From Roman Bridge station we took the lane westwards to join the public footpath via Gorddinan farm and across the railway to follow the Afon Lledr to a minor road and the access drive to Hendre where another public footpath crosses. Though not signed, this footpath goes through a small metal gate directly across some wet ground to the obvious rail underpass.

Note to self: if we had ignored this latter footpath and continued on the track through the next farm gate, we would have avoided a lot of grief. We descended that way years ago on our Cwm Lledr trip and it was very easy with no problems. Read your own reports!.

As it was, we crossed via the underpass and started the ascent on an initially clear path but something quickly seemed amiss as the path petered out: in hindsight I was subconsciously recalling memories of that Cwm Lledr descent where the path line passed near to water with the proportions of a river [the Afon Lledr as it turned out], but nothing resembling that around here. Suspecting the worst, we loaded up with water at a tiny clear cascade.

Shortly afterwards the real trouble started: there was no trace of a path and the terrain was atrocious, an unrelenting sea of large tussocks covered by bleached rough grass that concealed deep holes of variable depth. Every single step required careful placement and testing, needing intense concentration and muscle effort just to stay vertical - and sometimes failing. It took a very long time to cover a short distance and it was getting late with no signs of any respite. Feeling utterly exhausted and still in pain, we had to pitch somewhere.

We looked for a horizontal patch with no prohibitively deep holes and stopped to pitch the tent. Being freestanding it requires no pegs for its structure - they would be totally useless anyway - and there was no wind fortunately. With no tension, the flysheet was touching the inner in several places and things seemed a little damp next morning, but it turned out quite comfortable and we were soon asleep.

More of the same this morning, we very slowly resumed the tussocky tramp southwards, stumbling and lurching along until finally we came upon a path - a real path - where we could walk normally. My ankle soreness had disappeared too, with this sense of luxury we made rapid progress and soon caught sight of the mine track laid to service the construction of the Blaenau railway tunnel airshaft that could be seen nearby. This well engineered track is the ascent line we would have followed all the way from Hendre farm had we continued through the farm gate and gives a very fine relaxed promenade around the lower slopes of Moel Dyrnogydd out to the A470 Crimea Pass road.

On the eastern side of the pass, it is necessary to walk along the road to the car park enclosure where Access Land is reached via a stile adjacent to its southern end. We ascended directly up the easy grassy slopes near a small stream and turned southwards at its head, contouring the slopes of Moel Farlwyd to reach a crossing fence. This is barbed but one small section has the top wire pulled back to give a crossing point. There were grand views across the pass to the Allt-fawr group and the more distant mountains.

We contoured around the slopes to reach Llynnau Barlwyd, the lower reservoir looking very dry near the perimeter but the upper one yielding a much more attractive prospect and an excellent pitch. The gap in the dam wall is easily crossed on stones to reach the eastern side.

The pitch spot was a delightful place to linger in the early light but we eventually packed away our kit and broke camp.

In the area south of the reservoirs, though still in Access Land, we encountered the increasing incursions of the Plas Weunydd adventure company that rents out 'Shepherd Huts' reached via their access tracks. These are glamping cabins with modern amenities, the highest situated right on the southern edge of the lower reservoir.

For simplicity we followed the eastern edge of the lower reservoir to join their cabin access track descending SSW and crossing over the infant Afon Barlwyd. A short way beyond is a public footpath crossing the track where the map shows no path on the ground, but there is in fact a thin path ascending from the waymark post eastwards through the whinberry to arrive at a crossing track. Turning right SSW here, we were almost on our familiar quarry descent route from the last couple of trips but with just one locked gate to deal with: easily climbed to reach the quarry lake.

The accumulated spoil heaps presented a different kind of striking hillscape, striated grey heaps where some tenacious plants were determined to take hold in the desolation. Lower down in the heaps of slate spoil, rhododendrons seemed to be the leading contenders for recolonisation.

The improvised route after the first day was a great success and very enjoyable, reinforcing our slackpacking regime introduced recently. We are looking forward to doing the original planned route with the advantages of an earlier start, the track option for the ascent and hopefully a big improvement in my ankle.