#hIking north wales

[vintagecamping]

Three friends climbing on top of a bluff.

North Wales

1931

[callumreuben]

[angiethewitch]

Rhaeadr Fawr

[nathanbeacham]

I went walk in place Coedydd Aber Natural

[escapetothewildside]

Gelerts Grave

Nice easy flat walk in Beddgelert via Gelerts grave stunning views of the surrounding mountains and a walk along the river bank. Follow this link to see the Route plotted on OS Maps Beddgelert village It’s a simple route down the riverside, a little diversion to see Gelerts grave and then back up the opposite side of the river. Gelerts Grave The storey of Gelert the dog is a sad one. He was…

[neilirving73]

We Had A Nice Hike Up Moel Famau

[naturistgirl]

Naked Hiking on The North Wales Coastal Path - Llywbr Arfordir Sir Fflint

Flintshire doesn't immediately spring to mind as a naturist paradise.

Wales is a truly beautiful country; land of my husband's birth. This place is culturally different to England and treated as an entirely separate nation. It has its own government, football and national rugby teams (both Union and League). It is one of the few countries in the world to proudly display a whacking great Draig Goch (Red Dragon) on its green and white national flag.

The national language of Wales is Cymraeg (Welsh) - an Celtic language like Gaelic. Both myself and my husband speak and write Welsh fluently. It is my husband's first language. He learned Saesneg (English) later at school. I learned Welsh to respect the traditions of the people whose land this is. It is not a difficult language to learn.

So what about Sir y Fflint (Flintshire)? This border county lies in the East alongside the estuary of the Afon Dyfrdwy (River Dee). The wide and shifting sands of the Dee separate England from Wales. Pointing out across the water; England is a vague distant blue smudge across there on a summer day with the tide out. You can conveniently forget about it (along with your clothes!),

This is the area most tourists shun and forget. As such it makes great naturist walking country! From Y Fflint (Flint town) you can walk past dunes and woodland, out along a lonely shoreline with only the seabirds for company!

Here you will see dunlin, egrets, oyster catchers, turnstones, curlews and all manner of geese when the seasons are right. It is an ever changing natural landscape, just waiting for the natural, naked you, to explore and enjoy. Noethlymun is the word for 'naked' here in Wales; heb dillad - clothes free. Take someone else along with you to share and enjoy this wild and beautiful landscape.

Thanks to my wonderful photographer husband Martin (above and below) for the gorgeous photos. We would love you to share, like and re-blog this post if you are naturists like ourselves. If you are naturally inclined, we hope this blog inspires you to walk naked yourself and find your own secret places to be wild and free.

Finally, we have a little difficulty understanding why some of you have such sad, empty blogs or ones with explicitly erotic names. A lot of you do like this blog, maybe just for the naked pics? We don't sit in judgement however. Variety is the spice of life after all. Please like and share if you wish. Please remember though that this isn't a sexually themed blog and the posts do not equate sex with naturism. That is not to say that we don't enjoy all manner of sexual activity; we do! You just won't find it on here.

Jane xx

[lymphomalass]

Hi! Hope you’ve had a great week!

I’ve had an exhausting but inspiring Welsh language summer school at Bangor University this week (diolch yn fawr iawn/thank you very much, www.DysguCymraeg.cymru !), so today I just wanted to show you the lambs I saw and sketched last month, while Steve and I were on holiday hiking up Tre’r Ceiri in Pen Llŷn/ the Llŷn Peninsula.

The A5 unframed original is available from me (via private message) for £25, or it’s available printed on lots of lovely things at:

Thanks!

Sam aka LymphomaLass xx

[deweydecimalchickens]

I spent the weekend walking the Ardudwy Way from Barmouth to Llandecwyn in north Wales, and it was mostly amazing. Pictures of the amazing bits to follow. However, here are some bits that went a bit wrong:

My first night in my one-person lightweight tent. Did you know these things tend to be much warmer if you remember to fully zip up the door flap? News to me!

