Wild camping at Llyn Cau - Cadair Idris, Snowdonia

Last Friday, I finished work at lunchtime, came home and packed the van and headed via Merthyr to pick up Tina and off we drove up to Dol Idris car park at the base of Cadair Idris. We were spending the weekend in Snowdonia and had planned to do a wild camp at Llyn Cau up Cadair Idris. I thought it would be good practice and training for our long distance walk coming up at the end of the month. Prior to this trip, neither of us had done any walking with a backpack on, let alone a backpack weighing in at 15 kilos+! Probably a mistake...but we still survived!

We arrived around 7.30pm because there was a few road works and a fully laden van drives a bit slower than a car! We didn't actually set off hiking until 8pm...I'm not sure what we were doing for half hour because I'm pretty sure all I was doing was putting my boots on and trying to get my backpack on, which says a lot. I stood in the car park with this pack on and it was sooooooo heavy, I was wondering how I'd even manage to walk on the flat when I was struggling to stand up. I looked over and Tina was having the same problems:

She seemed to be struggling more...the reason she had the tent was because I was carrying the stove and a load of water plus the dog stuff. So anyway, after 30 mins of faffing, we were ready to go - packs on, trekking poles at the ready!

This was the last time Tina smiled for about 2 hours!

We hadn't even walked 100m and Tina's shoelace came undone and I almost lost her as she nearly toppled into the lake next to the car park. We probably should have read some advice on how to pack your backpack before this wild camp. I mean in my defence, I had read Alastair Humphreys' Microadventures book - so we knew we had everything we needed - but had probably ended up a bit top heavy, which is a bad move when backpacking [we know now].

If you've never hiked Cadair Idris, or read my previous posts on the hikes I've done up here....the Minfford path is hardgoing - and that was the way we headed up. It's extremely steep and just a load of steep steps to climb up. Once we got going, I felt alright. It was really difficult essentially hiking 2 stone heavier because of the backpack but we just stopped a bit more to alleviate the weight by leaning on some rocks and kept heading up.

Tina struggled more because she doesn't do as much walking and had a really ill fitting backpack on - which she'd never noticed before as she's never actually hiked with it on.

I wasn't sure she'd even be able to stand back up once she stopped.

Tina is a real inspiration. She's 50 (I'm sure she won't mind me telling you) and really hates exercise and I don't even think she really liked the outdoors to start with..I think if you ask her, she'll still tell you she doesn't, but I challenge you to show me a person who doesn't like the outdoors who would agree to wild camp up Cadair Idris! We met in work what must be about 6 years ago now? We went on regular camping trips which were fuelled with lots of prosecco and gin...and involved a lot of walking to tire the dogs out. So she has become this unintentional outdoorsy person who agrees to long hikes and long distance trails and wild camps up high mountains without any knowledge of what they entail at all. I admire her courage - or maybe it's stupidity? Either way, I feel I'm doing a good job getting her addicted to the mountains!

The weather was perfect for hiking really. It was pretty warm but cloudy and a really clear day. We carried on upwards to the lake. After the first section of steep steps, the path does level off a bit but it's still a continuous climb. I was feeling surprisingly strong once we got past this first bit. I think a lot of the battle with walking and hard walks is definitely psychological. The mental challenge of getting up a hill is hard work. Once I get going past that first hurdle, I normally feel pretty invincible. Good thing I did because Tina definitely didn't feel invincible. I kept powering on and then slowing down in case I lost her as she journeyed on behind me, regret in every step that she had such a poorly fitting backpack but determined all the same! It started to get darker and we were losing light but I knew the lake wasn't far away so I kept her spirits up by telling her that we didn't have long to go...in reality, I normally walk the path which avoids the lake so truth be told, it was really hard to estimate exactly how far we had to go, but that definitely wasn't going to help her flagging pace and the lake doesn't appear until quite a bit further up, so I'm sure she thought I was lying!

The light setting over Cwm Cau.

We picked a flat, less boggy place to pitch right next to the lake and put up the tent. I'd lent my dad's tent for wild camping. It's just a basic higear 2 man tent from GoOutdoors (think it's called a proton 2?). It's lighter than my smallest tent and packs smaller and it's served us well on trips down Pembs so was ideal for the 2 of us, plus the dogs and has a gear store/porch for the backpacks. This was definitely a more successful wild camp than our last one as I'd remembered to pack pegs. The only thing was I packed about 10 pegs and in reality probably needed a few more, so we got selective with which bits we pegged out to make up for it! Always bring 50% more pegs than you think you may need.

