Solo Wild Camp in Snowdonia - Wales

Hello! Good morning! I'm in a great mood today. I have just literally about two hours ago spontaneously decided to drive three and a half hours into Snowdonia, North Wales, to hike and camp on a mountain. It's like my last day in the UK for a couple weeks and it is such beautiful weather. It's perfect weather, hiking, camping conditions and I feel like it could be my last chance to get a nice summer mountain camping so I'm going for it. Seven hour round trip, a couple of hours hiking up, probably one or two hours of daylight by the time I get up there. Sunset, sunrise, beautiful time. I cannot wait. I haven't decided yet what mountain I'm gonna do. I've got three and a half hours to decide. I've got a couple of options but I'm so excited. Got a can of peachy keen monster, my favourite, and please subscribe. I'd appreciate it. Someone's watching me talk to the camera so I'm gonna go. Bye! Love you, bye! So I've just set off. I'm in the beautiful Ogwen Valley, got the glider out behind me, Pen-y-rolwen up here, Tryfan there and I've decided to go camp up Egan which is just up here with the sun. It's going to be setting behind it. If you've followed my YouTube channel for a long time you will know that Egan was my first ever solo wild camp a couple years ago now and I've not camped up there solo since. So one of my favourite mountains, thought I'd go up there. It's familiar to me, it's comfortable to me and I know I get a perfectly gorgeous sunrise like coming through the valley over there. If you're wondering about the weight of this bag it's approximately 17 million kilograms because I am incapable of packing light. Just loving this peace, like it's so so quiet. Oh there's boys coming, let's run away, run away from the boys. So the hard part begins now. We're heading up. The sun has just set behind the summit though so at least I don't have boiling heat beating down on me. The sheep is staring at me. Why are you staring at me like that? What? So there's the summit, there's a there's a tiny lake just over there and you've got these lovely views. The path is right there so I'm not going to go. As lovely as that is, a nice bit of flat ground with a lovely view right there. Obviously when I'm by myself I want to feel really safe and tucked away so I don't go anywhere near the path. So yeah I'm just going to kind of wander around and find a little flat spot that I feel like safe in. But what's nice is there's no one up here. I've passed a few people on my way up and what I always do if I speak to anyone is if they ask anything which a few people have said oh you're just on your way up and I just said yeah my friends are already up there. Stupid but it just makes me feel a little bit safer. You gotta do what you gotta do. You're camping on your own and in the mountains you're gonna feel a little bit vulnerable so yeah I always just tell people that I'm meeting friends or that I'm just doing a training hike and I've got weight on my bag. Obviously I just never say yeah I'm gonna go camp by myself. Except for these guys that see me. You little stalkers. Yes and you. I'm literally going crazy speaking to sheep so let's go find somewhere to pitch. So I found my spot. This little bit of patch of grass there. That is where I camped on my first ever solo wild camp so I feel really safe there. It feels really tucked away like as you can see all it drops down kind of. I'm in the side of the mountain kind of thing so I feel really secluded and hidden and no one's gonna have any reason to kind of stumble upon me or see my tent and get a beautiful view of the lake. So I'm gonna go set up my tent. It's had the sun on it it's so toasty. It's like getting a hug. I haven't had a hug in so long. Tragic. Yes. Forgot I had these. Cheers. So this is the Vango Helvellyn 200. This is my tent. Good little two-man tent. Not too heavy, not too expensive. Definitely a good little starter tent if you are looking to invest in one. I've had this for like three years now. Okay I'm being brave. I've changed my campsite. I was going to go here on this flat bit that's kind of hidden between these two bits of, well these two hills but I'm going up here on this hill because look at the views. Slightly less hidden away, slightly less hidden away but I'm feeling brave. I'm gonna do it. So I get to wake up to these views and sunrise right over there. So all set up. Got all my sleeping stuff set up. So glad that I moved my tent here. I just love this spot. Just look at this view. Absolutely stunning. So here's the thing. I know so many people are nervous and have anxiety about going, you know, solo wild camping. It is a scary thing. You're very vulnerable. You're out in the elements by yourself. I don't have signal right now. Obviously I'm quite away from my car. I can actually see my car. I just realised. So it's really natural to be scared and it's actually good because it means you're aware of the risks and you're going to keep yourself a little bit more safe and be a bit more alert but if you're anything like me you'll find that it's usually the fear of the unknown and then once you're up here you're sat here in the mountains just in this beautiful place with these beautiful views and it's so peaceful and serene. I just feel safe. I just feel happy and safe and obviously it's a different story when it goes dark but usually you've, you kind of, you've settled into your environment. I would always recommend going somewhere that you're comfortable with, sorry that you're familiar with, that you've been to before. This is why I've come back here because I came here before and even the time I came here for my first ever solo wild camp I had already been here with friends and camped here with friends so it's a really comfortable familiar spot for me. Go somewhere that you know that you've been before. Make sure someone has your location. I've got my kindle with me. I've got some