As well as the aforementioned cows, there were horses on the path at one point. I have never seen horses in this area before. One was pretty chill and just grazed, but the other was noticeably panicky and actually got its shoulder under the chill one and forced its head up to stare at me. Oh well, time for another detour through another bog while avoiding eye contact and talking in soothing tones. This is why we wear waterproof socks.

Plan A had been to refill my water bottle from this stream. Then I saw the truly stupendous amount of hemlock-water-dropwort growing in it. I don't actually know if Britain's most toxic plant can poison the water it's growing in, but I wasn't going to be the idiot who found out it does.

The actual path is completely invisible and veers sharply to the right among the head-high bracken. You just had to sort of walk into it and see which bit let you through. The fake-ass path on the left was created by multiple people going the wrong way and then falling down a hole. Including me.

There was a whole extra valley like this. I didn't take photos but I was just stumbling through bracken, relying on knowing the trajectory of the path on the map, using my trekking poles like a cane in front of me because I couldn't see the ground, for about an hour. I also accidentally scared the hell out of a group of young people who hadn't realised they weren't alone in there, and were attempting to escape straight up the scree/craggy side. We've all been there, but they were making even slower progress than I was. I did keep an eye on them and make sure they got out okay.

I spent the last mile and a half running for the last train. In hiking boots and with my giant rucksack on my back. My filter water bottle fell off my rucksack at some point in this mad dash, so a) I littered and b) I was so thirsty I ended up drinking unfiltered stream water. (At least this was over 300m above sea level so didn't have hemlock-water-dropwort in it.) Luckily the train station was ready for people doing such stupid things.

I also have to hike in this ridiculous headgear because I started out with blue eyes and freckles and then took a medication that makes me more sensitive to the sun. No amount of sunscreen can stop me from going lobster.

I genuinely had a wonderful time, but yeah...

[smallearthboundfindings]

There's something about earthbound I've been wondering about and i think maybe you can weigh in as the local expert. I keep seeing fans interpret jeff as British but to me that's not fully right because winters is this super cold snow country "up north" as the game says. So i always imagined him as something norse, y'know Swedish or Norwegian or Finnish maybe (heck even russian could be fun). But it's just a vibe on my end while the way Fans call him British feels like there's some canonical proof i missed somewhere? Sooo do you know if there's any big proof that jeff would be British or is it just a fanon agreement thing?

Howdy! Well, the British allegations are not unfounded. EarthBound is somewhat like Pokémon in which different areas are clearly based on real world areas based on their positioning, parallels to real world landmarks, local food, and so forth. Eagleland is the U.S., Scaraba is Egypt, and Winters is no exception!

Our first little bit of proof can be found in the Japanese manual, where it contains a rough world map. Here it is (this time, a different version to the one previously posted!) for reference and a zoomed in version including Winters in as much detail as I can provide with what I've got. I had to stitch this from a double page scan, so please forgive some artifacting issues.

[Id: A scan from the Japanese Mother 2 manual, showcasing a planet much resembling our own in real life but with different regions and towns marked. The zoomed in portion reads "Foggyland" in big text with "Winters" and "Stonehenge" written in a smaller font below, descending vertically in that order.]

There appears to be a little island in the general area of Winters and Stonehenge, just like the U.K. in real life!

But here's the question: is Winters there? I know this map is a little unclear with its huge text, but hang in there. Even though Winters looks like it might be on that rightmost landmass, take a look at the full map of Winters (which I am only linking and not embedding because it is very big), and you have Winters and Stonehenge in the same landmass; just cross the Lake Tess on Tessie!

For reference, the American manual confirms it's a lake, so either they're both on the landmass, or both on the island.

[Id: A scan from the American EarthBound manual. It is a plain text paragraph reading "The South Shore. If you manage to catch a ride with Tessie to the South Shore of Lake Tess, you'll find more woods and some animals that you've already met like the Goat. Follow the path southward, defending yourself as you go. A short hike will bring your to a fascinating artifact and another amazing challenge."]

