Packing and fitting

My working life with BAS starts properly on Monday, so I'm enjoying my last weekend in Cardiff before heading over to Cambridge.

I was there earlier in the week, filling a packing case with a load of clothes and other bits of junk. Mostly things to keep me entertained through the long winter - a variety of art stuff and a hard drive full of films being the most obvious examples. I also checked over my BAS issue kit bag, checking the boots, thermals, fleeces, hat, gloves, jackets and insulated boiler suit all fit me. Although a fairly functional task it was quite exciting thinking about next time I'm going to be wearing those clothes it's going to be for real.

Prior to this packing I was back home very briefly and before that spending my last week on Skokholm. It was the first week of autumn work parties and you can read more about it here and here.

It felt great to be back, there's always a great sense of camaraderie when the work parties are going on and I'm sorry to be leaving before seeing everything to completion.

The Skokholm team (with apologies to the departed Molly); Will, Teresa, Me, Leighton and Lewis.

Before leaving I accomplished two things that felt like making my mark on the island. Firstly, burning a lot of my accommodation and, secondly, hiding a gnome in a mystery spot.

I look forward to checking up on these in two years time.

My final view of Skokholm before disappearing around the corner into Martin's Haven.

Jerry.

Hyper-Bala

We've been staying in a cottage near Bala, North Wales, for most of the week, with Ric, Nic and Paddy. The plan was just for a nice holiday with no real agenda. The previous week had been gloriously sunny and hot while this one promised wind and rain. 

With it lashing it down the first morning we decided to avoid the mountains and headed up to Alwen Reservoir. Shortly after we arrived it got much warmer, so much so that Charlotte and I, who had decided to run around the reservoir we soon stripped down to the bare minimum of clothing.

Picking bilberries while waiting for the others to return. Later in the week we had them all over cheesecake.

Who can resist crushing a handful of berries and squashing them into your mouth?

The next day we headed up to the white water rafting centre on the Tryweryn. This was the principle reason for coming to this part of the country as we did a bit of rafting in Sri Lanka but found it too warm.

We got four good runs down, highlights included paddling hard upstream into a large rapid so that Charlotte and Nichola got soaked (picture below), me half falling out and drifting along with the boat for ages before before Ric and Charlotte managed to pull me back in, and Paddy shouting 'urgh... it's wet' when a wave hit him.

The weather the next day looked better so we decided to go for it and hit Snowdon. It was quite a late start and longish journey over, so by the time we got there we had to park pretty far away and we thought we'd have to walk several km up the road before starting the mountain. But then along came the bus and we were on our way.

We started off up the Pyg Track, before Charlotte and I split from the others and headed up Crib Goch.

The low clouds lifted as we ascended so we had clear views of the ridge and it was just about clear when we got to the summit.

We only passed about 20 other walkers along the route and there was a sense of camaraderie as we all felt superior to the hoards going up the main tracks and those going up the train.

We met the others near the top, just as they were starting to descend. After pushing through the crowds to touch the trig point we got a cup of tea and found a quieter area to eat our sandwiches. We headed down the Miner's Track quite quickly, trying to catch the others, but interrupted our rush for a quick swim. Then down to finish with an ice cream.

The day after that was far wetter, so we headed out to do a gorge walk near Dolgarrog, Conwy. Pulling up in the car park we knew we were in the right place as a large school group was getting kitted up in full wetsuits, buoyancy aids and helmets. We headed out in t-shirts and shorts, dashing to get in front of them. This was a pretty good scramble with enough water coming down to get wet. Some of the climbing was quite tricky, with slippery wet holds, and I ignored one part after watching Ric jump balls-first onto a rock below a hard bit. When we got back to the car it was really raining hard so we headed back for a lazy afternoon.

Too Much Fun

After a day trying to avoid the rain, during which we still managed some fun stuff like traversing the cliffs round Humphrey Head, we decided to head over to Wasdale Head and have a go at scrambling up Ill Gill on Kirk Fell.

Turns out this is definitely several stages harder than the ones we'd been doing the last few days.

The volume of water coming down wasn't too much of a problem. But when we got to a bit we couldn't pass I foolishly suggested we climb up the side of the gorge rather than go back downstream a bit. After a worrying climb through mud, heather, gorse and crumbling rock we were relieved to get onto solid ground.

After a short breather we went back into the gorge, but soon found ourselves avoiding the algae-covered main stream and on very fragile, crumbly rock on the edge. After a bit of a fall we decided we were fed up of trying to kill ourselves and headed back down.

Our original plan had been to climb Ill Gill one day, then bivvy out somewhere again and go play in the River Esk the next day, But after our trials we decided to head down the Duddon Valley and go for a swim in the Froth Pot.

While it looks a beautiful spot, and a great place to swim, the amount of water coming down meant getting very far against the current was really difficult. So I decided to head further upstream to jump in and drift down. There I learnt the true meaning of the phrase "look before you leap".

Jumping shin-first into a boulder just under the water's surface was the last straw for that day. We were done feeling like we were in Final Destination, so packed up and came home.

The next day we decided for something more sedate. As we'd been driving home we'd seen a sign for a 'geocaching megaevent'. I'd kind of explained to Charlotte what geocaching is (a man leaves some stuff in a box in the woods for other men to find) and we thought we'd give it a go. After an unsuccessful first attempt we were becoming frustrated so for the second one used map, gps and website instructions and hints,

And we found it. I'm not sure it was as rewarding as we'd hoped, but we celebrated by eating some blackberries.

Further on through the woods near Milnthorpe we found an old abandoned cottage in the woods. Spooky, what would we discover inside?

An old dirty photo, obviously.

Overall a good excuse for a day out.