You don’t have to go to Brazil to trek through a rainforest – Snowdonia has its very own wet woodland just waiting to be explored
Does the phrase “save the rainforest” conjure up visions of: a) Brazil, b) Borneo, or c) north Wales? You may not know it but Britain is home to 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) of rainforest, in areas including western Scotland, Cumbria, south-west England and, yes, north Wales. And these temperate forests are just as precious – and under just as much threat – as their tropical counterparts.
I travelled to Maentwrog, a tiny village in Snowdonia, to visit two neighbouring woodlands, Llennyrch and Coed Felinrhyd (also known as Melenrhyd). The woods date back an astonishing 10,000 years to the last ice age. These ancient places, found above the Vale of Ffestiniog, are two of Europe’s best remaining examples of Atlantic oak woodland, otherwise known as temperate rainforest. They are wet and wild: crisscrossed with streams and gullies, bordered by the Ceunant Llennyrch gorge, drenched with river spray and more than 200 days of rain a year. On the autumn afternoon that I visited, it was unseasonably hot and humid, making it feel as though we were stepping into the jungle – I half-expected to glimpse a tiger through the ferns.
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Source: Guardian Environment