Words & photos - John Lymer
What a gem this location is! Pant Yr Onnen Caravan and Camping Site is right on the shore of the lake, at Llangower, about 3.5 miles from the town of Bala. A pleasant distance to cycle. Pay £8 for a hook-up and your pitch is about 30 metres from the lake. Forego electric and you'll be right on the shoreline. Or you can book a Shepherd's hut. The views are fabulous and the light quite special when the sun penetrated gaps in the cloud. Looking down the lake, I could see up to 7 layers of distant hill.
Six members plus family made the late September weekend trip. Maybe more won't commit without the guarantee of wind. You do realise that will never come though? I admit, the forecast for our trip didn't bode that well. The direction was North Easterly, so blowing down the lake - so far, so good. Xcweather and the Met Office had both forecast 10mph gusting to 20ish. As it happened, that seemed quite accurate, though a few whitecaps maybe indicates a bit more than 10mph. Perfect 6.5m windfoiling (7.5m+ windsurfing) on Friday afternoon. It seemed easier than usual, or I've got better. The wind was very clean with none of the huge gusts that we're so used to and that does make a difference. Saturday saw a bit more wind around lunchtime, enough for windsurfing with 6.5m sails. Sometimes bigger would have been better, or swapping fin for foil, but we got out and we got planing, so that's a success! The conditions were also well suited to paddleboarding, kayaking and other boating activities that are popular here. Our members covered windsurfing, windfoiling, wingsurfing and paddleboarding. What a diverse bunch we are!
Here's a video edited from drone footage kindly supplied by a fellow camper.
And here are some stills showing the action ...
Click on a picture to see larger images then use the arrows or swipe to scroll through them
