More About Yesterday

Yesterday after my fiasco with Asha I was still a little shaken when I was walking up towards the van and Steve messaged .. "Are You OK?" Now he was lucky I looked I tend to ignore my phone on walks but I'd just used it to take photos of caterpillars .. it's close up photos are better than the camera. Anyway I wondered why the message .. surely he wasn't reading my thoughts after Asha's disappearance? LOL So I rang him, we'll you've been a long time he said ... Oh bloody hell it takes 20 mins to get there and I had decided to give everyone a 30 - 40 min walk so with 2 lots with me of course I was going to be a long time .. well It's nice he cares!  I arrived at 9.45am and his message came in at 10.45am  when I was about 15 mins away from the van - so in fairness he was being a little previous really!
I continued up but something made me look behind me and a young lad was jogging with a Lurcher and getting quite close to us. I had no time to get my leads on so called the girls over and grabbed them by the collars. He continued very quickly and the dog was loose, so I called out .. "Please get hold of your dog!"
Now I've seen this guy before and I know his dog is nervous and tends to do the side stepping nervous barking, so I was wary. I thought he had hold of it but then realised he had no collar or lead and though he tried to restraint it by the neck it again barked and lunged forward before side stepping and running off. Again my heart was in my mouth as I clung on for dear life. Thank god these girls wear collars. I have no doubt in my mind that otherwise it would have been a disaster and though they are pretty well behaved I don't think they would have ignored the threat. Even cool calm Asha was a little worked up. Why no collar or lead? My god what is wrong with people? Just irresponsible dog ownership. To start off with he's breaking the law but worse still is the "what if's" isn't it? He's only a teenager and maybe he doesn't consider the dangers as we would? If he only had a slip lead in his pocket or round his neck .. or just a collar on the dog to grab in emergencies ... Shocking really that his parents don't consider the dangers of allowing both out with no collar or lead for the dog!

Today I had hoped to go back to find another path into the woods. There seems to be another path up from the old school house. But a tatty old school house it is no more, it's now a lovely B&B. I went onto google maps and drove my cursor up and down the road in the area and sadly there seems to be no sensible parking place on the single track road .. but a trip over and driving the van instead of the cursor could give me a better idea.
To get there I take the A487 towards Porthmadog and go off at Pant Glas to Bwlch Derwin. Taking the left at the T. junction then the first right to the woods. From the main 487 it takes 5 minutes to the woods. Yesterday we followed the path to the T.Junction and went left to the end .. the path I knew though I do also love the path through the middle of the trees. On the way back curiosity got the better of us and instead of turning right back we went straight just a short way.. a path I now know would bring me out by the old school house.  I must go, I need to see everything I can of the beauty of North Wales. Even if Steve just drops me off and goes to the garden centre .. I need to walk that path .. and any other I can find! People are stunned that with all this open countryside that I have here that I still go to other places . My word in this life we need to see as much as we can, Snowdonia and all it's glory is stunning!