Storms, Smoke, Straits & Snow

Woke to find snow in the garden this morning! Unbelievable! 

I was due to be taking a group of students gorge walking, but given the unseasonably low temperatures today, (and the fact that my foot still hurts), we decided to change the plan and try to seek some shelter by the Menai Straits to do some bushcraft work. The option of spending the day huddled around a campfire in the woods, verses jumping in and out of a freezing cold river gorge was quickly welcomed by the group! Although we got some shelter from the wind chill down by the straits, there was little in the way of shelter when the heavy hail storms came passing through! The clouds were incredibly dark and turned the water a beautiful dark green before they hit.

We were based on a little island that you can access at low tide. It gave a grandstand view of the advancing squalls...

We kept ourselves both warm and entertained with a fire lighting masterclass, which was no easy task given the abundance of soaking wet wood!

However, to those with the skills, a happy camp can be created - even in winter conditions - and we all took pleasure in toasting some cheese sandwiches and getting the kelly kettle boiling. John took the camp comforts to the next level after lunch by producing some roasted coffee beans, a mini coffee grinder and an aero-press coffee maker!

Finally, in the afternoon, things started to dry up a bit and the view down the straits changed completely with the warmth of the sun. Making sure that we left no trace of our passing, we made it back to the mainland just before the tide began to cut us off...