Glamping in a sheep filled paddock

---

This past weekend Adam, Myles, Scott and I spent the weekend Glamping in North Wales. This is a posh style of camping! We headed out of London just after 6pm after a bit of a hiccup at the local car hire place. Our reservation had not been confirmed, so when we arrived to pick up our card there was no reservation. They did have one car available we could hire, just £50 more for the weekend that we had reserved, plus we had to run home and get a utility bill and bank statement. After negotiating our way out of London via Victoria, Edgware and Brent Cross we were whizzing along the M1. To our surprise we didn’t hit much traffic at all; however we made a fatal error as we approach Birmingham. There was a tricky turn with rather ambiguous directions from Google maps. The outcome was a 1hr or so detour through the out skirts of Birmingham, past Spearmint Rhinos and multiple chippies, Wing Wahs Chinese and Indian takeaways. After a healthy meal at the local McD’s we managed to find the motorway again and go no more than a few miles before hitting the junction turn off we had been aiming for. Then the rain started, so we didn’t reach our destination until well after midnight, near +6hrs on the road. The owners of Pant y March Glamping were lovely; they came out to meet us in the pouring rain to guide us to our ‘tents’.
The accommodation was excellent! Our tent was huge, it was on a raised platform, had two bedrooms, a snug, a flushing toilet and a large kitchen/living space. They had made our beds up and we all slept like babies until the sheep started baa-baa around 8am. We still managed a good sleep in until 9.30am in our lovely beds and feather duvets. Myles was up early and got the wood oven fired up and started on our breakfast of coffee, sausages, bacon, eggs and crumpets. The view out the front of the tent was sensational, down the rolling hills, across lake Llyn Tegid and to the mountains of Snowdonia National Park in the distance.
The drive to the start of the hike was picturesque. Our challenge sometimes gets the ‘Matterhorn’ tag because of its shape - Cnicht, 689m. We kicked off from a small village called Croesor. As we set out we cast our eyes skyward, packed our water proofs and hoped for the best, as this area is known as the wettest in Britain. The path proved that this area does get its fair share of rain. It was pretty boggy. It was a steady ascent up the mountain, but we had wonderful views on either side and marvellous view behind us. We managed to enjoy that a lot on the way up through multiple breathers. We were passed by an older couple who were absolutely motoring, they raced to the stop and then we chatted to them as they were coming down. They were practicing for the upcoming race to the summit; the record for the climb (up and back) was 32mins. We were blown away by this, we were only ¾ of the way up and that had taken near on 45mins. The view from the top was spectacular, and I swear we could see Ireland. After chatting with a friendly man (with a map), we decided to venture out and complete the lower-level Croesor Horseshoe. Effectively this meant rounding 3 mountain lakes and coming down via the hills on the other side of the valley. Things don’t look that far until you get a bit closer. The hike down took a little longer than expected but it was a great hike and we got a great view of Cnicht, the mountain we had just climbed.
We arrived back at camp nicely tired and after showering in the barn amongst some mad swallows (they had a young family and weren’t too happy we were in the barn with them). We started the evening with Champagne, celebrating Adam’s birthday on the Monday and watched the sunset over the distant hills. That evening we cooked up a big pasta, toasted marshmallows in the wood oven and went through all the Trivial Pursuit cards, only addressing the easier questions of course. We woke to a beautiful morning, sun rushing in and sheep outside. We lazed around enjoying our Glamping experience before hitting the road just after Noon. Glamping rocks!
PHOTOS

---