Zosia admires the view down to the Pig Trail & Miner's Track

It took a while but I finally managed to climb all three of the mainland summits – Scafell, Ben Nevis and Snowdon (in that order). I would need to get a calculator out to approximate the number of days it took, but who cares. Anyhow, climbing Snowdon (Yr Widdfa) was relatively easy and could have been much quicker had it not been a very hot sunny day (all day) and hundreds or tourist out for a walk, charity runners, scout groups and many over-weights getting in the way.

Don’t even think about having a peaceful rest on the summit, in fact, try and find a spot to sit is nigh impossible. All around you are idiots trying stupid camera angles, parents with their babies walking round the summit cairn and every Tom, Dick and Harry speaking to their chums on their mobiles saying where they were.

Zosia can't be bothered to climb the steps. Every cairn looks the same to her.

There are over five routes to the summit and one is very, very easy … you just get on the train and it take you up the cog railway. If you decide you want fresh air you can get out and wait for the next train to pick you up at one of three stations.

The best bit of mis-advice is the ‘Half-way’ staion & cafe which maybe halfway in distance but is NOT in effort as just after the cafe is the steepest section and one which most walkers(tourists) fall over and die.

The main attraction for most casual ramblers is the Scenic View Restaurant on the summit, about five steps from the last station, so in practice you could go up Snowdon and not get wet, cold or even get fresh air to touch your delicate skin; and so avoid getting Carmelitis (italian joke).

Alfredo was like a child in a candy shop. He had arrived at his all time favourite castle and the sun was out, the sky was blue and it wasn’t raining. He was in heaven. All he had to do was get all of the castle into his Canon camera!

Meanwhile, the other tourists were doing the same … in their droves. Some even paying the fee to get in the gate and over the bridge to the island itself. Not our brave Italian hero. He just walked past the dozing attendant and got his shot in the can (well did apologise on the way back through).

Sandra had all three ‘vestitos’ on, plus a fleece and wind jacket and still couldn’t believe this was our summer. Well it wasn’t typical was it?

Well down the path and over to the Dunsapie Loch things got much better and we could even manage to get out of the car and see sunset over the city. There was a queue for the perfect photospot as all the budding snappers wanted to get the city at sunset. It was just too cold for Sandra – she retired to the car.

This is a typical waymark post in the Italian Alps, also seen in Slovenia, Austria and possibly all European mountain areas. You’ll find them at crossroad paths, trail start/end points; in fact, everywhere. If you get lost in these countries, you are either blind or the weather is really bad (happened to me, but another story).

In Scotland we have none of this. We have cairns which some people hate so much that that they kick them over. Those that like the cairns have a tradition of adding another stone or two, onto the cairn so that it grows in time. The thing with the cairn is that when you come across one it just sits there and looks at you. It does NOT tell you which way to go. The only intelligent cairns are summit cairns and they tell you to go home.

Walk in a straight line inland and keeping the river to your left and soon you’ll find a wee lochan with a convenient picnic table. Here was the mine which supplied Diotomite. Beside the rough road and to the right is a dismantled railway, which was a 2 foot gauge tramway. In a description from 1905 the line was worked by manpower and gravity, later it appears to have had a locomotive.

It ran from Loch Cuithir (where the Diatomite was extracted from the lochbed and initially dried on wire nets) to the clifftop at Invertote where there were storehouses. At the foot of the cliff was a drying and grinding factory where the diatomite was kiln dried, ground and calcined (roasted). An extension of the line ran from the factories to the pier. A second facility carried Diatomite from Loch Valerain by aerial ropeway to Staffin Bay. Between these the Skye Diatomite company extracted 2000 tons. Today the line and works are closed and ruined and Loch Valerain is worked out.

The Diatomite was converted into kieselguhr which was used by Nobel Explosives at Ardeer to mix with nitroglycerine to make Dynamite. Diatomite has many uses and is still prepared in many parts of the world.