An idiots guide to an idiot: Wales Tales.

We've packed a lot into our time at Penrhyndeudraeth so far. Got an extra night hols really as we decided to do an overnight in Shropshire, about half way, on Thursday night. We stayed at The Fox in Much Wenlock which was very nice. An excellent dinner of pork chop in cider sauce for me and halloumi salad of Tara with a couple of pints of the excellent Wainwrights ale then a stroll around the village. Fortified after a very good full English in the morning & we were off, via a stop off at Tesco for provisions, then unfortunately the nearer we got to North Wales the worse the weather became. Bugger!
Ella & Julian had arrived about an hour before us & Gary & Ellie a couple of hours after us, poor Olly & Lauras train ended up being delayed an hour and a half so it was nearly 11pm before we got them to the farm owned by Julians sister MC & her husband Chris, both of whom could not have made us all more welcome. Thus endeth day one.
First full day saw Self, Gary, Ellie, Olly & Laura up early to go up to the National White Water Rafting Centre near Bala for a 'taster' session on the white water! To say it was fun is an understatement! Our instructor, Paddy got us kitted out in wet suit, boots, helmet & life jacket and after a few simple instructions for us to follow when on the water we loaded our raft onto a trailer & were ferried up to the top of the river for our first run. Wow! Exhilarating and huge fun. We got soaked of course and followed instructions such as 'Get down!' meaning slide off the side of the raft into the seat well very quickly for the really fast & furious bits. Got to the bottom all too quickly but got our raft back on the trailer & off for our second run. The photos here taken by the centre speak for themselves!

Back to the ranch after that for tea and scones, cream and jam. Tara & Ella feeling pretty beaten up after the trip up so they decided to have a relaxed day. With the others only being here a couple of days wanted to pack in as much as possible so Julian kindly dropped me, Gary & Olly in Beddgelert (pronounced Bethgelert) for a walk back to base, about 8 miles. Yea Gods I thought G&O were trying to bloody kill me! The ascent of the hill, called Mynydd Sygyn (300m) on our outward trip was via a scramble not a path. I had to scale boulders half as big as me again and again. I can honestly say I hated every step of the first hour (in which we'd travelled 1 mile, mostly in an upwards direction) however the views from the top were spectacular. We made our way down past some old copper mine workings to Nantmor, unfortunately time was against us ( we'd only got 4 miles) as we were going out to dinner that evening so Julian again very kindly came out to get us. Dinner at a pub in Beddgelert finished a very full day. I slept well!

Weather started abit karzi today, off we went to Criccieth Castle in the morning. Not a lot to see as castles go so we weren't there all that long, back to the ranch for pizzas etc for lunch then the time to get Olly & Laura back to Bangor station came round all to quickly. Saw them off & on my return to the farm I went for a walk on my own, just up the hills behind the cottage.
Monday was started with a fry up. A simple task you'll agree though it seemed to take a age to cook. Ella & Julian had brought various food items that would have gone off before they got home including an egg. Un oeuf. I thought I'd use this egg and attempted to crack it into the frying pan. I'm careful doing this as so easily I break the yolk but this egg did not want to crack, tried again abit harder and then harder still only to discover it was a hard boiled egg! Bugger! Who brings one hard boiled egg on holiday!?
It was Gary & Ellie's last day here so along with me & Julian we headed off on another walk behind the cottage towards Coed Llyn Garnedd. Weather was very good and got better all day. Passed a derelict mill on route and also eagle eyed Ellie spotted a slow worm basking in the sunshine the return route coming past the Ffestiniog railway.
Walk finished we bade goodbye to Gary & Ellie so just the four of us left now. Went to Portmeiron later which was expensive to get into and not an awful lot to see really though I was interested to see where the 1960's series 'The Prisoner' was filmed. Back to base.
Chris told us a little of the history of the cottage we're staying in. The original Ffestiniog railway brought slate down from the mountains on a gravity worked rail system but the trucks had to be taken back up the mountain. they were pulled by horses. Our cottage was once stables as this was a staging point to change horses for the ascent.