Long Welsh Weekend September 2013

IMG_1613
All alone at Dol Einion
P1020211
I didn’t put these in my dinner
P1020218
The old road
P1020212
Tal y Llyn

Friday 20th September
It took me just over 3 hours to reach Dol Einion camp site which is right at the foot of Cadair Idris. The path up the mountain leads out of the field.
When I got to the site there was no one around so I put the tent up in about 5 mins. I found Marian and gave her £8 plus £2 so I could leave the car on the site the following day.
I walked along the old road to Tal y Llyn which goes alongside Llyn Mwyngil. There were a lot of gates and I looked at some gravestones next to a church marked private. It was definitely warmer than the rest of the week but it was cloudy and dull and I felt a bit gloomy.
Back at the camp another vehicle had arrived so just me and them.
The site was flat but needed a tidy up and the loos and shower needed ripping out and starting again. Thank goodness for anti bacterial gel.
I cooked my supper before it got dark, Simon Rimmer lentil tikka masala. Hot spicy and actually not bad for dried food. I was testing it as dry food is so much lighter to carry when wild camping. It took 20 mins to cook and the pan was hard to wash out in the cold water sink in the field so not ideal. I had some cheese and pitta bread with it. I ate in the car because there were midges, I was camped next to the river that comes off the mountain plus the grass was long and damp. The anti midge spray did at least work.
Marian, the site owner told me the 16C church I tried to go in was sold off by Church of Wales and the villagers were upset. Even the churchyard which is still in use was sold off. The National Park didn’t help and the council awarded retrospective planning permission. Marian runs a heritage centre in the tiny chapel next door to the camp site and she does talks. I missed the last one today.
I got a minuscule phone signal at just a certain angle in just a certain spot on the car seat so had little text chat with C who I was missing.

Saturday 21st September
I was cold at first in the tent but threw everything off by the morning. I actually slept quite well for me in a tent.
Got up at 7.30 and had breakfast of muesli, yoghurt and jam (a Rachel’s corner pot) also some horrible old fruit tea and some old instant coffee which was not much better.
I waited for the low cloud and mist and drizzle to go but decided to head up anyway. I packed up everything except the tent in the hope it would be dry upon my return.
I set off at 9.45, straight away it’s a stiff climb up steps. I started to leap frog with a group of 5 Londoners and we did this most of the day. They were ok although I did try to leave them behind! Sometimes they were a little bit faster than me and it was nice to see the slow girl of the party ahead of me in the gloom. The mist kept up all the way to the top. I never saw the lake all day. At the top another path joins in and a very old lady thought I was in her party so we had a mad conversation with neither of us understanding what the other was on about although I did think she would get it when I said I was on my own and not in her group. There is a shelter at the top with a roof. It is the old tea shop from Victorian times when poor ponies dragged up the customers. Today it was soggy and crowded so I opted for soggy outside to eat my lunch and was rewarded with the sun burning off the cloud and showing me the cloud inversions and the route ahead.
I went off along big grassy bit to Mynydd Moel. Had a quick chat with the man from London and set off down the fence. Stopped for another chat with 2 men in jeans. Probably poofs. One of London girls was gay. We are everywhere! Then down, down through sun and cloud and back to the tent by 3.30.
The tent was nearly dry so I shoved it in the car and headed off to Dolgellau then Blaenau Festiniog through lots of low cloud. But after the mountain it was sun again all way to Betws y Coed and along to Capel Curig then a short bit of the A5.
Gwern Gof Isaf camp site is on the left just before Tryfan. It is cleaner and cheaper and more busy but I found a spot away from the rest. £5 for night.
I bought 2 shower tokens so 10 mins for £1.
After getting the tent up I went for my shower. The shower room is mixed gender so I took some outer layers off and reckoned that when the tokens went in I would still have some control as in an on off switch of some sort. The token machines were outside the cubicles and I wasn’t in the mood to be naked in front of 2 boys and a girl, so I had to rush in, take the rest of my kit off with the shower running. Luckily I had taken my clean clothes in a large strong plastic bag so it was ok but a bit annoying to have to choose between public nudity and wet clothes. Still it was a nice hot shower and I felt much better after it. I must remember flip flops next time!
Then back to tent to cook up Look What We Found meatballs and pasta. I did these as boil in the bag to reduce washing up.
I sat in the car to eat my supper. Then watched the flaming sun go down behind Tryfan and watched the clouds from inside the tent until it was dark. I treated myself to hot chocolate with rum, yum yum!! It was very windy so I put more pegs in.

IMG_1621
Roche moutonee, caused by glacial action on the bedrock
IMG_1622
Sun just appearing on summit of Cadair Idris
IMG_1626
Blazing fire behind farmhouse
P1020221
Mynydd Moel
P1020229
Back towards Cadair Idris
P1020231
Mynydd Moel onwards
P1020237
Llyn Cau tantalisingly out of sight
P1020243
River from Llyn Cau all the way to my camp site and Tal y Llyn
P1020244
Alpine
P1020246
Gwern Gof Isaf camp site
P1020247
Tryfan

