After our day on the Bwlch we allowed ourselves a late breakfast at the Red Lion.
The weather was not forecast to be great so we decided to go home via a few more of the places listed in our Guidebook. We loaded the car in the rain.
From Dinas Mawddwy we were planning to go to Lake Bala. Rather than going the ‘long way’ round we turned right out of the Red Lion car park to head off over a pass. The road initially started off with houses on either side and gradually as the houses thinned the road became narrower and narrower. Luckily as we moved out into the hills we stopped meeting other traffic.
Bwlch Growes
We hadn’t realised at first that we were driving over the highest pass in North Wales. The road has tight hairpin turns as we climbed up to the summit. Once there our views were restricted by the low lying clouds.
We learnt about the pass from the sign. This road had been used by the Austin Motor Company in the 1930s to test their cars. At the side of the car park was a large mound and I’m guessing that it gets used by 4×4 enthusiasts to test their metal. It did give me a good viewpoint too.
As we stood overlooking the valley the clouds rolled in
There was a brief moment when we could see a break in the clouds.
The mist and cold eventually convinced us to get back into the car and to start our descent to Lake Bala.
We began to pass farms and way ahead of us we spotted a cattle truck pulling a trailer. This gave us time to find a field gate entrance that we squeeze into so that the truck had the whole road to pass us.
Lake Bala at Llangower
After all the excitement on the road of the pass we were happy to be once more on roads wide enough for two cars. With the lake on our left we came to a small car park and pulled off to have a closer look. The car park was next to a platform. Over the track was a small beach where we could see a man setting up his canoe.
We had parked next to his car and when he came back we had a chat. He was waiting for friend and then he was going out onto the lake to do some training.
