Dyddiad/Outdoor meet date…08.05.2011

Trefnydd/Meet convener … Dewi Jones
Nifer/Number on meet …10
Enwau/Names …
Tywydd/Weather …

Manylion y daith/Meet details

It was quite a bright morning with a fresh breeze as eleven of us set out towards Rhobell from Cwm yr Allt-lwyd. A chance of heavy showers was forecast but we had to hope that they would miss us.

We managed to squeeze our four cars onto the limited bits of suitable parking where the tarmaced road up the valley ends and by about half past ten we were on our way. As you climb out of the valley a bit of levelled track follows the line of the old path, which leaves the road near where we were parked. This becomes less obvious once the angle of the slope eases and one heads for an obvious stile over the only fence on the hillside. From here on the ground is much rougher with a lot of heather on the slopes leading up to Rhobell-y-Big, our first objective. Accordingly this part of the walk was quite laborious and despite doing our best to take the line of least resistance we were glad to reach rocks and scramble up onto this rather nice little 504m summit.

Ahead of us we could see our next objective, Rhobell Ganol, and beyond that Rhobell Fawr. A very dry April meant that despite recent rain the boggy ground in between was not too wet and we were soon making our way up to the second top of the day. Down then to more wet ground before taking a short break and commencing the longer climb onto Rhobell. Here the party became very strung out with faster walkers reaching the top possibly a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes before the leader and the tailenders. I felt obliged to point out that the first rule of mountain safety is that the party should keep together at all times. As some people had already started eating we stayed in the lee of the summit to have our lunch.

The next move was downhill in an easterly direction to reach the edge of the forest at Ty-Newydd-y-Mynydd There is no sign of the house that once was here. A new sign indicates the way through the trees to Dduallt but the meet leader did not feel up to taking that option, so we followed the forest road northwards the bore left on a path through the trees which eventually emerges onto open ground and an east descent to the valley. Gerallt insisted on taking the team photo in front of an abandoned farm house which some members of the party kept refering to as Cwm Porno. Far be it from me to try and explain why!