Silver Duke of Edinburgh's Award Expedition

It's been a wild three days to be out on an expedition and everyone that passed their Silver Assessment really earned it! There was a severe weather warning out for heavy rain, but thankfully it mostly all fell during the hours of darkness rather than while hiking! 

The Anglesey coastal path was the destination and things started out bright and breezy on Friday by the Menai Straits.

The groups worked their way around towards Newbrough, where all was warm and bright.

One great thing about an expedition, is that you never quite know what is going to be around the corner!

Had a great sunset at Malltreath and a very windy camp, but only a few showers blew through (annoyingly while we were trying to set up camp!).

Onshore winds where the theme of Saturday as the west coast was travelled...

I was based out of the back of the van for the day. It would have been good to have had the eBike again, but I couldn't fit it in! Had to resort to good old fashion walking again between checkpoints!

After a very wet night, Sunday was a little torturous as there were some great waves rolling in. I stopped at a few places to enjoy the natural spectacle and marvel at the shapes and power of the waves.

By evening, the rivers were all in flood from the days rain. Ogwen bank was in full force at 580 on the river scale.

Behind the scenes...

Spent a lot of time over the last few days expedition planning. There's so much time that goes into the research and there's certainly been a lot of googling and note-taking by the fireside recently. Somewhat frustratingly, we still didn't get anything confirmed, but it's all just part of the process.

During daylight hours, I've been getting re-acquainted with some open canoeing.

Between some heavy showers!

Best laid plans...

Ah, the best-laid plans can sometimes go awry... This morning was a fine example. Funny now to look back on. It all started the night before - seeing the five-star surf forecast, which is a very rare thing indeed in Wales. After checking the tides and times, we decided that we had just enough time to fit a surf in at dawn before the morning's work began in earnest. What could possibly go wrong?... 

Got the van packed and went to bed early, dreaming of catching green glassy waves as the sun bursts over the horizon on a deserted beach.

In reality, it all turned out a little different. It was still very much night time when we left The Cottage, with no sign of the moon, stars or golden dawn. On the drive to the island, the mist was thick and by the time we reached the beach, it was actually drizzling. In the gloom of the murky morning, we peered out to sea. There were waves at least. Big ones. But far from being green and glassy, they were arriving thick and fast, with white water covering the beach.

By the time I'd got into my (wet) wetsuit and locked the van, it was just about light enough to be called dawn. We scurried down to the water and got in. Currents and tides were pulling us in unusual directions and the waves seemed to come from all angles. Clare dropped into some big faces and got some fast rides, while I struggled to paddle through to 'out-back'. It was exhausting work, without much reward for me. Soon enough, I timed out and was about to head to shore, when somehow I got tossed from my board. The waves rolled me around and slammed the board across my head, giving the feeling of having been hit full whack across the ear with a cricket bat. I was momentarily stunned. I caught the following wave and rode it to the beach, where I arrived with blood pouring from my left ear. Not quite the start to the day I'd had in mind...

I trotted up to the van and washed off with a warm shower, but the bleeding refused to stop. Out of my wetsuit, I reached into the van to pull out my work clothes, only to discover that my water bottle had leaked into the bag that they shared and that they were all drenched. Things got worse, when I discovered my pre-made breakfast also swimming in the bottom of the same bag! 

I found an old t-shirt that was at least dry, so sped off to my first meeting of the day with Clare driving and me looking somewhat disheveled, holding my ear.

The school nurse patched me up between meetings and then sent me off to hospital, where I got my ear glued and steri-stripped. I was told to rest, so pulled in for a coffee at Heartland and resolved to start the day over again! What a morning...

Cycle and Surf

Had a forced rest day on Monday, having picked up a streaming cold from a student. Not impressed! Got some fresh air in my lungs by accompanying Clare down to Bangor to do a few errands. (I got to ride the ebike though as I 'was poorly'!). Amazingly easy with a bit of extra electrical assistance!

On Tuesday, I'd perked up a bit, so went to the beach to escape the mountain rain. True to the forecast, we enjoyed some blue sky and sunshine and even got a few rides in the windy surf.

With huge black clouds over Snowdonia, we decided to stay in the sun a little longer and enjoy the Anglesey climate before returning back over the bridge to the mainland.

A weekend in the valley

A fine weekend for the first Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition of this term. I was working with John and we'd cunningly placed his van at the camp area, pre-expedition so that we'd have some major camp comforts. As such, we enjoyed some fine dining outside with camp table and chairs as the sun went down behind Tryfan!

