May 2011
Monthly Archive
Saturday, 7th May 2011
The windy, showery weather continues. It was even to windy to go to archery. More jobs, bit of gardening, etc. And in the evening, nice dinner and drinks with Ken and Jayne.
Friday, 6th May 2011
Judith 07 May 2011 | : Archery, Work
Another windy day with occasional showers forecast. These didn’t materialise until the evening, and if we hadn’t been working, Geoff could probably have had a hang gliding flight. Instead we had work meetings. It’s at this time of year when we sit down and map out the work year, planning times and dates of conferences and looking at what other work committments we want to undertake. By 3.30pm, we’d had enough of meetings and went outside into the sunshine to do some gardening, including finding a suitable tree limb for the groovy hammock chair my parents gave us a few years ago for Christmas.
After that we went to archery. I need to do a lot of work on my shoulder muscles…
The demise of the open mic night at the Bridges has left a big gap in our weekly social calendar, so I had a peek at the 31 Days in Shropshire website to see if we could see some of our favourite local bands elsewhere. To my delight, Blues Boy Dan was playing in Marton, so we went along to see him. We assumed that he would either start a bit late or that he would do two sets with a break in between, but he had started promptly at 8pm, so we missed nearly all of his songs. Still, he’s playing some other gigs in the area soon, so we’ll make the effort to arrive on time. He did do one of my favourites though… the Dirty Dishes song.
“There’s too many dirty dishes in the sink for just us two … Well you got me wonderin’ baby who’s makin’ dirty dishes with you …”
Thursday, 5th May 2011
Judith 06 May 2011 | : Boring stuff
The forecast is for windy, occasionally damp weather so I got the lawn mown while I had the chance and then we spent the day doing what you do when you’ve come back from a trip away… laundry, post, jobs, etc. We were going to go to archery, but it rained and it was far too windy anyway.
Wednesday, 4th May 2011
Judith 05 May 2011 | : Beach, Holiday, Walking
On our walk yesterday, we spotted the Ropes and Ladders High Activity course right next to the National Slate Museum. We’ve always wanted to do a tree top/canopy activity thing, but in France, where we have seen them most often, they are usually closed when we pass by in autumn/spring. We got there at opening time and were the only people there. Jim, our personal guide, was a lovely lad originally from Bakewell, so we had a lot of places/experiences in common.
I only got my camera out of the car nearly at the end, but we did the middle (20 feet up) and high (40 feet up) balancing, climbing, tight rope course and then the zip line. The giant swing was a bit like a fairground ride and then we had to climb up a 25 foot pole, stand on a small platform on top of it and then leap towards and grab a trapeze. It would have been less scary if the wind hadn’t been rocking the pole. We had another go at the rope course and then went off for a cup of tea. It was really good, and a long held ambition fulfilled.
We had planned to go to Bangor, Penryn Castle and then Lladdona beach. But instead Jim suggested we go to Newborough on Anglesey. There’s an amazing beach there and you can walk along to the island of Llanddwyn.
We had a read, snooze and picnic first and then set off on the walk to the island. It’s such a huge beach that the sand density varies, so you could be walking on firm sand one minute and then be sinking down with every foot step the next. Negotiating a comfortable route made it a lot more interesting. We finally got to the little island and light houses. There are still wardens’ cottages and it’s a nature reserve, so lots of wild flowers. On our walk back the tide had gone out further, almost doubling the size of the beach.
It’s been a lovely three days away, with warm sunshine and stunning views. We spent over 14 hours walking and did over 1000 m of ascent. My knees really need a rest now. Looking at the forecast, they’re going to get it!
Tuesday, 3rd May 2011
Judith 05 May 2011 | : Holiday, Walking
Had I had ear plugs in, the gentle rocking of the van most of the night would have been like being in a cradle, but without them, the roars of the gusts kept me awake most of the night, despite being dog tired. We woke up stiff, but to a glorious day. Having pulled up in near darkness, we only appreciated in the morning the fantastic setting we’d camped in.
We had been a little ambitious with our walk, so decided to do something a little gentler (no mountains!) today. The gentleman in the Llanberis tourist information suggested a walk round Llyn Padarn (Lake Padarn). We’ve walked up in the slate mines high above Llanberis, but have never walked round the lake and looking at the map there seemed a lot of things to see and do on the way. It was supposed to be 5 miles and, it being round a lake, we assumed it was flat, but nothing in Snowdonia is flat!
Geoff doesn’t like walking in trees (“spoils the view”), so he decided that we would start our loop at Brynrefail at the northwest end of the lake, but rather than going through the woods, we’d do a short climb and join the path higher, all the while enjoying views of the mountains. So an hour later, we’d double backed, turned round, got the OS map and GPS out, had various discussions about our respective senses of direction and finally found the right path. Predictably, we should have followed the recommended route in the first place.
It’s a lovely walk, through villages, forests, fields and with a lot of archeological history too. Unfortunately the cafe and adventure park in the country park were closed, as was the quarry hospital, but this just gave us more time in the amazing National Slate Museum, at the southeast end of the lake. It houses the biggest waterwheel on mainland Britain, has an exhibition on life in the quarries as well and demonstrations on all aspects on quarry workings. It’s well worth going to, especially since the whole place is free.
By the time we were back at the car, it had been another five and a half hour walk. We stayed at Pete’s Eats, a famous cafe in Llanberis and went to the pub to plan tomorrow’s adventure.
Monday, 2nd May 2011
Geoff 04 May 2011 | : Holiday, Walking
Geoff writes: having realised that the sunny but windy weather was going to continue, we decided to go walking for a few days in Snowdonia. Right enough, we spent an hour or so on Monday morning agonising over this – write off flying completely, or take the gliders with us; go to Snowdonia; or the Lakes; or the Dales. In the end, we took the easy option, no gliders, and the closest place, on the grounds that Monday and Tuesday were blown out almost everywhere except Scotland, and Wednesday probably would be too.
So off to Snowdonia. Being a bit unfit, and not having done any serious walking for many months, we decided to do a walk with a 700 metre height difference, and classed as strenuous mountain walking – the Glyders range – Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach. We’ve flown the Glyders a few times, but never walked them, so we set off from the other side from where we fly. It is a truly stunning walk, up the back of a cwm – two cwms in fact. Most tourists had gone home by this time (it being bank holiday Monday), so there were very few people out.
It was very, very windy, and the closer we got to the top, the windier it got, so much so that we were a little worried, especially as people coming down said how wild it was on top. We passed someone else walking up, a father and young son. The father – who had no map, no compass, no signal for his mobile – asked us if we thought it would be safe for them to continue! Though why you would trust the word of a complete stranger, I have no idea. But the son decided he wanted to go back down, so, probably wisely, they did. We carried on anyway, and really, it wasn’t that bad. We walked over the top of the bowl we normally fly up, but this way we had a lot more time to enjoy the views.
The actual walk was only eight kilometers, but because of the height difference it took us some five hours to do it, with the walk down being particularly hard on Judith’s knees. But all in all, a brilliant day out.
We found a campsite for the night, but slept in the van, as usual – the wind was still very strong, and frequently shook the van throughout the night.
Sunday, 1st May 2011
Geoff 03 May 2011 | : Party, party, party...
Geoff writes: sunny, and windy, again. We had been intending to go away for a few days, but in the end we were too tired after a late night at the LMSC Bash, so we stayed in, did house jobs, then went to Wayne’s for an impromptu barbecue.