Tegid Way

The traditional pre-Christmas outing, and a very good one this year. The Tegid Way is a fairly new 18 mile waymarked route that links Cynwyd with Bala, travelling west the whole way albeit by a highly indirect and winding route that avoids all main roads and embraces the best scenery. Jez and I met Peter in Bala, then drove back to start from Cynwyd via a giant dogleg that heads away from Bala and up to the Berwyn ridge and Pen Bwlch Llandrillo. This is a long but gradual climb, ideal for me as I had gone over on my kneecap on the steps down to Gwernymynydd on Friday night - it was a little sore on the descents. Just below the bwlch, the route heads down another superb track to Llandrillo with great views west - cloudy with intermittent sunbursts. From Llandrillo it finally begins to take a more direct route, across fields and then back over the Dee to gain a long and unexpected climb up a steep minor road to eventually gain the quiet village of Llandderfel. Beautiful scenery throughout this section, all obscure: in fact I'm not sure I have ever been along some of these paths or roads before. Finally, Llyn Tegid comes into view - although there were still several detours above the main road on the northern side, and all the way round the edge of Bala, before we got there (2.47 from Cynwyd). A drink in Stori was an excellent way to end an excellent day.