LIFETIME of WALKS by DEREK HARWOOD

We camped at Harlech.

Parking cost £2 at the Quarrying Museum. There was a good view in the car park of the narrow gauge steam engines and disused incline plane railway. From the main gate we followed the obvious tarmac road. There were good views of serious climbers in Vivian Quarry. We assumed, incorrectly, that the path was easy and we couldn't get lost, so we didn't take a map. We could not find the correct path at '3', turning sharp right but could not see a left turn, so we continued past the hospital through a narrow gap in the wall. This path kept us low with only one track sharp right, which we ignored until we reached a bridge over a stream. We had to cross the stream but found a steep path up on the left bank of the stream, crossed it at a higher bridge and continued up steeply, with no field or cottages visible. We asked a local chap walking a dog for directions and he put us on a path. We thought we'd made the mistake at '3' by not continuing up the track to possibly a left track higher, but without knowing the path at '5' may possibly be correct where the chap sent us past a cottage and down a track and path by a stream on the right. There was no slate at '7' but we didn't realise we were at '7' or '8'. We possibly forked right over a stile at '8' instead of forking left, the track to the left being very overgrown. We continued taking tracks to the right until we realised at '13' where we were on the 'AA' sheet. Colin spotted the chapel at '10' and '11' below the road. From '13' we took the left fork down a track by a post box in the wall. Eventually a man corrected us, saying that everyone with our map makes the same mistake. There were good views towards Snowdon and knife edge from '13' to '16'. We were surprised we didn't reach the summit, the map suggested otherwise. We met a Canadian couple on the road at '16', they said their town was bidding for the 2008 Winter Olympics. The path was very wet between '6'and '8'.

Location Map: - www.streetmap.co.uk, - Start & Finish: at Quarrying Museum, Llanberis