So, here's where we get to real world parallels. Lake Tess and Tessie are clearly analogues to Loch Ness and Nessie (located in northern Scotland just above England), and Stonehenge literally shares its name with its real world counterpart located in southern England. So, if we are to match these locations, then Winters would logically be on the island, meaning that Jeff would be from the EB equivalent of the United Kingdom, which encompasses England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. He could really be from any of these! Therefore, your options here would be British, Scottish, Welsh, or Irish, but it seems like British is the most common interpretation.

Hope that helped!

[pontydd-a-choed]

Gwyliau yng Nghymru - Questions

This post is going to be in English (the first time really on this account) because I want to reach a bigger audience. (Mae'r fersiwn Cymraeg yn y reblogau)

A friend and I will be travelling to Wales this September to hike the Welsh Coast Path, specifically the stretch between Chester and Bangor. For this I wanted to ask you whether you have any recommendations whatsoever for places to eat, sleep and just general things. I also really want to try Welsh cakes so if there's any good places along the North Wales Coast, I'd love to know.

Neither of us has been to Wales before and also the last time to the UK was 5/6 years ago for each of us so we'll really take any tips!

I'm personally also planning to buy some books in Welsh so if you have a recommendation for a nice book shop in either Bangor or Manchester, that'd be great!

Diolch yn fawr iawn a dw i'n edrych ymlaen at fynd i Gymru :)

[utterlyinevitable]

↪ series masterlist  

29. Birthday Babes

Pairing: Colin Bridgerton x Penelope Featherington   Format: textfic   Chapter Rating: T+

Summary: Colin's been weird since V-Day, but then he takes Pen to a romantic cabin for her birthday

Penelope: Happy birthday, superstar 🌟♥️ any big plans?

Hungry One🦛: Thanks, P. Nothing too exciting. Having dinner with a few travelers I met up with

Penelope: What's on the menu?

Hungry One🦛: Cajun I think

Penelope: Hey, you ok?

Hungry One🦛: Yea

Penelope: You can talk to me you know. You've been weird since you left.

Birthday blues?

Hungry One🦛: Just unplugging for a bit. Don't worry. I'll see you 3rd April, yeah?

Penelope: Yeah if that works for you. Don't go rearranging on my account.

Hungry One🦛: My tour will be done by then. There won't be a sleeper train in the US I haven't tried when I'm through

Penelope: Can’t wait to read your review. I'll see you then.

Promise me one thing?

Hungry One🦛: I WILL be taking you for a birthday meal. Allow a man his small pleasures.

Penelope: No not that but thank you.

Be kind to yourself. Whatever this is that's got you in a funk will sort itself out. You're very funny and wonderful and charming and so bloody brilliant it's unreal. No matter what grief they give you, your family loves you dearly and just want to help.

You're also much too good looking to be sad 😉

Hungry One🦛: Thanks pen

Penelope: I hope you know you're my best friend. I care about you so so much, Colin.

Hungry One🦛: You're my best friend too <3

Penelope: If you're taking me out for my birthday, let me take you out for yours. Lets have a big bash (theoretically speaking, i'm poor yk)

Hungry One🦛: Deal

-

She’s mucked things up.

Penelope doesn’t know how but she knows something has undoubtedly changed between them. They've barely talked since he left whilst she was still asleep some three-odd weeks ago.

It can’t be the fact she’s sharing her place with him when he needs -- he's stayed around hers a countless amount of times these last two years and there has never ever been weirdness.

And it’s not that they share a bed -- they’ve never not shared a bed since they reconnected. She has some of her best sleep with him wrapped around her, legs intertwined and his heartbeat her lullaby.

Maybe it’s…

She does the quick math: they haven’t fucked in months. Since she moved in and christened nearly every room of her flat to be exact.

That can’t be it, could it?

