Hello everyone,
Join me on the adventure in North Wales, where I stay at a hiker shelter nestled in the forest depths.
The Bothy Experience
Exploring hiking shelters- also known as bothies – has become a bit of a habit of mine in the last year.
Over the years, I’ve gone through many experiences of wild camping, where the unpredictability of weather has caught me off guard and left me getting soaked in the rain, setting up, or packing up all the kit in wet and windy conditions.
Picture this – You wake up in the morning while it’s still dark, realizing you’re in a pool of water as your tent finally gave in and began leaking. Now you are left with a choice to make, you either go back to sleep and ‘’sink with the ship’’ as to speak, or you decide to ‘’ get off board’’, which includes quite an unpleasant feat of packing up all your soaking gear and wrestling with the tent that’s flopping around in the wind… then you descend back to your car in defeat.
Sometimes an adventure calls for such experiences, and we just have to deal with it. I suppose that’s where all the ‘’fun’’ stories to reminisce come from. But in recent years I also appreciated the discovery of a ‘’softer’’ approach to multi-day hiking.
And that approach is, staying overnight in hiking shelters instead. Now, I must say that from an outside perspective... it might not look too appealing to some. An old, abandoned house, in the middle of nowhere, sometimes well-maintained… sometimes not. And more often than not, includes some furry roommates such as mice or rats. I’m not really selling it- but the point is that when you’re used to a tent, and being pretty exposed to the elements- having a place for overnight lodging that includes a fireplace, benches, tables, and often a compostable bathroom is an absolute luxury.
Especially a place that is situated amongst the wilderness with an abundance of beautiful nature, where I can somewhat have a taste of my dream of living in a house in the middle of a forest.
Penrhos Isaf Bothy
The fun aspect of these bothies is that they’re not always easy to find. Which makes the adventure even more exciting. This one, however, was situated in the forest depths but also was quite close to the graveled trail. So, for those who know what they’re looking for, it was quite easy to locate.
Me being me, decided to enjoy a little de-tour hike up to the bothy. Hiking up a hill for a bit of a workout, through luscious forest depths which looked like a perfect setting for Lord of the Rings movie, I eventually made it to the original path, which very quickly led to the forest where the bothy is.
A Fairytale Entrance
Having stayed in a few bothies already, I must give this one a 10/10 on the entrance aesthetic. Walking on a small forest path with vibrant green moss, earthly fresh smell, walking past stone ruins as the little house appears in the distance… felt like a fairytale.
I felt like a Red Riding Hood, but instead of a basket full of freshly baked bread, I had a hiking backpack, jetboil, and bags of tortellini pasta.
Bothy Layout
This bothy is quite spacious, having one large kitchen/dining area with a wooden table and a fireplace. Two small ground-floor rooms and two upstairs rooms with wooden platforms to place sleeping mats on. Apart from that there were about 3 military-style foldable beds to use, which I appreciated.
That being said, the bothy is only as spacious as the amount of people that are planning to stay there overnight. And this day, the bothy was busy. Sometimes you're lucky to have the whole place to yourself. This time people were flooding to the point where hikers had to turn around as the place was full.
To add to the luxury, there was also a little outbuilding for chopping wood, and a compostable toilet in the middle of the forest which was giving some real ‘’Shrek’’ vibes.
Relax time
The time came to soak the setting in, I read a book, did some embroidery, prayed the rosary, talked to fellow hikers, and played Ludo and frisbee. With no phone service and no distractions, I was soaking up every moment of this experience and it was absolutely wonderful. I sat down and listened to birds singing and felt as if I was melting away due to the overwhelming beauty of my surroundings.
Feast Time
The time came to boil some tortellini pasta and make some coffee. There is something that I find so satisfying about cooking outside. Don’t know what it is, but somehow food just tastes better… does anyone relate?
Evening/ Night
As the evening drew close, and it became darker, I made my way back into the bothy where we started a fire and played rounds of Ludo and chess. Pretty soon after that, it was time to sleep. With the lights off, and everybody sleeping, the rats were awake and running inside the walls. I put my earplugs in, hoped they weren’t going to jump on top of me, and drifted to sleep.
Around 5 am, I woke up to the hikers chatting away downstairs, it was a cold morning. Eventually, I started putting my sleeping bag away, sluggishly packing the kit, and getting ready to go.
Golden Morning Views
Stepping outside, I was met with the most stunning golden sunshine. It was lighting up the forest grounds, making it look like a fairytale book illustration. The air was fresh, and the birds were singing loudly. It felt surreal.
Even though I hadn't slept the best that night, I felt oddly refreshed and re-vitalised by this experience. With a spring in my step, I began hiking down.
I ended up thinking about how grateful I am to experience this hike, this scenery, and all the views. Gratitude was flowing and fueling me up with such joy.
Soon enough, I reached windy roads that looked like from a movie, I followed them all the way to the car park where I had some coffee and breakfast before carrying on the journey.
Thanks for joining me on this adventure!
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Until next time,
Marta 😊