Dinorwic Quarry (Day 1)

Day 1 Route

It was a 20 minutes drive to get from the campsite to the Quarry car park, the so called bus stop.

The car park is just that, a bus terminus just outside Dinorwic village, that heads down to a outward bound site.

The bus stop

The gate to the adventure

As I arrived, the promise of sun was replaced with the more usual grey, although for once it was not actually raining. My plan was to have an easy first day, heading up to the quarry, getting my bearings and then heading down to the Anglesey barracks.  I packed my camera kit in my Lowepro normal camera rucksack and set off with my tripod on my shoulder.

It was here I made my first mistake. Lulled into complacency by the abatement of rain I did not pack my waterproof trouser. This was a decision I would come to regret.

The path to the quarry is via a wide gravel path  that passes through scrubby woodland and moss laden walls. You are greeted with a sign that says in both Welsh and English that the quarry itself is off limits and should not be accessed. It then proceeds to add ambiguity to the statement that if you ignore the above clauses you do it at your own risk.

A Warning - in two languages

Suitably chastised I climbed up the path to where it opened near a long slate building and a scrappy wire fence and where I could see the quarry for the first time. I was briefly distracted by herd of wild goats, who calmly eating the scrubby grass nearby. A flock of redwings (the first I had seen that autumn) flew overhead into the trees to raid the berries in the nearby trees.

That is a great set of horns

Redwings - coming over here, taking our berries,...

Here I could get a great view of the quarry and the lake beneath me. A bit further on I was met with two swing gates. I knew from videos that one led down the a set of abandoned buildings called the Anglesey barracks (They have no military function, they served as workers cottages ), while the other led past the quarry itself and potentially inside it. It was always my intention to do the barracks first, but I could not resist the lure of exploring the place I had heard and seen so much of. Therefore I headed down the path that led past the quarry to view the terrain for  next day.

I climbed over a low wall and tried to take a few shots of the vista below. As I did, the mist turned into persistent rain and it became increasingly difficult to keep the rain water of the lens. I wasn't worried so much about the camera, since Fuji are well weather sealed, but the rain kept hitting the lens and blurring the image and I was left wishing I had an umbrella to cover the lens front.

Mountains in the mist

I followed the main path a good 800 yards intending to follow the path down the hill, but then I noticed I could squeeze into the quarry past a gate and I could see to my left there was a set of slate paths that led up to a old winch house. The temptation was to much so I squeezed through and attempted to find a way up. My worry had been that the paths would be difficult top traverse, but as it turned out, if you took your time they were no worse than many a mountain path. However I was pleased that I bought a hiking pole since descending could be tricky as the loose slate had a tendency to slip underfoot.

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I reached a mid level and I explored the area around a huge axe shaped rock left exposed by the quarrying and I had a great view of Snowdon, albeit through the low cloud. One of the things that struck me was the contrast of the plants against the slate and i spent a while trying to capture both the low lying plants and the trees.

There were also the buildings which created great focal points in an otherwise bland moonscape

After an hour I headed up to the top level. By this point the rain was becoming incessant  making it nigh impossible to get decent shots. Both my camera bag and trousers by this point (and I was not regretting taking waterproof trousers) were soaked and my lens cloth was a sodden mess so reluctantly I headed down.

Once back at the swing gates, I was tempted to head down to the barracks. However the path had turned into a torrent and I was not  sure how easy it would be to get back up. So instead I headed back to the car and the campsite to cook lunch and plan for the next day.

However I was here and already I could see why photographers loved the place. Hopefully the weather next day would be better and I was looking forward to exploring the place.

Dinorwic Quarry (The Arrival)

Obviously it was Greg Whittons fault

Ever since I discovered his youtube videos, I have wanted to visit Dinowig slate quarry. I had this vision of me striding along the slate paths, tripod in hand and capturing those iconic Welsh landscapes. I had now decided it was now or never, so this  October I duly set off for my first solo 3 day photo expedition to deepest, darkest Wales.

What could go wrong? 

For a reason which I am still struggling to remember, I decided I would camp. I think at the time I had an idea that this would be a stepping stone to doing wild camping at a later point. I was also attracted by the flexibility and independence camping would give me. Being a veteran of many a family camping holidays, staying in a tent held through surprises, but this would be the first time I had done it on my own. Additionally it was in an area and time of year not renowned for its inclement climate.

When I announced my plans to my family, my two daughters looked to my wife for reassurance that this was not a metaphor for the beginning divorce proceedings . My wife on the other hand is well versed with my flights of fancy and therefore went into organisation overdrive in order to combat my world class ability to procrastinate. I found myself forced to decide on menus, tents, campsites; all decisions if left to me i would of postponed to the day before departure, if not later. Its times like this that you really appreciate your partner.

