We woke up this morning to the surprise of a field so foggy we couldn’t even see the tents on the other side! This put a dent in our plans as we weren’t keen to drive in that much fog. It was quite nice though as it meant we had a slow start, just having a coffee and some breakfast and spending the morning reading and relaxing. We also plotted out a plan for tomorrow (our last day), so felt quite organised by the time it started to clear up. We had a lunch of steak sandwiches before jumping in the car and heading down the road. While the top of the hill where we were was clear, you could see that it was still very foggy down at the beach as we drove down. Luckily we weren’t going in that direction and instead headed north and then south in a big unavoidable loop due to the mountains to our east. We followed some horrendously skinny, windy and rock-lined roads until we eventually turned on to what could arguably be called a highway (in Wales).

The highway driving was much more enjoyable, with beautiful views over fields, mountains, and then forests as we entered a more densely wooded area. About 40 minutes later we turned off at Google’s directions onto a dirt road which ultimately ended up being the wrong turn off to the Coed-y-Brenin Forest Park. After backtracking up the road a bit (should have paid more attention to the signs) we found the real entrance and parked the car in the overflow car park. We quickly realised that this was more of a mountain-biking forest park than a hiking one (because there were A LOT of cyclists) but there was one walking path, so we headed off on that. Strangely, I’d read online that there were several 45-minute walking paths and a big 2-hour hike, but we could only find the first smaller path. There were lots of one-way systems set up due to Covid though, so I figured this might be why we couldn’t find the others. Given we’d had such a late start to our day this worked for us anyway. We had a beautiful walk down through forest to a stream passing under an old stone bridge, with a pretty picnicking area that made us regret having our sandwiches back in the tent! The cool in the shade was much appreciated as the temperature had skyrocketed from this morning’s foggy damp 18 degrees. From the stream the path wound through forest and back up the hill to the visitor’s centre. I’m not sure whether we missed something – we were following the arrows – but it was definitely only a 25-minute walk, not 45, but it was so hot and humid that we ultimately ended up heading back to the car. Even I was sweating!

Back in the car we headed back up the highway and along a less wiggly route further north to Porthmadog . Madog ap Llewelyn was the leader of a Welsh revolt against the English in 1294-95 and he certainly has a lot named after him in this area! We found our way into the town, which seemed quite busy, but was quieter as we drove the back streets and parked near the Purple Moose (Y Bragdy Mws Piws) brewery. This was not a brewery we’d been aware of beforehand but had found it after a bit of google searching for breweries in the region, and it has a very funny logo of a Purple Moose, which Peter loved the idea of (so Canadian). Unfortunately when we got there, we realised we’d found the brewery itself, and they actually have a commercial taphouse and store on the main street. After a little walk, we found our way to a pub called The Australian, which was newly functioning as Purple Moose’s taproom. It was meant to be! We stopped in for a taste of a couple of beers and I was particularly impressed with their lager (Mwsh, pronounced ‘moosh’). We then headed to the shop next door. We grabbed a couple of other beers that the taproom didn’t have – in particular a ‘Bog Myrtle Ale’, and also grabbed a purple moose toy, because he was too cute to resist. Mr Moose will probably now be a regular guest on the blog, so be prepared!