P1020232

Sunday 22nd September
Not a good night. I’d been thinking of late that my shoulder injury was better but I couldn’t sleep on either one of my shoulders without it hurting and I was too tired to get up for painkillers. I went to sleep at 9.30 which is incredibly early for me and sort of slept on and off rolling around until 6.45.
It was windy overnight even lifting the floor of the tent at one point but I kept it in place and didn’t blow away!
Had my breakfast watching the sun rise in the lovely calm and warm with another river trickling past.
I packed up and struck camp. This always seems to take a while despite high levels of organisation. I guess having the car as an extra room inevitably means more clutter and more to keep in the right place.
10 mins to Capel Curig to Siabod cafe where the facilities were a bit better than the camp site although at least the site 2 had soap if not light in the loo. Site 1 had light but no soap and a big pong.
After accosting a range of men I found Paul Poole and a small group: Gary, Kirk, Viv and Bill. They had done refresher navigation the day before.
Paul showed us lots of books which I liked and most of which I’ve got. Then we set off towards Llanberis. We parked up opposite the big quarry and headed up with ropes and helmets. We practised anchor selection – tapping, kicking, checking for movement. Practised tying simple knots. Flaking the rope. Care of the rope. Indirect belay. I eventually got the hang of this by the end of the day. Anchor Belay Climber. ABC. Direct belay. Threading. Ascending using belays. Descending using belays. Descending using abseil to get self down only. Classic abseil. South African abseil. Confidence roping.
Still feel I need to practise all this a lot more but definitely felt more confident about it all than before.
It was a great day and I learnt a lot. Paul does modular assessments for ML as in 2 weekends, one a 3 day which is only a day off work. Not sure how much more I need to do in my log book but he will advise on this.
Off to Pen y Gwryd hotel. Nice old fashioned hotel. No keys for the locks, it operates on trust and has done for 75 years! I sat in the residents’ lounge supping a large glass of beer to celebrate having done a mini abseil and loved doing it. I was joined by David and later Gloria. The gong was banged and we had a good time talking so they invited me to join them to eat and gave me some wine.
I had melon with Parma ham, ok but in my heart of hearts I think this is an odd combination. I just ate it separately. Chicken, leek, mushroom with pastry rounds, new spuds, creamed celeriac and green beans. Lemon crusty sponge with jam.
In lounge again with John, Pam and Frank for coffee as well as Gloria and David.
Late to bed at 10.30. It was lovely to be in bed but I had to take all the heavy covers off.

IMG_1631
Moon over Tryfan
IMG_1632
Towards Pen y Pass
IMG_1635
Fiddling with ropes
IMG_1639
Instructor
IMG_1643
So happy!
IMG_1646
Small abseil but huge leap for me
IMG_1651
Welsh mountain goat
P1020248
Llyn Pen y Gwryd

Monday 23rd September
I awoke early, went to the loo, bumped into Gloria and couldn’t get back to sleep.
My morning tea arrived.
Breakfast at 8.30 summoned by the gong.
I had juice, sausage, poached egg and tomato with toast and coffee.
Said farewells to friends of night before.
Paid up and off to Llanberis. Went to V12 shop, I don’t know what that means and bought a Black Diamond rucksack that fits well. My last purchase doesn’t so I will sell it, it was designed for a longer back.
I had a coffee there and chatted with the staff. One of them does slack line walking and showed me a film of him doing this on Tryfan.
Then I went off above Betws and did a short forest walk, not very exciting but good nav practice as most of the forest tracks are not on the map.
Then home.

IMG_1654
Ye olde tub at PYG
P1020256
Private lake at PYG, one for Chris to swim in
P1020258
Alpine bar at PYG
P1020259
Edwardian bath, shower and thunder box, all original fittings
P1020260
Genuine Edwardian shower

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

First Steps to Navigation, 7th September 2013

Cath and I led a walk for Pennine Prospects’ Walk and Ride Festival. We met the group, who had all arrived by public transport at Hebden Bridge railway station. Quite a few of those who had booked in didn’t turn up which was a shame as I’d had to turn several away. One was ill and had let us know.

P1020208
Good old Stoodley Pike, a very helpful landmark

After introductions, we did a bit of map setting and map symbols and then set off. We went up to the mobile phone mast and then brought in a bit of the terminology – handrails, attack points, tick off points. We did some observational legs and talked about measuring distance on the map. Then we looked into measuring distance on the ground and practised a bit of pacing along a 100m stretch. It was quite a short walk along Pinnacle Lane and across to Kilnshaw Farm, then up to Erringden Moor, skirting the edge of Broadhead Clough Nature Reserve and then back to the station via Wood Top. P1020205 P1020206

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I’d prepped the walk on Thursday evening, admittedly I did go quite fast and it took me 2 hours and 20 minutes, but with stopping for input and breaks and setting off quite late from the station, it took us 6 and a half hours! I’d allowed for it to be double time but this is a learning curve for us too and now we know to triple it or to make the distance a bit shorter in order to get the teaching points in.

I also know now that we need small prizes of sweets or energy bars and must remember to get some of these, also some spare compasses. We used laminated printed maps from Memory Map which were ok, but harder to see all the detail so I need to look into that, it may be just that we need the “real” map out a bit more. The route was ok but we did cross the moor and that was quite hard underfoot so I’ll try to avoid that in future unless that’s what people specifically want. We are also going to revisit how we teach the compass skills bit but this was very much a beginner’s day and it’s not possible to do everything. A lot of the skills are practice, practice, practice. Must ask the participants if they are ok about having their photos online too.

Our group was lovely and they all said they would like to do some more so Cath and I are thinking about how to do that and when and what. I’ve got an idea for a route and just need to go and walk it to see if it’s suitable. The ages ranged from 9 to 64.

We were very lucky with the weather, it had promised to be horrid but ended up being fine all day although a bit chilly up on the moor.

Thanks to all the group, and Cath of course!

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

css.php