I was then staying alone for a week in a static caravan at Ynyslas near Borth, owned by first wife Jan's brother Derek. In a conversation with a stranger in a pub I was told of a place called "Craig y Pistyll" (Waterfall crag) where I would see peregrines. So I set off to trek across the mountains to find it. The peregrines were absent but in a remote spot I found a mountain lake with a colony of black headed gulls breeding on an island. It drained to a ravine overlooked by two crags.
Last night I stayed at a little campsite outside Machynlleth and looking at the map saw that the lane I was on led to a path which, with some deviation, led to a lake above two crags called "Pistyll y Llyn". Allowing for a faulty memory this had to be the place. It looked like a fairly tough walk but I was determined. This was a clear candidate for the bucket list. Here it is on the map:
As forecast, the weather today has been wonderful - the first real taste of spring, but it was cold when I set out (after the usual 6am breakfast) so I took some warm clothes. After half an hour I had to carry them for the rest of the day. It was a long hard climb with an old map and paths altered by 30 years of forestry. I trusted the contours more than the paths and at last reached the view I had been climbing for: "Llyn pen Rhaeadr" (lake above the waterfall - yes like the Eskimos and snow there are at least 2 words for waterfall in Welsh).
There were no gulls but 20 or 30 generations (of gulls) later that was no surprise. I told myself I would only go a little further to get a view of the crags but then it didn't seem too far to the lake itself so I yomped through a quarter of a mile of boggy tussock grass to get to the shore, where I immediately flushed some teal - fantastic - at least for me, and the teal didn't seem too bothered.
I sat on a tussock and ate most of my supermarket sandwich and wondered why it had taken me so long to get there. I didn't remember the trip being so arduous, yet on the map, the routes from the south seemed even longer. I studied the old creased map again and within seconds I saw it: much further south and clearly labelled "Llyn Craigypistyll". I had the wrong lake!
The bucket list was no shorter. And yet and yet - it was some years since I had last done such a walk and the weather was perfect - I laughed. It will be a good excuse for another trip to one of my favourite bits of the world.
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