Colin could just as well initiate; he’s certainly woken up with enough hard ons to get her hot and bothered. God, are they too comfortable with each other? Has the spark dimmed on their sex friendship? Are they well and truly only flatmates at this point? Or worse…

Has he met someone else?

Colin wouldn’t be cagey for no reason. He’s been backpacking across North America and bound to make a connection with some beautiful worldly woman with long legs and blemish-free tanned skin. A model, probably. Penelope always figured he'd fall in love with a model. One that will always feature perfectly in his posts; a muse for his media. Is Colin worried about pieing her off? Is that why he's been so odd?

It doesn’t matter. None of this matters. All that matters is that they stay friends.

Nearly a decade later and Penelope Featherington is still content savoring whatever scraps Colin Bridgerton deems to give her.

***

Colin: Pack a bag.

Pen: Why

Colin: Birthday surprise!

Pen: Colin...

Colin: And maybe an assignment I need to do in Wales and could not rearrange for next week....

Pen: How long we staying?

Colin: 2 nights.

Pack for hiking and swimming! 😊

-

They’re in for a ride. A 3-hour drive over to a private nature reserve in Wales known for beautiful scenery and six luxury cottages scattered across a few hundred acres of woodland. It's just an ordinary early-spring day - there is a chill in the air but the sun is still shining in strong warm hues. 

One hour in and the conversation has lulled comfortably. The Birmingham cityscape has turned to rolling hills along the motorway as they looped on Radio 4. Colin's lost a bet - or so he laments. Makes a grumble and a show of Pen changing the playlist he had programmed in when he picked up the rental car.  

Not even two seconds into her choice of tunes and Colin’s groaning. His distaste (more so at losing than the songs playing) reverberates the same second Pen’s mouth drops open to sing along. Her fingers turning the volume dial up and rolling down the window to scream-sing even louder. 

He watches her out the corner of his eye; one trained on the empty road ahead, the other gazing at Penelope. Her face fresh and glowing from a goodnights sleep, cheeks rosy with daylight highlighting her freckles since she foregone makeup (come to think of it she hasn't worn a full face around him in ages...? not that Colin is complaining. he prefers her natural beauty, much like he still prefers her with unruly red hair). Her fingers tapping on the windowsill. Happiness radiates from her half as intense as the waning sun over the horizon. 

Colin silently wishes he could watch her for hours, just existing in this space together like two normal people.

Another hour or two or twenty minutes ticks down and then…   

Colin’s eyes light up with the first chord. He hasn't heard this song since they were rowdy teenagers causing havoc all those summers at Aubrey Hall. God he's thrown back in time.

Pen feels it too; all the flashes and memories taking up space in the small sedan.

She doesn’t dare break the moment. Her gaze trained on the outside world passing by. Her fingers tap along as she mouths her favorite lines. 

He breaks the silence just after the second verse, voice low and reverent; "I haven't heard this in ages."

"Me either."

"Do you remember when...?"

"Yeah," she sighs fondly. "Yeah, I do."

Both Colin and Penelope relish the companionable silence surrounding them as the song plays through and into a '00s pop piece neither pay much attention to. 

-

“We made it,” she breathes as she fiddles to find the right key to the cabin that's been left in the lockbox for them. Colin holding his denim jack over the two of them as huddle under the awning in the freak hailstorm. 

He grumbles an agreement, still angered that the weather app could not predict this turn of events - so much for modern technology. It's Wales; he should be used to the unpredictable UK weather by now but the shift from a cloudless spring day to this and a drastic drop in temperature was so not on his bingo card today. Guess the hike's out of the question...

They enter the dark cabin, testing the switches, the lamps and even the fridge light as one last hopeful saving grace. Nothing’s working. With twin groans from opposite sides of the one bedroom cabin, they realize there’s no electricity. Stuck in the middle of some foresty hill estate in a storm with no electricity and no neighbors for miles, fucking perfect.

