Snowdonia Wild Camping and Photography VLOG - Yes, a VLOG

Adventure Films

29 Apr

If you were to look back at the earliest videos on my YouTube channel, you’d find a couple of VLOGs in Snowdonia. A bloke quite similar to me, 4 years younger, a fair bit slimmer, and with a bit more hair on the top of his head than the bottom.

I’m not sure what went wrong since then, but this week I found myself back up on the Carneddau in Snowdonia making a “Snowdonia wild camping and photography VLOG”, like a true millennial.

Since 2019, I’ve been slowly plugging away at creating outdoor content on the hills and mountains of the UK, but almost always in what I call ”silent videos”, that is, videos with no talking and no music, for the most part. I love this style, not only creating it, but also watching it back myself. It’s a funny one, because in general I think I prefer some narration, but with my own videos I think I prefer them “silent”, probably something to do with not wanting to see or hear myself talking. But anyway, this week I decided to knock out a traditional VLOG-style video from Snowdonia.

Not only had it been over 4 years since the last VLOG, but it had also been well over a year since I last filmed anything in Snowdonia at all, so the whole thing was long overdue, and it was great to be back.

Here’s the VLOG - Ffynnon Lloer - A Snowdonia Wild Camping and Photography VLOG

So anyway, the trip. Here’s some useful info and an overview, for those not interested in the video by the older, fatter, balder me.

Parking was easy, on the side of the A5 in the Ogwen Valley, just off the eastern side of Llyn Ogwen itself. From here it was a short walk over a bridge, through some farmland to do some mountain pointing, and up to the eastern side on Pen yr Ole Wen to pick up the path that follows Afon Lloer up to Ffynnon Lloer.

Old, fat, bald bloke pointing at Tryfan mountain while heading up to Ffynnon Lloer to wild camp and VLOG like a true millennial

This little walk following Afon Lloer, has in my opinion, some of the best views in Snowdonia National Park. The look back at Tryfan Mountain over the stream is at times nothing short of sensational. I knocked off a timelapse and continued the hike up to Ffynnon Lloer.

Ffynnon Lloer is a beautiful secluded mountain lake on the Carneddau in Snowdonia. I think I describe it fairly well in the video, and it’s certainly better to get a feel for the place by watching that. It’s one of my favourite locations, quiet, secluded and stunningly beautiful. I wandered around the edge and visited the plane wreckage that sits just beside it.

I was a little hesitant to give the location away too easily, as it could be abused, but I’m going to trust you all. You can work it out from the video, and I’m not the only person to write about it anyway.

Under a rock, you’ll find the remains of a WW2 RAF Avro Anson, which crashed into Pen yr Ole Wen mountain on November 8th 1943. The 5 crewmen, who were on a night navigation exercise, were killed in the crash.

On this occasion I took half an hour to have a coffee at the memorial site, it’s well worth a visit if you’re on the Carneddau. This should go without saying, but don’t be a knob, leave it all there, however tempting it may be to remove a cool piece of WW2 RAF aircraft wreckage.

RAF Avro Anson Pen yr Ole Wen mountain in Snowdonia

From here I headed east to try and find some higher ground and a wild camping spot overlooking Tryfan Mountain and the Ogwen Valley. I stopped to filter some non-bollock water, and yomped through a boggy area on my path to timelapse heaven.

I found an absolutely gorgeous wild camping pitch, broke out the pot noodle, ate some steaks, washed it down with warm orange and black coffee and headed for home with a camera full of exquisite DNG files. As you do.

One of my favourite Snowdonia wild camps so far, and it was nice to VLOG it. Check out the video and please leave a comment if you find it useful, I read every comment.

Here’s more info on the gear I used and talked about on this camping trip - These are affiliate links, if you purchase through these I earn a small commission towards future Pot Noodle purchases at no cost to you -