In the mean time my daughters had came to terms with my foible by announcing to anyone that asked, that I was going to Wales "to find myself". Personally I would hope that if and when I get a midlife crisis, I will find a more expensive and comfortable method of expressing it. However there was some truth to their expression. I am at an age where fear of injury and illness have become more than flights of fancy. It was an opportunity to see whether I was still up to this sort of adventure or whether I should consider more gentle pursuits.

The issue of potential injury became more prevalent in my mind when the bloke who put the idea in my head, Greg Whitton, announced that he had severely crocked himself walking in Wales. Now Greg is an experienced walker and climber, and the idea that he could so easily and seriously injure himself, really made me think whether I wanted to do this. I would be on my own, in an unknown terrain and likely not to be on the well trod beaten path. If I fell and injured myself, there was a good chance I would be in serious trouble. Did i really want to take this risk?

In hindsight this was a probably good thing (well, not for Greg, obviously ), because it made me seriously think about precautions, such as taking medical and survival kit, emergency provisions etc.  I also promised to my wife that I would text her before setting out with my plan, and text her when going back to the campsite

So fully equipped, all I had left to do was set the date. My plan was to arrive when the weather was optimal, and there were some Autumn colour in the trees. I had one of the last 3 weeks of October in mind, but my diary kept filling up until, to my chagrin, I found I was left with only possible weekend. I instantly started praying to the weather gods for good weather and scanning weather sites. I quickly found that when it came to weather forecasting in Northern Wales, you would be better off studying chicken entrails. The forecast would change, often hourly. The BBC one in particular was vague, forecasting sunshine and showers which is  the weather man equivalent of throwing your hands in the air and saying "work it out yourself".

As it was as I waved farewell to my wife and set off on the Friday morning I still had no idea what weather I would get

As I drove west over the top of wales I was greeted by a magnificent double rainbow over Conway Bay. "A good omen" I thought, totally ignoring my physics training that said if you are driving toward a rainbow, you are going into the rain. Sure enough as I turned south into Snowdonia, the sun was left behind and the skies increasingly turned gray and threatening and as I arrived at the campsite it was in torrential rain.

The Arrival

My home for the next few days

There is only one thing worse than camping in the rain, and that is putting up a tent in the rain. The camp website had promised a warm and convivial welcome on arrival. Instead I found a deserted site with a sign explaining the numerous payment methods for a pitch. The camping field itself turned out to be a wet, sloping field with long grass. There appeared to be no pitch marking per se, so I made my best guess and proceeded to pitch my tent and deposit the various items within it. An hour later, I was finished and as I looked out, the sun decided to make an appearance vastly improving the vista.

For the first time I got a view of the quarry on the other side of the valley. One thing that the videos and photos fail to convey is the scale and the steepness of the quarry. From a distance it looks like a giant had has swept half a mountain down the hillside leaving a giant grey scar behind it and the slopes look forbidding and something normally only tackled with a team of Sherpa's.

The quarry from Llanberis. Lot bigger than I expected

I had two main objectives for the trip. First obviously was to take photos. I had no great illusion on whether I would take ground breaking images, I just did not know the area well enough. This was going be a pathfinder expedition to explore the site and find places I may want to return to.

Secondly I was going to map the place. Now obviously there are OS maps of the area, but they are remarkable detail free. Because this is technically private land, there are no public footpaths so there are no obvious routes. Before coming out I did an extensive search for a map, but pretty well failed. Terms like the bus stop, Dini's hole and the grand staircase were flung around on videos, with no indication of where these were and how to access them. The best I got was by studying Google satellite views and making  guesses. I therefore set the task of creating a map for me and any who wished to follow me.

After quick lunch and I set off to see the quarry close up for the first time.

More to follow...

Dinorwig

Dinorwic (or Dinorwig in Welsh)  is the site of a former slate quarry, which was shutdown in 1969. It is just one of reminders of industrial Wales which powered Victorian Britain and has left an indelible mark on the landscape. 

What makes it special is its location and its history. It is situated in Snowdownia national park, just under the auspices of Snowdon itself, Wales's highest mountain. It provides a superb tapestry of mountain landscape and naked industrial slate. The other thing that makes it special is that since closing down in the 60's little has been done to change it or make it tourist friendly. It is almost as if the workforce had been whisked off by a giant spaceship and the remain left to the ravages of time. This provides a great backdrop of industrial archaeology to add another dimension to any photos taken there.