Colin paces around the living room as he calls his useless contact, then the inept property manager. He uses an authoritative voice that rivals Anthony's to borderline berate the person on the other end into fixing this nightmare of a compt'd stay before he has no choice but to publicise the poor facilities. Penelope hears his exasperation, his agitation radiating off the wooden pillars as she stokes the fire to life. Busies herself through the awkwardness by moving about grabbing blankets and pillows from various closets on fuzzy sock-clad tiptoes as he continues his bellows.

So many minutes pass for Colin in frustration. Enough that once he's hung up the phone after the fourth call out, he flops on the couch, hunched with his head in his hands. He barely hears when Penelope returns from the kitchen but he feels the old paisley-patterned couch dip as she curls up beside him. 

“The earliest they will send someone is 5AM," he groans through gritted teeth. "And the imbecile couldn’t even tell me where the breakers are. So much for a relaxing weekend.” 

“Glass half full,” she says as she offers him a mug. 

“What’s this?” He takes the ceramic in one large hand, pads of his fingers tingling with heat. 

“We have warm water, that’s something.” 

He grumbles once more. 

“It’s enough,” she justifies. 

Penelope looks at her watch. Then to where the couch is positioned too many feet from the fireplace. She unzips her bulky winter coat, discarding it on the armchair before effortlessly turning her attention to her pile of mismatched bedding. With a delighted sense of determination she wraps two thick throws around herself, cuddling all bundled up on the floor in front of the fireplace. 

Colin watches her every graceful movement shadowed in an amber glow. Intrigue setting in and eclipsing the distain souring their sacred time together, quickly morphing into admiration for the little pile of green and red tartan before him. 

In no time he’s grabbing his own blanket and settles next to her - around her. Penelope’s back leaning against his warm chest, Colin’s hands cradling her blue-tinted fingertips. His palms curling around her cold acrylic nails positioned in her lap.

“You’re freezing. Let’s go to a hotel.” 

“I’ll be fine,” she assures him, relishing in his embrace as she snuggles in closer. “I’ve got snacks, the fire and you.” 

He doesn’t need to see her face to know she’s donning a small simper. The way her head nuzzles against him and her hands tugging him tighter around her tells him all he needs to know.

Minutes upon minutes pass with them staring into the flames and Colin's hands mindfully mapping the edges of her body (and if he leans in and buries his nose in her hair, taking in the comforting scent, so be it).

An idea pops into his head - a silly little idea that makes him feel childish.

Colin extracts himself, much to Penelope's displeasure. He wanders in the ever-darkening space of the cabin to the sole bedroom. He finds the bed stripped of the duvet and pillows from Pen's nesting and grabs the rest of all he can find - pillows and throw pillows and a spare set of thermal sheets.   

Penelope watches him keenly when he returns, a raised brow as he chucks the couch cushions onto the floor. Stares intently as he pushes the coffee table far from the sitting area leaving a space for his grand plan - a plan that gets better the moment Pen rises and surmises - 

“The mattress would fit.” 

Colin's grin could light up the whole cabin.

Penelope helps him move the furniture and carry the double mattress in. They strip off the rest of their day-soaked clothes leaving them in their underwear and cuddle in the bed they make, talking and enjoying one another’s company like planned.

"So.." she begins "What's on the plan for the rest of the day?"

"We were supposed to go on a hike and have dinner at the pub in the woods."

"Is that the only way to get there?"

"There should be ATV's for us to use in the shed."

She looks at him incredulously.

"Or not," he chuckles. He can't blame her for not wanting to go out in this weather.

"Think they deliver?"

"Doubt it."

She hmph's. And a beat later asks the most important question:

"Can you survive on our rations or will you waste away?"

"I'll be fine for one night," he gallantly, confidently reassures. Colin isn't so melodramatic that the mere idea of skipping a meal or two would throw him and his endless stomach into a fit of despair. However... "What did we pack again?"