episodes downloaded on Netflix on my phone. I've got a little miniature wine to drink and some super noodles. Just kind of make it a fun little experience for yourself. I'd always recommend going in good weather. Nobody wants to be camping for the first time in rain or horrible winds so always check the weather and I personally find the higher up I am the safer I feel. Obviously it would be easier to just kind of camp somewhere down here by the lake but a if a ranger comes by and asks you to move on you're more like, well that's more likely to happen when you're down low. There's more likely to be more people there. There's more likely for people to be wandering past you if they're hiking up for sunrise or sunset so I personally just find that if I'm higher up I feel safer and it just comes down to logic. Sometimes I do get a bit scared. I think I hear a sound or my brain starts running away with itself but I just tell myself like I just run through logic in my head. I'm like no one knows I'm here. No one. What are the chances of somebody being up here in the middle of the night having ill intent, having ill meaning um and also what kind of crazy person goes and attacks a tent without knowing who's in there. Like I think if this is sexist I don't know but I don't think many people would expect a young girl to be camping by herself um so if they just see a tent what kind of crazy person is just going to go and like you know do something without knowing who's in there. So I think I think it's safe to assume you'd think it was possibly a guy or a couple or something. So yeah I just uh those are my tips. Those are what I do to kind of talk my brain down but most of the time it's like this and I'm just happy and peaceful and uh just happy to be here. So I hope that inspires some uh solo adventures or a solo camp but also just go with a friend first. Go with a friend or a partner or someone first to get comfortable with solo camping. Make sure you know how to set your tent up and you've experienced sleeping on a mountain, sleeping you know with the wind and the sheep and everything like that. I hope that helps. Let me know in the comments actually if you've got any questions about that and I can always do another video. Absolute elite meal. So I'm back in my tent. I did run up to um a little bit higher up just to check out the sunset. Oh my goodness the sky has been like pink blue it's just been obviously it's always blue but I mean it's been just layers of pinks and blues it's been absolutely beautiful like it still is. The camera won't do it justice now but um look at that for a view. I feel so lucky right now to be here. I'm just watching all the little twinkling lights down in the valley and for the cars driving past um but yeah this is me. It is five to eight so nice early night um I have my book and I have some episodes downloaded on Netflix of The Office obviously because that's all I watch and probably pop out in an hour or two to take some night mode pictures of my tent and then hope for a beautiful sunrise. So yeah it's been an awesome night. I've loved it. I'm so glad I came. Good night. Looks nice out there. Oh I was just boiling my water for a hot chocolate and then it tipped over. No hot chocolate for me. That is like so sad. That's the last of my water so I've got no water to drink and I've got no hot chocolate. There it is. Oh how beautiful is that? You know what would have made this better? A hot chocolate. Oh what a morning. That's been absolutely stunning. Look at that. I've just been sat here for like a good hour just watching it. So I didn't sleep too bad. I was on a tiny bit of a slant so I rolled off my mat a couple times. The wind was waking up a little bit with the tent flapping but like as as mountain camps go wasn't the worst. Didn't have any like freaky moments. Like sometimes you'll get sheep running around your tent and it freaks you out. But no I slept fine. I'm just starving. I was really looking forward to my hot chocolate. I think I've got a cereal bar in here to keep me going but yeah it's been such a beautiful morning. Just look at that. Oh my god what a way to start the day. Happy Wednesday. Time to head down. It is quarter to eight. The sun hath risen. Obviously left no trace here. Always remember to just clean up everything that you've got. Take it home. So yeah gonna start heading down with these beautiful views. Look at that. Ah what a morning. Ah made it back. I'm just putting my comfy boots on to drive in. I feel so weak like I've got no energy in me. That pot of noodles has probably got like 400 calories in it and it's all I've eaten in like uh 12, 16 hours. So I'm hungry. Can of Monster. Because I need the caffeine. Ah it's just hit me. I'm so tired now. Um anyway thank you so much for watching. That was an amazing night and morning. So glad I went and pushed myself to do that. I was sat in my house yesterday thinking should I, shouldn't I and I'm glad that I did. Um I hope it's given you some inspo or some tips. Um I will get a video out soon of like all my camping stuff. There is an old one of like all my camping kit if you wanted to check that out. Let me know in the comments if there's anything you'd want to see or anything you'd want to know. If you've got any questions I'd really love it if you could hit subscribe. Um I'm really trying to grow this account and encourage myself to do more YouTube again because I've missed doing it. So I'd really appreciate it. I know sometimes you have to log in and it's faffy but it genuinely would mean a lot. Um if you want to do a little good deed today just hit subscribe on my YouTube channel and go follow me on Instagram and TikTok which is at Grace's Adventures because I kind of like doing this and I want to keep doing more of it. So yeah thank you for watching. Have an awesome day. Go hike. Go camp. Go see the mountains. Be safe and I'll see you next time. I need to eat something. I'm so dead.