On Sunday morning, I met up with John and the teams via a quick ride up the Nant Ffrancon valley.

I took the back road to aviod any traffic, but ended up having to dodge a few horses.

And twice, had to slow down for sheep! It was an entertaining commute.

John had already got bacon rolls cooking and fresh coffee by the time I arrived. We were able to enjoy the morning light before checking on the teams. 

Once everyone was one the move, the rains arrived...

Everyone made it to the end, so it was a successful expedition all round. In the evening, only a few hours after arriving home, we went down to watch a local guy, Gruff Rhys, play a gig in Bethesda. It was quite good, but I was exhausted, and almost too tired to stand, so we went for a drink in the pub next door while the support acts played! Nice to be able to walk to and from a concert though...

Too hot for climbing!

The late summer heatwave continued today. Nice temps and great views. 

I spent the day with students, climbing on Conwy mountain. We had the place to ourselves and although the wind had picked up, we were basking in the sunshine from the minute we arrived to the minute we left.

Things got so hot in the afternoon, that we stopped off at the beach on the way home and had a paddle in the sea to cool down!

Clare arrived back from America just before me. We were both feeling a bit frazzled, so I cycled down to the village, and picked up some dinner from a pizza van! They fitted nicely on the panniers with a bungy cord!

Mountain views and sea cliffs

A very nice day indeed to be leading a group in the mountains. So hot in fact that we didn't actually get very far!

We were down at the far end of the Ogwen valley, in the less frequented end of the Carneddau range.

A slow pace, but good chat took us high enough to get some great views and soak up the high mountain feed. Even cooled my toes off in the water.

While there is still some light in the evenings, Aled and I took advantage of the flat calm conditions to explore around the base of the Little Orme on paddleboards, to check out some of the climbing.

I was a spectacular paddle, with plenty of wildlife and a few climbers to spot too. Must come back with a sea kayak for the full journey. Incredible sunset and not a breath of wind. Arrived home exhausted and happy!

Dawn Patrol - Across the Glyderau

When an a voluntarily placed alarm clock goes off at 05:28am and you're dragged out from a deep sleep, it can be hard to get motivated. A glance through the skylight into the dark sky revealed no stars. What was I thinking!? Would it be worth the gamble?... Ninety minutes later and I was given this view as my reward.

I had a plan in place to get onto the mountain tops for sunrise and re-acquaint myself with the local hills. The forecast had indicated that conditions could be good for a spectacular one (and therefore worth getting up early). A prepacked bag was waiting for me by the door and I drove up the hill on autopilot to Dinorwic. Setting off into the night, I didn't need my head torch for long as the moon was lighting the way up my first peak of the day - Carnedd y Filliast. I arrived at the summit in fifty minutes - a quarter of an hour before sunrise. It was murky and grey, so I lay down and slept until 7am.

Nothing much was going on, so somewhat disappointed, I continued hiking along to the next summit (Mynydd Perfedd), as a glimmer of colour started to build in the distance.

Shortly before reaching Foel Goch, the colours suddenly intensified.

And then 'Boom' the whole valley glowed orange and yellow. The camera struggled to cope with the exposure, so I gave up trying to capture it and just stood and watched.

I continued my traverse towards Y Garn, watching the show as the day began.

Llyn Ogwen was reflecting light and clouds drew back to reveal the summit of Tryfan.

To my right, I could see all the way down the Lleyn Peninsular.

I reached Y Garn summit in the mist, but no sooner had I taken off my pack, when the sun burst through casting my shadow and forming a perfect Brocken Spectre Rainbow.

I waved at myself while tucking into a peanut butter sandwich breakfast on the summit rocks.

On a roll now, I continued down, then up and over Glyder Fach and Fawr, passing the cantilever stone in the gloom.

Dropping down to Bwlch Tryfan, the views returned and the south ridge invited me up to the summit, via some great scambling. 

I decided that the summit of Tryfan was far enough to go in one morning, as I had plenty to do still back at The Cottage. I descended the North Ridge, reaching the A5 at 11:20. 

It took ten minutes to thumb a lift back to Bethesda, then crossed the river, arrived back at The Cottage at about midday, happy and tired. A shower, a power nap, some food and I was re-charged and ready to bike back up the hill to retrieve the van, completing a very satisfying circuit from the house. A respectable morning outing, involving 1350m of ascent, 1450m of descent and seven major summits.