Good Walks – Good Chat – Good Friends
The British Mountaineering Council have just produced a very good new booklet on hill walking - and it's FREE! It contains sound advice for those new to the hills and a good reminder for the more experienced.
Go to their website advert where you can order it, or view it here via the internet (a PDF file) 
The Kings Head did us proud: thanks to all the staff for puting on a grand evening. But most thanks must go to Richard Rees for doing all the organising, chasing of orders and deposits etc and to Gaynor for sorting all the cash – big thanks to both.
Photo competition entries were down this year but a winner was chosen. This will go on the website programme and all the display programmes. It was taken by Chris Hurrell on Sunday 8th May last year on the way up to Moel Siabod from Dolwyddelan. (GR – SH7211 5451)
See you all on the next walk – 5th February – 8.30 start – easy/mod – up and around Clun. 
Dry, bright and VERY cold with a good deal of windscreen scraping started off the New Year for The Guilsfield Hill Walkers. Brian had sorted a good traverse of the three tops of the Breiddens – Moel y Golfa, Middleton Hill and Breidden Hill (Rodney’s Pillar) and had arranged for the ground to be frozen – saved a great deal of mud splashing – thank you Brian. We had the direct ascent of Moel y Golfa to get us going with a pause at the gypsy stone to take in the views and have a coffee. On the way up we saw a pair of foxes and with the wind in the right direction they came close, only to flee like the wind when they caught sight of us: highlight of the day. Middleton Hill saw the mist and cloud giving and sunshine breaking through. We crossed the valley and climbed up to the pillar in increasing sunshine for an early lunch at the top. A good walk out through recent logging opperations saw up back to the cars. Thanks to Brian for a good lead, and for all who came and all who drove. Welcome to Mike who joined us for the first time, thanks for coming, we hope to see you again. 
Wednesday 28th December. Eight of us left The Oak at 9.00 for a quiet drive over to Llangynog, parked up in the car park, used the facilities and were away by 9.45. It was cool with a chilling wind as we set off across the slopes of Craig Rhiwarth and into Cwm Glan-hafon where we sploshed across the stream and soon were at the foot of the daunting zig-zags. Toiling up, regretting the surfeit of seasonal grub, we reached the flatter ground that leads over to Pistyll Rhaeadr. The wind by this time was having a good go at us and finding a sheltered spot for coffee was not easy. I had looked at the map before the walk and found a sort of route that looped round anticlockwise from the waterfall and followed a fence up onto Moel Mawn and over via Y Clogydd back to the major gate junctions beyond the top of the zig-zags. This looked pretty straightforward, just wander along keeping the fence on your right and hey presto, the loop is completed. But it turned out to be quite a rough climb up to Moel Mawn made worse by the wind trying to blow us off our feet and still no coffee! But we did find a sheltered-ish spot at the top of Nant Gaseg only to be followed by another short sharp climb out. But it soon trended downwards and we were on our way on good paths back to the zig-zags: going down is hard on the knees! All safe and sound back at the cars by 1.15 ish and home to The Oak for 2.00. Some pics in the gallery.
Last walk of the year and looking forward to the new programme of 2012. Have a look at the programme and bring along a friend or two and get them out on the hills, you know it makes sense. – Good walks – Good chat – Good friends. 
The new programme is now available via the link on the left, or click here.
A warm welcome to John Hughes who joined us for the first time on this walk: a good introduction – ie it didn’t rain! Hope to see you on further outings.
A different route from the usual motorway up Moel Famau, a bit steep in places, but not beyond any of us. The views opened up to the north and east – still a bit gloomy over towards Snowdonia, but some lovely views down into the Vale of Clwyd. The top was a bit like The Long Mynd, – broad paths and up and downy bits. We dropped down to the foot of Moel Arthur and an optional extra climb to the summit was taken advantage of by a few. Some super deep ramparts around the top and more stunning views. An easy walk out led us back to the cars.
Thanks to all who came and all who drove. 
A moderate walk on good paths – The Clwydian Way and Offas Dyke Path – with a visit to Moel Famau and the Jubilee Tower and Moel Arthur – a rather nice ancient hill fort. Leaving The Oak at 8.00 – about 6 -7 miles.
Go here for full description and pics of walk – with slight modification of the route to take out most of the road work. 
DONE THE RECCE
Jean and I did the recce on Saturday – what a stunning day. Watched the match: hurrumph hurrumph: then went up to the Clwydian Hills, only 43 miles away, and started walking at about midday. A very pleasant day, bit of fields, bit of steep tracks up to the top of Moel Famau and then some lovely rolling paths across to Moel Arthur, tracks and lanes back to the car. As they say —- a grand day out! About 6/7 miles and within the compass of anybody. As for views – the whole of Snowdonia – Cadair Idris – Wallasey – the cement works – the Queensferry Bridge – what more could you want?