"Crisps, biscuits, sweets and cheese. A balanced diet if ever there was one."

"What kind of biscuits?"

"Does it really matter? You'll eat them regardless."

He makes a little noise somewhere between a huff and an agreement. His mind wandering to the food in their possession, how much there is and if it will be able to sustain them until morning when they can wander back to the welcome centre.

"Stop thinking about food."

"You put it in my head!"

"I can show you where to put your head."

He blanches. He didn't - This isn't what - my god woman. Pen is on her knees facing him, he feels hot and undressed by her heady gaze. She licks her bottom lip, fingers coyly tracing patterns across her bare stomach.

Colin's mouth is on hers before she can even implore further methods of seduction.

[georgieluz]

hey :) for the country ask, 28? or just about the landscape in general? i'm american but currently studying in the north of england and i'd love to hear about Wales! hoping to visit when i'm off school :)

hello!! so i just answered that question over here right at the bottom! but i can post the images of the topography maps and then talk a bit more about other aspects of the landscape too!

so here's the one showing how mountainous wales is

basically it's just hills and mountains everywhere lmao

this is one that shows all the rivers:

most places in wales look like this:

very green! lots of fields, mountains and forests! no matter where you live in wales you'll always have a pretty walking path or hiking area nearby. if it's not green, it'll be one of our many beaches:

my favourite beach here is this one:

it's got both sand and rocks and i love walking along it in wintertime. in fact, i prefer going in the winter than in the summer. you wrap up super warm in scarves and hats and walk along in the late afternoon and it's so refreshing. the perfect dog walk beach!

we also have castles everywhere and i mean everywhere. we have more castles per square mile than anywhere else in europe.

here's one of my favourites:

it's a cute smaller castle that translates to 'the red castle' in english. it's very very pretty inside and winterfell from game of thrones has a very similar courtyard area to the one there!

most of the castles here look like this:

but yeah, wales is perfect for nature lovers and anyone who loves to go for walks around castles, woodland areas or lakes and beaches!

we also obviously have bigger cities with nightlife and typical city things to do, ofc, but they often have a castle or castle ruins slap bang in the middle of them, so i guess that's kinda unique?

i hope you get to visit here when you're finished with studying! let me know what you get up to if you do!!!

for this ask game!

[monerelurking]

Top 5 places you would like to visit as a tourist

Oh man I'm super boring on this one since actually going anywhere abroad seems so improbable for me and terrifying to go too far away from home, but I guess:

Wales For loving the Welsh language as I do and having never been to Wales is annoying. I'd love to see Caerdydd, visit Bangor or Aberystwyth, meet the language and culture up close. Hiking in Snowdonia is a goal as well.

Ireland In the Celtic fashion again, I'd love to travel the southern parts of Ireland. I'd already been up North - from Gleann Cholm Cille through Londonderry to Belfast, and of course Dublin, but I want to see the more rural parts. Although Irish is much more scary and challenging to learn for me I'd still love to visit again someday.

Norway The fjords!! Oslo, Trondheim, the Lofoten Islands? Come on who wouldn't like to see that. I'd be just as happy to see Sweden or Finland (Finland is the most likely option at the moment anyway).

Yellowstone NP It's been on my list forever, but I'm just as satisfied watching documentaries of places of the park you can't get to anyway haha

Spain, maybe? For the food, the sights, and language mostly, but I don't know where exactly I'd like to go there.

[kelphiepx]

Experimenting with some film grain and light leaks just for something a bit different! These were taken walking around Alwen Reservoir in North Wales! So nice to finally get out and get some fresh air 😄 • • #northwales #wales #cymru #forest #nature #outdoors #opticalwander #fujifilm #x100f #fujifilmx100f #fujinon #fuji #35mmphotography #35mm #woodland #woodlandphotography #hiking #visitwales #visitcymru #ukshooters #ukphotographer #filmsimulation #lightleak #filmgrain #lovephotography (at North Wales) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm55xErDaa6/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=