Walking in the Arans
Well, the weekend dawned dry and windless so I planned to go geocaching. I woke at 5am on Saturday morning so headed off early which allowed me to do the bulk of the uphill section before things warmed up.
I drove to Dinas Mawwdwy and onto Cwm Cywarch where I parked up, put my boots on plugged in my iPod (listening to a Bill Bryson audio book) and started on the long slog up to the summit of Drysgol. From here I headed on up to the memorial at Drws Bach where I signed the log and claimed geocache number one for the day.
Next I continued on up to the summit of Aran Fawddwy and the highest point of the day at 905m. It was a lovely sunny day so the views where amazing. I was able to see Cadair Idris and the Mawddach estuary and out across the hills of Wales. there is a geocache on this summit but after lookg for it for about half an hour I gave up and headed down off the rocky summit and then back up to the summit of Aran Benllyn. I found another cache here (a first to find as well) and stopped for some lunch depsite the fact that it was still only about 10am. Once again the views from here back towards Aran Fawddwy and down towards Lake Bala were spectacular.
My feet were killing me though. I have some boots that aren’t that new anymore but have never been particularly comfortable. I had hoped they would wear in but they seem to be getting worse so I think I shall have to take them back to the shop I bought them from (escape outdoors in Aberystwyth) to see what they can do about them as they pride themselves on their professional bootfitting service and can apparently modify boots to fit, so you never know they may be able to help. Applying plasters to the blisters on me heels didn’t help matters and although the blisters were painful, the boots also squeeze the middle of my foot giving me cramps in my arch and across the top of my foot and also make my toes hurt to the extent that they feel as though they will fall off!… The blisters still hurt now and so do my toes, 2 days later.
However, I headed on regardless of the pain back up to Aran Fawddwy for another look for the cache. Another hour looking but still no joy so I gave up and headed down off the peak and then up a very steep climb to Glasgwm and a successful geocache find. From here I headed across the top of the hill akirting the top of Craig Cywarch and then down a steep track back to the car. All in all a good day despite the painful boots.
26km in total according to my GPSr and quite a bit of climbing and descending too.
I then stopped for a quick geocache at the head of the pass between Dinas Mawddwy and Cross Foxes before heading home. 5 geocaches, 1 DNF, 1 FTF 26km and lots of pain…. But an enjoyable day in the hills.
2 Responses
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Moleskin ! As a suggestion to your boot fitting / pain / blister issues, I would recommend fitting moleskin. No, dont go setting traps for the furry burrowing creatures and slicing them with a carving knife, but pop down to your local Boots or chemist and head for the chiropody section. You can buy moleskin in strips about twice the size of an average bandaid. What you need to do is then apply that ( its sticky backed ) to the offending area of your boot where the blisters happen, alternately, before you set off walking, stick it to your foot. Blisters happen by the skin attempting to dissipate the heat caused by the friction of the ill fitting item. What the moleskin does is absorb that heat and distribute it over its larger surface area and ‘hey presto’ no blisters !
What you should find over time as well is that the moleskin will wear down the leather and make it more supple.
Hope that helps
Mark.
Thanks for that Mark… I hadn’t heard of Moleskins before but they certainly sound interesting.
In my case though, although the blisters did hurt, I could put up with them, the worst of the problems was the pain in my toes which wasn’t caused by rubbing at all. I’m not sure why they hurt so much but I took the boots back to the shop I bought them from and they are going to modify them for me. I don’t quite know how they do that, but it will be interesting to see if it helps at all.
Al.