Hi there everyone 😀
This post is the last from our July visit to the lodge, where we packed loads in, including some fabulous walks … this one was a real favourite.
As you will know … Martin and I both love waterfalls. When driving through Llanbedr on our way to Barmouth we’d seen the signs for the Nantcol Waterfalls a number of times. One time we’d even driven to the car park to see what we could see.
Having done plenty of research it was somewhere we definitely wanted to visit and, with a number of options for the length and difficulty of walk, we had it on the cards for our July visit.
As usual our plan was to have a look … see how we felt … and just do what we felt comfortable with.
It was a glorious day … and it was a lovely drive to the car park at the Nantcol camp site … though there are some pretty narrow lanes. It was £4 to park and we were soon ready for the off …
The minute we left the car park we were by the river and within a few feet we could see people in the water cooling off. It looked lovely … and very easily accessible …
We just followed the path along the river … not really knowing where we were going, but just knowing we needed to see more. It wasn’t long before we saw the first real falls … with more people enjoying swimming and splashing about …
From here the path veered away from the river a bit and was quite steep and rocky in places … but we just kept going …
The views at the top were absolutely fabulous …
We didn’t really have any plans as to how far we would go but just kept following the fairly obvious path … which led us back to the river …
The river was pretty low as we hadn’t had rain for a fair old while, but it was still pretty and there were lots of places where it was very easy to get in. A paddle would have been just heavenly but we hadn’t come prepared for that …
The path took us away from the river again …
… and we found ourselves on the ‘blue’ route, with the path snaking off through the ferns …
… before coming back to the river again …
Suddenly we came to a spot where there was a huge open rock on the left and what looked like cascades on the right. Martin opted for ‘Pride Rock’ as he called it and I headed for the cascades …
He said the view looking across to the main waterfall was amazing and I will definitely go that way next time. I’m guessing the falls were a fraction of their usual selves and I actually climbed up the face of them, rather than taking the path …
It was an amazing spot and totally unexpected. This is the view from the top … looking across to ‘Pride Rock’ … it was just stunning … and looking very much like an infinity pool from this viewpoint …
Having had a sit watching the falls for a while we decided that, rather than retracing our steps back along the river, we would continue on the blue circular route, which took us across some open ground with fabulous views of the mountains …
It was just after here where it all went a bit pear shaped for me for a bit and I had a really funny turn. I think I’d just been too energetic in the sun for too long and I just had to lay down.
Luckily after a bit of a rest and a cool down I felt a lot better and we were soon on our return leg which took us down through the woodland and round the back of the camp site. I was so busy focusing on putting one foot in front of the other there were no photos … until we got down to the bottom … where I couldn’t not take a photo of the stile. Fortunately there was a gate … so I didn’t have to climb over it …
It was then just a short walk back along the river to the car park … where I sat in the car for a while with the aircon on full blast … before we gathered our picnic and found a spot in the shade to refuel.
In spite of my ‘episode’ it was a lovely walk. The river, the waterfalls, the mountains were all absolutely beautiful and I can only imagine what it would be like after plenty of rain.
We will definitely be back to find out … with hopefully a little less sunshine … and it’s not often you will hear me say that 😀
