The Glaslyn Pass

One of my (Ben's) favourite locations in Wales is the Glaslyn Pass, near Beddgelert.  A former regular haunt of ours for walking and photography, a narrow path winds its way up the dramatic and rocky gorge from the National Trust car park at Aberglaslyn up to the village at Beddgelert itself.  The problem has been that until recently The Childs were not up to the path, particularly the youngest two, so we've been giving it a miss.  This year we decided they were old enough to hack it, so we thought we'd try and walk it over Easter.

Unfortunately whilst the scenery was as dramatic as ever, the weather was dull as three-day-old dishwater.

The sun did put it an ever so brief appearance, but it still wasn't brilliant (especially as it waited until we were at the less dramatic upper end of the gorge to peek out of the clouds)...

...so we thought we'd try some greyscale shots instead.

Overall a little disappointing after three years away, but we had a bit longer on the holiday so thought we'd try again later.

One of the appeals to a railway photographer is that the Welsh Highland Railway threads its way along the side of the gorge, so whilst personally I prefer at this location to photograph the landscape I decided to squeeze in a bit of railway shooting too.  The problem for me is that whilst the setting is beautiful, the trains are not; the Garratt-type locos are impressive from an engineering viewpoint but not exactly aesthetically pleasing, on top of which they only run a couple of times a day... the dull conditions also necessitated a greyscale shot at the lower end of the pass, just before the tunnel, though at least here the path allows a nice railside shot.

A little further south still is the little-used halt of Nantmawr, which we were mainly visiting as a research trip for a project the Elder Child is doing, so only a token snap from there.

Easter Monday was a typical British Bank Holiday -wet- but we donned waterproofs and headed out whilst the lunch cooked.  This is Pont Croeser looking moody, still in the Glaslyn Valley but at the calmer, estuary-end of proceedings.  Here there is another station, an RSPB bird hide, and nothing much else, and the rain discouraged us from spending too long around here.

Opportunity for another train shot though, crossing the Glaslyn, and whilst I was tempted to go greyscale the vivid appearance of the yellow flowers stopped me.

Right at the end of the holiday (typically) the weather cleared, so with the kids in the company of my parents, me and Amy decided on a desperate last chance to photograph the Glaslyn Pass in decent conditions.

Much better- and with two trains due, it was time for a scramble up the sides of the pass.

The location for the southbound (which was coming second) was easy...

...but that of the northbound which was due first was a little trickier due to the sun being to the south at this point.  This was a spot I'd used before about six years back, but it was lens-flare-o-rama on this visit, and typically no flare-hood in the bag.

Too late to do anything, here came the train, so balancing madly on a rock, shooting with one hand whilst holding the other above the lens to stop the flare, I got the shot, though again in greyscale because of the harsh lighting.

Back down the valley a bit to the first location, and much better lighting conditions here.

And a much nicer picture, in colour.  Whilst I have to admit that I don't find the trains too inspiring, as a location for railway photography it is pretty top-notch.

Then it was a stroll back down the pass.

All in all we were quite happy with how it turned out, we were just lucky the last day yielded better weather really.  Good to be able to walk the area again, and hopefully we can get back there in the summer when the trees will be in full leaf.