Recollections by Chris Lovell

Expedition to Glaslyn 1945

We set out for a lake called "Glaslyn" about twenty miles north-west from Llandinam. We started out at 11 o'clock on the Saturday morning. We had to accomplish three things: two of us to draw a plan of a mill, and two of us to draw a picture of a church: to give a map reference of our sleeping place: to reach the lake. By twelve it had started to rain and continued to do so until the end of the day.

We reached the first village about 12.30 and bought a pot of marmite to go with some bread we had. We also managed to get two pounds of water biscuits, which were off points. [Ration books contained 28 points per month, which could be expended on certain items such as jam, biscuits etc if available. "Off points" meant that no points were needed.] We ate the biscuits on a five mile walk to the mill which we explored. I and D.B. drew the mill while the others went off to draw the church. After we had explored the mill we went to look at the church, which was in a most dilapidated condition. All the windows were filled in with corrugated iron, and the steeple had a great split down one side. The churchyard was used as a paddock for cows and pigs, and there was so much mud that we were unable to reach the door! While we were there we watched some men slaughtering a pig. They threw all the remains in the river (ten feet wide).
Our next stop was a place called - a cheerful name - Staylittle, an English name in the middle of Wales! The idea was to spend the night at Staylittle and make a dash for the lake the next day; we had to be back by Sunday night. Although we had maps, we asked a man the quickest way to Staylittle. He said, "Follow the telephone wires". The wires (2 only) left the road to take a short cut. First of all we went along a beautiful valley with a foaming stream tumbling along the bottom. We then began to walk up a very high hill at the side of the valley. We looked DOWN at a few cottages that seemed tiny; we looked UP, and saw a thick grey covering of cloud. It would have been much nicer if there had been sun instead of rain.
The next part of the journey was the most memorable. We had reached the top of the hill when it started to hail. There was no shelter and the rain, wind and hail absolutely had us at their mercy. Our foreheads became completely numb and we could hardly walk. Our only link with civilisation being two telephone wires! However, the hail stopped and D.B. shook his cycle cape and a layer of snow slid off. We then began to go down hill and about an hour later reached Staylittle.

We had orders to ring up the school from Staylittle to let them know we were safe. Out leader rang up and we thought of the message going through the hailstorm on top of the hill.
We had been told of a farm where we would probably be able to spend the night. We went there and were shown a barn full of hay. It was about five o'clock when we reached the farm. The leader of our expedition and myself decided to make a dash for the lake before nightfall (6.30). We planned to run down all the hills. We dumped our rucksacks in the barn, and left the other two boys with instructions to have bed and supper ready for our return.
We reached the top of the first of two ranges of hills. Here it began to hail like anything. The sky grew darker and we heard thunder. We had a conference and decided to go back to the farm rather than stay out in such frightful weather. So we ran back to the farm. There we had a cold meal which we had brought with us. We also bought a pint of milk from the farmer. We changed into any dry clothes we had with us and went to bed at 6.30!

We climbed up about ten feet of hay and laid the one blanket we had each bought over us. We didn't like that however, and started to remake our bed in pitch darkness. We eventually made suitable beds by 7.30! We went to bed with ten feet of hay underneath us and three feet above us.

We slept well although D.B. said that he was woken up by mice crawling over him. We also had a ghostly visitor. We saw a light below us and felt somebody climbing up our haystack. It turned out to be a farm-hand who had come to see if we were alright and not setting fire to the hay.

D.B and I awoke at 7.30. We decided to get to the lake and back before the others were up. It was a fine day for a change. We walked for about three miles and thought we would never find the lake. Then we suddenly saw it on our left. The road went miles away before it reached the lake, so we decided to take a short cut but we soon wished we had not because we found ourselves on soaking wet boggy ground. Our feet were absolutely frozen for we had changed into gym shoes because our other shoes were wet from Saturday's walk.

We reached the lake eventually. It was on top of a plateau. It was an eerie place; not a sign of life to be found anywhere except for a few sheep. The lake was as still as glass. The bed was all stones and pebbles, no reeds or weed, and consequently no sign of fish or birds. The whole place was in semi-darkness, and this made us feel as if we were in a dream all the time.
We had also been told to visit a gorge on the edge of the plateau. We walked half a mile across burned heather to the edge of the plateau. There we had our reward. We had a wonderful view over millions of hills. Unfortunately we could not see very far because of the mist which lay below us. The other fine sight we saw was the gorge. There was 400ft of almost perpendicular rock with a stream flowing down it. It was well worth the journey.

We had to hurry back as by then it was 9 o'clock. When we got to the farm we had breakfast and thawed ourselves and started back. The return journey was uneventful. The weather was alright too. D.B.'s shoes had shrunk so much that he had a frightful blister.