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.