A lovely evening had led to thunderstorms and warnings of flash floods and flooded roads around the mountainous areas. We certainly were not staying back and decided to at least keep riding on the beautiful country roads. The main interests for the day were Barmouth beach (yes in driving rain) and Harlech Castle. We took A470-A496 to get to Barmouth and Harlech.
A470 is another scenic road and a good one for bikes. Within a few miles of our start, we found a slipped lorry being rescued on A470 slowing down the traffic. Fellow road users might have thought us to be lunatics to be riding in such treacherous conditions. I just reminded myself to be very cautious with the front brakes. Approaching Ffestiniog, there is a junction with A496. At this junction, the A470 takes an acute uphill left turn to Dolgellau. It is so acute that I couldn't manage to make that turn and took to A496 and did a U-turn. The only way to get around I think would be taking a very wide turn like a bus. As the rain was very heavy, I was doing about 30/40. The 4x4's that were behind me were so happy to be released approved with a honk while they went past me and they disappeared in no time.
We continued at an ambling pace and by the time we got to Barmouth it was still raining so decided to go to Harlech Castle. Again Harlech castle is more of ruins than a proper castle. It certainly was not in the same league as the castles at Caernarfon and Conwy. The good thing was that it had stopped raining and we were able to spend some time at the castle taking in the views. We returned to Barmouth beach and went for a short walk and that was it.
On A496, from Barmouth to Harlech, there is a signpost for waterfalls in Llanbedr. We went on the road that was signposted to the waterfalls. I followed the river and got lost going deep into very narrow farm roads. Suddenly we were in the middle of farms with nothing but sheep around and no more sign of the river. We decided to turn around and return to A496. As we approached the point where another road crossed the river, I spotted the signboard to the waterfalls. So it was me who didn't spot the not-so-visible signboard. We rode along the river and this time we got to the waterfalls - the Nantcol waterfalls. This is a camping site. We parked the bike and headed to the waterfalls.
It took us a while to get to the waterfalls. It wasn't a very difficult terrain but our riding gear wasn't the most convenient/suitable wear for walking up a hill. The waterfalls was very much to our liking. We spent a long time at the waterfalls and I managed to get down to the water. The surrounding valley has big boulders that got deposited when the ice sheets retreated from the near by mountains during the Ice Age. We were quite lucky with the weather as it had not rained for a few hours now and this certainly helped us leisurely enjoying the waterfalls.
We returned to our B&B riding on the scenic A496-A4085-A498-A4086-A5, bringing even heavier rain showers with us. For our dinner we went to a restaurant in town. While crossing the river Llugwy we saw a lamb struggling for its dear life. The farmer was alerted and we saw the dramatic rescue of the lamb from the swollen river. For those 10-15 minutes we were not sure if the lamb was still alive as it went silent for a few minutes before crying out. We went to see the river from the same spot as we did on our first day and couldn't find any of the rocks that we stood on and took photographs. The river was carrying a lot of mud from the mountains and looked very aggressive.
We were very lucky for the most part of the day. The Nantcol Waterfalls made our day. We will cherish those moments that we spent enjoying the waterfalls.
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