Tarrenhendre, GW/NW-036 - 634m ASL - SH 683 041 - OS Explorer OL23 - 4 SOTA points            

This was the second summit on Thursday 28th February 2013, after Tarren y Gesail GW/NW-033.  From the earlier summit, we had walked the ridge from the north-east, and noted the ladder stile at SH696040 which marked our direct return route to the car.  We were now faced with a brutally steep grassy slope alongside a fence to get up to the summit.  This was hard work at the end of a long day, but nowhere near as fearsome as the slopes up our earlier summit!

The cairn at the fence corner at SH683039 suited me just fine as an activating spot.  Jimmy, as expected, took the camera and went off to search for the summit true some 150m to the north-west.  In the meantime, I was well into making plenty of contacts on 40m CW, a run which ended on 20 QSOs.  Jimmy had made some QSOs with his handheld over at the true summit, including S2S with Ricky MW6GWR/P on Ffridd Cocyn GW/NW-063, but had not qualified.  He did eventually limp to the four contacts required.

Now it was time to get cracking with our descent.  It had gone 5pm, and we didn't have a headlamp.  I set off from the summit just ahead of Jimmy, but waited for him at the ladder stile at SH696040.  From here we followed the sometimes faint-to-non-existent grassy path downhill.  We reached a large and wide forest road that cut perpendicularly across our route.  This was not marked on the map.  We weren't sure of the way to go at first, but Jimmy noticed two yellow painted circles on trees either side of a path continuing downhill and back into forestry.  Looking back, there were also two painted circles on trees either side of the path we had come down, so we reasoned that this must be right!  The forest track had been banked up so high on its lower side that it was quite a bit of work to scramble down the edge of the road to get back on the path, especially with tired bodies and aching muscles.

The rest of the walk was now relatively straightforward, although glimpses of the car in the far distance did prove to be a rather agonising tease.  We made it to the car in twilight just before 7pm.  By the time we had changed out of our boots and started the engine, darkness had fallen, so I had definitely cut it fine without the headtorches!  The first priority was to drive back down the rough, narrow and steep road to Abergynolwyn.  Once this was out of the way, I pulled over so we could finish our flask of "smokin'" chicken & bacon soup, and I could freshen up with a can of Red Bull.

We returned up the coast road to Dolgellau, listening to the debut album from Macclesfield rock band The Virginmarys.  I was really impressed with this, and have been playing it over and over in the car ever since.  Back at the Royal Ship Inn in Dolgellau, we grabbed a quick shower before coming down for dinner around 8.20pm.  From memory, I think I went for the battered sea bream, while Jimmy acted upon my recommendation from the previous night and enjoyed the steak & ale pie.  We got some rest ahead of the following day's walk up Cadair Idris GW/NW-009.