Tina did help me with pitching the tent but then like the crazy person she is and somewhat spurred on by the sheer success of making it up the mountain with such a heavy backpack on when she clearly thought she may not succeed, she decided to go for a wild swim in Llyn Cau. I had just donned my Rab jacket and was lighting the adventure stove to heat a chilli up so although I had my bather with me I just couldn't even contemplate jumping in a freezing glacial lake. I encouraged her to though as my recent experience with wild swimming has made me realise how liberating and exhilarating it can be! She told me it was warmer than the wild swim we'd done at Sgwd Gwladys waterfall a month or so ago. I started to worry she was going delusional or that the altitude had affected her judgement as that was definitely impossible...but I didn't voice it as I didn't think that would help matters!

Tina IN the lake!

I tried to get closer to take a photo of her but ended up inadvertently wading into the lake without realising so hastily retreated and kept cooking the chilli! The wind had picked up but it was a pretty calm night and there were only a few sheep milling about and nobody else there. The beagles were loving life as always...it's not their typical Friday night! But they are used to heading off to adventurous places at a moment's notice. They're not rescue dogs but I do feel we've rescued them from a lifetime of Crufts and shows...I think they're living a much better life now!

Tent pitched in 10 mins! The joy of small tents. 

Headtorches are essential! It didn't even feel this dark at the time.

So we cooked up a lovely chilli and ate it with tortilla chips instead of rice to minimise cooking as we had the adventure stove. We purposely hadn't brought much booze, so we just had a mini bottle of bubbly each. Tina inhaled hers mega fast but the dogs wouldn't settle for ages so it took me a while to even crack mine open and I was sat in the porch!

Tina started moaning there was a moth in the tent and flies coming in, so I told her to turn off her headtorch to stop attracting them to the light. What she proceeded to do was to pass the LIT torch to me and asked me to hold it, whilst aiming it at my mug of freshly poured prosecco...and LO AND BEHOLD, IN FLEW THE MOTH. To say I was tamping was a fucking understatement. Everything seems heightened in the mountains so when about to relax with a well earned glass of wine, a giant moth flying in to drown a slow and delightful death was really irritating. I'm not great around creepy crawly things but luckily Tina is so she came to fish it out. I drank the rest of it because that would be a waste otherwise but it definitely didn't taste the same! Either way, it was abated somewhat by the amazing lack of light pollution which meant once the sun had fully gone down and the stars came out, they completely filled the sky and it took my breath away. I sat out watching them for quite a while because the opportunities to do this are pretty rare (a clear night with no clouds).

We cwtched into our sleeping bags about half 11 but I felt wide awake for some reason and couldn't get to sleep straight away. Tina was unconscious within seconds [as always]. The dogs settled down quickly but Gracie had stayed out of the sleeping bag so I stayed awake for a bit because she gets a lot colder than Dexter and was convinced she'd move or try to get into one of our sleeping bags.

So here comes the really creepy bit about this wild camp...Tina was totally oblivious to it as she was dead to the world. I was confident we wouldn't encounter any wildlife but had packed away all the food zipped into a backpack and stowed in several bag for lifes just in case. I could hear this intense rustling really close by and movement as if something was creeping up on the tent.

My heart started to race a bit but I just ignored it and put it down to my imagination playing tricks on me. It carried on though, to the extent where I probably stayed awake for 2 hours just freaking out thinking we were under attack by some kind of rogue fox or sheep. It went from a rustling to a movement REALLY close by to an intense sniffing. I wondered why the dogs weren't reacting and that stressed me out even more - surely if there was an animal outside, they would hear it and start barking (as they usually do, they are beagles after all - sound the alarm!!!).

Anyway, 2am ticked by and I was still wide awake and really feeling panicked although still trying to convince myself everything was fine. "Tina, can you hear that???" I was just greeted with a lot of snoring...I would be mauled to death by the fox/sheep/monster before Tina even registered I was dead and came to prise my cold dead corpse out of its clutches.