Four brave (daft?) souls left The Oak at 8.00 and headed west for what we thought may be a showery and breezy climb up from Beddgelert to get some good views from the top. The weather forecast was not dire, warm, breezy with a few showers, but what we got was a cloud base at around 200m with a thin drizzle on a stiff breeze. Needless to say it didn’t get better, it just got worse. We sheltered under the wall and foolishly decided that perhaps the sun might come out a bit later – it didn’t. The wind was now driving thick drizzle at us in very reduced visiblity making the rocky scrammbly bits rather hairy. So we got down behind some rocks had a coffee and decided that perhaps some retail therapy in Betws y Coed was a better option – it was. We slithered down the rocks and splashed back to the car then drove up to Betws y Coed and spent half an hour or so in Cotswolds.
Thanks to Richard for leading and to Brian and Peter for putting a smile on a foul day. 
Thanks to the great efforts of Graham we had a super weekend: wind and waves – sunshine and showers – interspersed with good food, good chat, good walks and good friends.
Pictures here.
We stayed at the Ivybridge in Goodwick: a good family run hotel that looked after us very well. Graham had organised a grand walk for Saturday. We drove down to Porthgain where we left the cars and hopped on the Strumble Shuttle bus for a tour of the lanes back to our starting point of Pwll Deri, just down from Strumble Head. The walk was to be all along the Coastal Path down to Porthgain: a distance of around 12 miles. Route finding is no problem, you just keep the sea on the right, and all but one of the stiles have been replaced by gates – hooray! It was into the wind all the way with seals, choughs and peregrine falcons to watch out for, not to mention the magnificent views and the abundant flora. We stopped on Aber Mawr for late elevenses just as a slucing thick drizzle set in, this got us well and truly damp.
We pushed on in clearing skies to Abercastle for a late lunch on the harbour wall where we spread out damp clothes to dry in the sun. After lunch we continued south under sunny skies heading for Porthgain. We stopped at Trefin and expored the mill and sheltered in somebody’s carport from a sharp shower.
The last leg was over the headland to the cars: it was here that the rain had a last go at us. We kitted up in full waterproofs, withdrew into our hoods and yommped into the rain ariving back at Porthgain just as the rain gave up and the sun came out.
Unfortunately I left the camera in the car so only pictures from the Sunday walk, but for a great selectionof photographs from the northern bit of the coast path go here.
SUNDAY WALK
A bright and breezy day greeted us Sunday morning – much better that Saturday thank goodness. We packed up said our goodbyes and drove up to the north coast and parked in the little village of Llanwnda. Set off northish toward Carregwastad Point above Aber Felin, where the French invaded in 1797. (For the story of the last invasion of the British Isles in 1797 go here.) 
It was from here that the great seal watch started: every cove seemed to have its fair share of adult females and numerous young dotted around. We headed east along the path keeping the sea on our left: this part of the coast is very wild, stunning scenery and grand views. At Anglas Bay we turned inland and made our way across the cliffs and fields back to the cars at Llanwnda. A wonderful walk, can recommend to anybody. Thanks again to Graham for putting it all together and making sure we were all in the right place at the right time.
(Some more great pictures of the section we walked are here. Just click on the next button to follow the path round) 
After an inauspicious start with the weather, it turned into good day with the usual lengthy views. It now costs you £4.00 to park on the side of the road at Pen y Gwryd and then only if you get there early! The clouds were down and things looked a bit gloomy but we splashed across the hills heading NE up The Miner’s Track breaking out on the ridge with Tryfan right in front of us: around 1500 ft of climbing, but that got most of it done in one go. We had mist on the way up with a thin drizzle but the clouds started to race away as we set out to the summit of Glyder Fach. A stop at the Cantilever Stone was a good photo opportunity. (See the pics in the gallery) Views now opening up all round – trains shovelling steam on Snowdon, sun glinting on the pedaloes over at Beaumaris, the slate of Llanberris matching the purple of the heather – it was day day to wax lyrical. The route across the top to Glyder Fawr never gets any less rocky but Castell y Gwynt hove into view and lunch was called. The air was now very clear and views were endless. After lunch the trail heading off towards Pen y Pass proved quite a challenging clamber, but as we got down it got easier but wetter. We skirted south of Llyn Cwmffynnon and north of Moel Berfedd pitching up to the rear of the PYG and splashed back to the cars.
Thanks to Richard for leading, and all who came and all who drove. 