked for me, due to the fact that I am the reigning connect four champion in this household. wooooo wooooo. Its all gone quiet over that side...hahahaha

Now I'm not a bad looser, just not a gracious winner. haha I won!

The reason behind it was the fear that now that we're not working we didn't want to become the stereotypical veg in front of the TV types, now personally I could sit on here twiddling with blogs, facebook and various forums all night, but apparently that's unsociable. What!

So we now have non TV days where we play games or plan extensive walking routes on OS maps. The only slight problem is that I'm very competitive and sporty and my girlfriend is strategic and loves to beat at something, anything, just to say she can because she knows its unlikely to happen on a bike or board.

The thing she omitted to tell me when she casually challenged me to chess is that she was a member of the chess club at college for 3 years and regularly played at home. This she tells me after toying with me for 2 hours, gets bored, wants to finish the game and check mates me in 3 moves.

Hence we now have to play slightly less strategic games ( connect 4, jenga, tiddly winks) to give me a fighting chance and I have to give her a head start on a bike to reciprocate. Were hoping this way we wont have to many fall outs, but still...I am the champion, I am the champion, No sign of losers cos I am........