So, I had a really unsettled night. My beagles are also such a flight risk that they keep me up too, so even though the tent was zipped up with the zips at the top so they couldn't burrow out, I woke up at about 3am and Dexter was missing and not where he'd gone to sleep. On top of all this, the rustling/sniffing/animal movement had escalated and I started to panic thinking OMFG WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! I woke Tina up in a real panic [with much difficulty] and told her to hold Gracie cos I went from panic to relief that the rustling was Dexter trying to tunnel into the leftover chilli to thinking DEXTER IS OUTSIDE OF THE TENT IN A SHEEP ZONE AND I NEED TO SECURE HIM. Half asleep and fumbling with the tent zips, I realised Dexter was alive and well INSIDE the tent behind me...but he was spewing because he was overheating.

Great. I recovered from the panic that my beagle was lost to Cadair Idris only to feel sleep deprived and horrified that he'd spewed and half eaten it over my sleeping bag and pillow. (If you're reading dad, don't worry your tent has had a thorough clean and he managed to avoid the groundsheet anyway and just spew over me and my petzl headtorch). All in all, it was an absolutely awful night for sleep. My fitbit told me I slept for 5 and a half hours but I swear it's wrong and was just logging me as sleeping when in actual fact, I was lying deadly still shining my headtorch out and trying to ward off whatever was attacking the tent. I really needed a pee but remember thinking, "I'd rather piss myself than go out there and face whatever is there."

This is probably a good place to point out the legends and myths surrounding Llyn Cau and Cadair Idris. Before going up, I hadn't read them all [probably a good thing]...so the only thing I knew was that it was rumoured if you slept up at Llyn Cau, you either awoke a madman or a poet. We're pretty mad anyway, so that seemed like a good bet. I've since read that many people are rumoured to "sleep....never to wake again." Pretty freaking creepy! Other tales tell that the lake is bottomless and that it houses a water monster (or dragon? The lore is quite sketchy on the details) that King Arthur trapped and then unleashed up there and that it will eat anyone who swims across the depths of the lake. I mean, come on - Tina was the one who ventured in (not that she swam right across it) so I am livid that she got to sleep peacefully while I felt the wrath of whatever ancient being she had disturbed all night!!!

As with all nights, morning came eventually and I was up at 6am and headed out of the tent to check the camp. Nothing had moved and it was all eerily quiet with a mist hanging in the air and over the ridge of Cwm Cau.

Dawn at Llyn Cau.

It felt really fresh and everything was covered in a morning dew. Despite not sleeping well at all, I felt really fresh myself and quite rested, which is surprising really. Tina woke up about 10 minutes later and said "GOOD MORNING, WHAT A WONDERFUL MORNING, WHAT TIME IS IT?" She promptly went back to sleep when I told her it was 6am. I thought I'd do the decent thing and put the kettle on for a cuppa. After waiting ages for it to boil because it was quite windy, I thought I'd bring it further into the porch so repegged the tent to accommodate it and the beagles had settled back down because they'd had food so they'd gone back to sleep too.

I felt a bit uncomfortable so thought I'd lie down in the porch and just gaze up at the morning sky...in doing so, I knocked over the almost boiling pot of water which luckily missed me, although I then had to start over with the tea. In the process of doing this, my adventure stove ran out of gas. So what we had was actually a lukewarm cup of tea [coffee for Tina] and the porridge had to wait until we got back to the van!

Shortly after I scalded myself.

Despite all this, it was a wonderful morning and such a great feeling to be awake with nobody else around (there may well have been people camping on the summit but we didn't see anyone until we started to descend). 11th August is a really hard day for me personally and being outdoors somewhere so remote gave a real sense of clarity and I sat in quiet reflection just looking at the water of the lake lapping at the shore thinking about how complicated life can be, but at the same time how uncomplicated it should be.

Tina is a good person to be away with as we've shared similar experiences and she voiced a great sentiment when we were chatting recently which I've given a lot of thought to since. We were talking about death...specifically, the loss of an immediate loved one unexpectedly (as we've both experienced). She said "This isn't the life I imagined, but it's still a wonderful life." I thought about it a lot. She's definitely right. It's not what you imagine, when you lose someone who should be there longer to share in your life and love and the memories you make...but what's important is what you do with the precious time you do have. Life is short and fleeting and more and more nowadays, I question myself - if I died right now, would I be happy with what I've done so far? How I've spent my time? The answer is always yes now. If your answer is no, I really urge you to re-evaluate what is important in your life and to make changes so that your answer can be yes. Ultimately, we all want to live as long as possible...but what we really need is to just make each moment count and be happy. That's the way I live my life now.

