Day 1. 4th June 2025, 6:45am and we set off for 3 days in North Wales. Declining the opportunity to stop at the Greggs at Frankley Services on the M5 we pull over at the Telford Services. We should have known better, it's a nice clean service area but the Burger King breakfast was both poor and expensive; we won't make that mistake again! Setting off again I put the post code for The Precipice Walk near Dolgellau into the sat nav. We make good progress until the last few miles which are on very narrow roads some of which have just been resurfaced. This highlights a potential achilles heel with the BMW Z4 as a chipping becomes wedged somewhere in the braking mechanism on the front left wheel generating a terrible screeching noise. This is the second time that this has happened but Mrs. M is unperturbed and carries on and thankfully, on this occasion, it clears itself. The satnav announces that we have arrived at our destination. As I can't see the car park I am just about to ask a hiker for directions when it comes into view and we park up (for free!). I have done this walk twice before, the first time over 40 years ago and was a bit worried that Mrs. M may be worried about the steep drops on some sections. With this in mind we set off to complete the walk in an anti-clockwise direction as apparently this gets to the best views whilst avoiding some of the steeper drops but I needn't have worried and in perfect walking weather we completed the walk without mishap. Highlights were the views towards Barmouth and, towards the end of the walk, a woodpecker. We then headed into Dolgellau for a look around the town and refreshments at the Ship Hotel. From here we headed north to Betws y Coed where we were booked into the Waterloo Hotel for 3 nights. I had stopped here with work many years ago and had the impression that it was one of the best hotels in the area but it turned out to be a bit "tired", a fact that Mrs. M reminded me of on several occasions. We had a walk into the village and then had a couple at The Royal Oak before returning to the Waterloo for what, in Mrs. M's view, was a very reasonable dinner although it has to said that the selection of ales at the bar left something to be desired
Day 2. After an average breakfast we set off for Llanberis as Mrs. M had decided that she would like to go up Snowdon (by train, not on foot). In line with the weather forecast it rained heavily for most of the journey although I did manage to get some images in Pen y Pass where there was plenty of water cascading down the hills! On reaching Llanberis the weather was "changeable". We parked up opposite the Mountain Railway (not cheap at £12.00 for the day although you could park for 20 minutes for free!). If the parking seemed expensive the cost of the trains was an eye-opener at £45 each but given that we probably wouldn't be doing it again we "paid up and looked big" (although to be more precise Mrs. M did). Despite the prices the next train was fully booked so we wandered into the village for a coffee. Returning to the station we boarded the train. The guide said that views at the summit were "a bit hit and miss". the journey to the summit takes about an hour and on arrival it was definitely a "miss", you could hardly see your hand in front of you. The "silver lining" to this particular cloud was that there wasn't much of a queue to climb the final few steps to the summit which I duly did. We managed to find some standing room in the cafe to eat our sandwiches which we'd purchased in the village before completing the return journey and, to be fair, there were some nice views on the descent when the sun put in an occasional appearance. Mrs. M had decided not to wear her waterproof trousers and was therefore thoroughly soaked so we set off back for Betws y Coed where, after a quick change of clothes for Mrs. M, we headed into the village for a couple in the Royal Oak before returning to the Waterloo for dinner
Day 3. After breakfast we set off for LLandudno; my plan was to drive to The Great Ormes Head but this was foiled by a road closure so we decided to revisit Llanddwyn Beach on the edge of the Newborough National Nature Reserve and Forest. This was out second visit in the last couple of years (although for some obscure reason the first visit doesn't seem to appear in a blog). This turned out be an excellent decision; the weather was good and it is a lovely walk along the beach to the Llanddwyn Lighthouse (also known as Twr Mawr) and as an added bonus Mrs. M spotted some seals basking on some rocks just a few yards off the beach. Mrs M was not keen on a third night of dining at our hotel so we set off for the Anglesey Arms at Menai Bridge where we had eaten twice before and again we weren't disappointed. Returning to Betws y Coed we had a quick one in The Glan Aber Hotel bar for old-times sake (I first stopped there in the mid 1970's) before moving on for a couple at The Royal Oak.
We set off for home after breakfast calling in for some shopping at the Aldi in LLangollen where we surprised ourselves by how much you can cram into the boot of our Z4. The sat nav diverted us down the M6 Toll as there was a hold up on the M6 (is it on commission, its getting quite expensive at £10.30!). We stopped at the services at Norton Canes which, despite me thinking that they would be quiet, were actually teeming with people but it was warm enough for us to eat our sandwiches outside before completing the journey home. There are some images in the Wales Gallery.