Seeking Shelter in the Secret(ish) Bothy

Sub-optimal conditions in the mountains of Snowdonia today. 'Heavy and persistent' was the forecast for today's rainfall - a description that was pretty much spot on. The first drops started falling as soon as my group and I climbed out of the minibus and I think it's only just stopped now.

This was one of the better views of the day, before the mists really rolled in! My plan for the day was a bit of a gamble as rather than stay in the sheltered valleys I had decided that we should go high, but aim for the lunchtime shelter of the secret bothy. I was pretty sure my team would be ok, as I would have been rubbish to have not have made it and had to endure a soggy lunch out in the open.

As it turned out, the team did brilliantly. It was the kind of day where getting a soaking was inevitable, so we set out after a classroom briefing about embracing the hardship and deciding to enjoy ourselves regardless.

We were all delighted to see the bothy come into sight and draw closer as we scrabled through the tussocky long grass. During the summer a work party of volunteers had spent a month putting in new floors and a sleeping platform and generally smartening the place up. We were carrying fire wood so quickly set about getting the place (and us) warmed up.

We also had some sausage rolls to heat up on the stove, so that we could end not only the warmth from the fire, but also a hot lunch too!

Eventually, we had to put our soggy waterproofs back on and make our way back home. The path was so wet that everyone soon had soaking wet feet as well. Even my expensive waterproofs eventually breached just before we got back to the bus, leaving me wet through on my shoulders and chest. To be fair though, they had held out amazingly well - there’s only so much rain a jacket can take! What pleased me most was that even though we felt like we’d fallen in the river and we were tired from ‘the march’ back out, everyone was smiling and having fun despite the soaking. Sometimes you’ve just got to get out there and get on with it!