Garth Pier Parking
Bangor
Gwynedd
Wales
LL57 2SW
1 Night
The copper mine was the ultimate in quiet stopovers. Nestled in between the Snowdonia mountains we slept soundly only to be woken by the rain on the roof.
It seemed colder this morning, as up until now, and despite the rain, it had been mild. It was raining as we left and didn’t let up as we drove the fantastic roads over the Llanberis pass towards the town of Llanberis, overlooking the huge quarries cut high up into the mountain face.
We were heading for the Dinorwic slate quarry. We went as far as we could drive then carried on foot to the quarry. High up here in midst of this vast slate quarry you also get amazing panoramic views over Llanberis below.
The quarry was closed in 1969 but inside the mountain is housed Dinorwic Hydroelectric Power Station, known as the Electric mountain. 16km of tunnels, wide enough for two lorries to pass.
When power needs to be generated, water from the reservoir is sent down through the turbines into Llyn Peris, which is at approximately 100 m (330 ft). Water is pumped back from Llyn Peris to Marchlyn Mawr during off-peak times. Although it uses more energy to pump the water up than is generated on the way down, pumping is generally done when electricity is cheaper and generation when it is more expensive.
Back at Priscilla, we made a plan to stay tonight in Bethesda rugby club. We were in Wales and one night in a rugby club sounded the thing to do. Only it wasn’t as they were having the car park resurfaced, according to Wayne the Rugby club fella.
So we set course for a car park right in Caernarfon. A council run car park that wasn’t run very well and was so confusing with when, what and how we should pay, that we aborted the idea and made our way along the coast to Bangor.
We ended up right by a nice little pier, all lit up at night. Went for a stroll to the end then bought fish and chips to eat back a Priscilla.
We are now overlooking the Menai Straight, right across to Anglesea.
