29th August photo - A wheel on the top of a mountain!

Today's photo is this old abandoned wheel we found on the top of a mountain near to Dinas Mawddwy in Wales. We were led here following a geocache, which took us through another Slate mine - disused again - but still very interesting.

We think the wheel must have been part of some winching mechanism on top of the mountain for use at the slate mine lower down. Anyway it was a very random structure to find on the top of such a desolate hill top!
It was a long steep climb to the top but the views were outstanding at the top, which made the long hike so worthwhile.

The area around the slate mine was fascinating - we were very adventurous and had fun exploring. There were great big chasms where the slate had been blasted away - with waterfalls and caves - we just admired the caves but did not go in them - we were not that brave!

The slate that was still in situ was very different to the piles of grey slate you see lying about once mined - it has facets of many different colours running through it.