I’ve just got back from my 15th (I think) trip up Snowdon. The trip started yesterday morning when I jumped in the (lightened by way of back seat removal) car and travelled around 4 and a half hours from South to North Wales. When I got there I set up the tent at the camp site and waited for my sister-in-law and co. After an evening of curry and Plop Trumps we retired for the nights. Getting up early this morning was easy cuz we didn’t sleep much (camp site was noisy.. booo), and we managed to get to the Pen-y-Pass car park for 6:45am. Good job we got there early because we ended up with two of the last 5 or so parking spaces – that car park is getting more ridiculously busy each time I visit it. We took it nice and slow to the summit as the weather was so hot, but the summit was covered in people wearing flip flops and trainers because the train service has started to run again. Looking around a gift shop at the top of a mountain is a strange experience but it has been done a lot nicer than the tasteless glass dome mockup I saw a few years ago. Anyway I’m back home now and covered in midge bites. Photos will follow once I get them off Helena (photos of the walk, not the bites).
Find-a-trig
June 14th, 2009 3 Comments »What a busy weekend. My friend Pete (probably reading this on an RSS feed no doubt) came over to visit and so Friday evening ended with a mixture of Indian and Chinese grub. Pete then suggested that a suitable activity for Saturday morning might be a nice walk around the hills behind the village – a suggestion he may be living to regret. That was all the incentive I needed, and I kitted myself out with full mountain gear – overkill for sure but I haven’t used it in over 12 months so it needed an airing. Now you’ll need to check out the map for this bit to make sense:
We walked out of the village (failing to find the quicker exit straight in to the fields) and back towards the park. My intention was to find the trig point on top of Ton-mawr, marked at 319 metres in the map. Once we got just past the fort and along-side the forest we started to look for a way in – there must be a path to the trig point somewhere cuz it can’t possibly be inaccessible can it? Anyway, there was a path on the map running North of the trig point and I hoped that would have a footpath bearing south once we were on it. But, it looks like this search will have to wait until winter. The path was so overgrown, like over waist height for me (ankle height for Pete) so we carried on and went around the hill instead. It was a nice walk, 7.6 miles so a good walk-up for a planned trip up Snowdon again in couple of weeks. And I got to test out the compass on my fancy “Pro Trek” watch for the first time, very useful for a quick bearing… But back to the trig point. Once back home I did a bit of research… Should have done that before really but never mind. You can see from the Google Maps photo that there are three paths carved in to the forest, so I located the 1:25k scale map of the same area and you can see three white lines in the same shape. Not paths as such, but non-wooded areas that can only be seen on the larger scale map.
Hmm, the trig point lies right along one of these “paths” apparantly. I may go back later this week to investigate as I have the week off work, but even zooming in as close as possible reveals very little. There are a couple of white dots I suspect may be the trig point but my biggest task will be fighting my way through the clearings! I must find it… I need to visit my nearest trig point! Yes. I am sad, now you don’t need to point that out in my comments section!
Right… other news. Poppy is sick, and has tested the water resistant qualities of the laminate in the hall, Joseph is doing okay and feeding and growing and crying and feeding lots more. And I have a Java exam tomorrow so will get back to my revision.
Saturday morning I drove to a camp site at the foot of Cadair Idris in North Wales… pitched up the tent then set off with the usual crowd to the summit. Was a nice walk with only a bit of wind and the odd small hail shower thrown in. The summit was surprisingly busy for December to be honest especially as we passed nobody else on the way up our route.
Once down it was Daz’s home-made chilli for tea and a few hours of talking rubbish around the camp fire. There was only one small interruption when Garry locked his keys inside his car with his stereo on. To save us from listening to that all night there was a window / rock solution provided by Matt, followed up by a cling film bandaid curtousy of Daz.
Anyway, I’m back in one piece despite the damp field I woke up in this morning and the tent will be drying out in the garage for the next few weeks no doubt.
Crib Goch and an early harvest
July 22nd, 2007 9 Comments »Yesterday I made my 14th trip to the summit of Snowdon, my second time via the Crib Goch route.. for those not familiar with this route, imagine a near vertical scramble up the side of a mountain, followed by 2 hours across a knife-edged ridge… great fun! We camped overnight at a site in Llanberis and the new tent survived. Tesco burgers and value chicken has never tasted so good. I’m back home safe now despite the gushing torrents of overspilled rivers blocking our every path in North Wales… (that’s sarcasm by the way) and find we are blessed with our next harvest. Thankfully all the radishes are gone, and we have runner beans, dwarf carrots, and peas! More peas should be ready next week along with a couple more carrots, and we’ll be over-run with beans over the next month or two. The sweetcorn is looking a little sadder as I’ve had to prop it up due to all the wind and rain last week, but we have some small cucumbers starting to make an appearance.
Goat Fell (but got up again)
June 5th, 2007 1 Comment »We’ve done quite a lot since my last post. There’s been a tasty trip around a distillery, a wedding (photos and video to follow soon), a coastal walk, my parents arrival on the island, and finally today I walked up Goat Fell. From practically sea level, the summit is a mere 874 metres above – missing out on the Monroe status – and is a leisurely stroll of just over 3 miles each way. We had great views over Brodick Bay, but our final ascent was through thick mist.
And now for my review of Ginster’s new Mexican Chicken Cornish Pasties:
Medium spice, okay cold… Probably could have done with taking a microwave with me though… over all piefully substantial.