People ask me if I get tired because I'm always so busy doing things and spend most weekends camping or away. There'll be plenty of time to rest when I'm dead. That's my honest answer really. Life is so fleeting that I don't think you can spend a minute of it hesitating feeling that you need more rest or less things to do. Fill every treasured moment with happiness and adventure and friends and family and LIFE. Don't get me wrong, living this kind of lifestyle can be tiring...I get home and I have extra work to do with unpacking the van and tidying and cleaning bits of camping kit or drying out awnings or washing extra clothes...but I wouldn't have it any other way. When I wake up Monday morning feeling exhausted with camping withdrawals, I drag myself to work and I get through it because I know that in 4 more days I will be away doing something awesome again and that I need to work to fund having these adventures, even though they're not that expensive really! It is 150% worth it.

Anyway, I've digressed a bit! We managed to pack up the tent and have everything away by 8am ready to start hiking down the mountain. The original plan was to hike up to the summit and back but that was a lot of climbing and would be pretty hardgoing with such heavy backpacks on. We debated hiding them and picking them up on the way down but the weather didn't look brilliant at this point in time and wasn't forecast to be great...the mist then slowly blew away and we were treated to a really sunny morning descent down the Minfford path, which was lovely.

Sunrise.

The backpacks didn't feel that much lighter despite being a significant amount of weight less in terms of water (including the large amount I'd spilled whilst boiling the kettle for a cuppa). Nevertheless, going downhill was SO much easier than going uphill - although the beagles spotted a sheep running away close by which meant the first 10 minutes were an absolute nightmare as I battled them (even on figure of 8 leads) pulling me downhill over uneven rocky steps and emitting a blood curdling screaming (them, not me).

Tina looking victorious on the way down!

We barely saw anyone on the way up as were going down, which I was a bit surprised about and then about 20 mins down, we passed that rare breed of person - a fell runner. You know the type, small pack on, sickeningly lean, breezing along not even out of breath despite the fact he'd just ascended a really steep stretch of mountain. He was just legging it up ridiculously happy loving life and asked us what the weather had been like overnight and how the camp had been. We felt rather smug and part of this exclusive club of people who had survived a night on the mountain [hadn't turned into a poet or madman or died] and everyone else knew it by the size of the packs we were trudging back down with.

Tina was starting to feel the pain in every downhill step here and took every opportunity to stop to let other hikers pass [for a rest] - I don't blame her!

We were back down by 9am! The warden arrived to clean the car park and was really friendly and asked how our camp overnight had been. He seemed a really nice chap. We had originally planned to dredge on and do another very long hike Saturday but it was always going to be dependent on the weather and how tired we were...I was knackered after being so sleep deprived, so what we did was drive to Beddgelert and park up and cook some breakfast before heading to the microbrewery campsite we'd booked into near Rhyd Ddu for the night.

The dogs stole the van seats...

And Tina ended up outside on the dog bed with her turkey rasher sandwich!

All we did was laze and drink a few wines and gin and tonics...but that was totally justified after the adventure! It drizzled a bit and the rain came in heavier later on in the evening but it looks like we missed all the storm-like weather that hit South Wales that day.

Tina testing out the new lounger.

We went to bed about half 8..which is unheard of for us on a camping trip! But we had a fantastic sleep...and in Vanhalla, we were safe from all sorts of sniffing ghost foxes/sheep/lake monsters. I woke up feeling ridiculously refreshed and we headed home via Trawsfynydd Lake for a quick walk and spot of lunch!

All in all, it was a pretty epic 12 hours....even if I did spend a lot of the morning cleaning dog sick out of my favourite headtorch. I feel like sometimes, I can't even write this shit - although I do! As usual, it was a really memorable trip and has definitely reignited my desire to go wild camping more in a tent! Tina feels the same so we are already planning the next trip and longer hike...probably September and in the Western Brecon Beacons...stay tuned!