October 30th
Finally my first true weekend trip out of Southampton- packed in a minibus the hillwalking club went off to Snowdonia. It was roughly a four to five hour drive there so we arrived in darkness going on a gravel road, trying to make the turn off to the bunk house without scraping the van against the stone walls that lined the entrance. Once at the bunk house, I quickly claimed one of the bunks which were slightly short in number to allow all of the sleepy hillwalkers a comfy nights rest. Luckily I avoided having to sleep on a mat for the weekend.
Waking up before the sunrise I discovered that there were sheep in the fields around the bunkhouse! Outside the scene was quite rural with a countryside charm. Stone walls gated the sheep off from the Bed and Breakfast part of the property. It was nice being in an environment with some elevation or at least small mountains to surround me. Around 10am the group of us split up into groups of 13-15 people per hike. I joined the group that was going to Mt. Snowdon, figuring Snowdonia was named after the mountain for a reason. The roads were very narrow on the way over to where we were going to hike, where the minibus had to slow down or kind of pull over in order for cars coming the other way could pass. Either side of the road was lined with the old stone walls making some of the turns a bit unnerving seeing how close the cars were to them. At one point we accidentally scraped the stone wall when trying to pass a car. I have no idea how the locals navigate through the streets day in and day out without encountering some nasty dings to their vehicles!
Finally at the base of Mt. Snowdon I decided to add a few more layers of clothing and to put on my waterproof pants, and good thing I did because after a little ways up it started misting outside. Vibrant green pastures on either side of the trail, lined by stone walls, and sheep were everywhere it seemed. What I found quite surprising was that the sheep in Wales for the most part had long tails. I have never seen sheep with long tails before this trip except in a Modest Mouse music video for ‘Float On’; where I thought the long tails were the band trying to make a statement about whether something is predator or prey (the tails look kind of like a wolf tail). But sheep really do have long tails?!?!!! Pretty spiffy.
After we passed a gate that marked the boundary for where the sheep could no longer join us on our hike; the mist became thicker and the trail became mostly composed of stones laid down together. The elevation started to become steeper shortly after that too. It was a really good hike, one that was definitely more like the level intensity of the hikes I have done back home. It was great feeling the blood pumping through my veins and getting a good workout.
The higher we trekked up the mountain, the thicker the rain fell and the stronger the wind became. My mittens had transformed into sponges literally saturated and dripping wet. My shoes became portable puddles with my every step and thanks to the wind blowing the rain horizontally I was soaked through every layer. Dampness became a state of being as we persisted up even steeper trails that switched back and forth up the mountain. The rain became so thick we had a stream form on the trail, which was difficult to dodge creating if possible wetter feet.
I love the rain and I love the wind, but 30 minutes from summiting the mountain enough was enough and I decided to join the portion of the group that was heading back. Coming off of a cold from the previous week, I didn’t want to take any chances with my health by continuing to the top when the café up there was closed. At the beginning descent, the hike down was painful as the wind’s force made the rain sting my face. Fortunately the wind intensity lessened as we went further down the mountain. My camera was definitely feeling the effects of the water, where in some cases the lens wouldn’t open fully creating a few neat effects in my pictures.
Back at the base, we ate our lunch in the van and afterwards walked over to a nearby tea house where I ordered some scrumptious, but most importantly warm, hot chocolate. The walk between the van and the tea house my hands were so numb that I didn’t notice that my umbrella was cutting into my knuckles. We all shed our wet layers and placed them on the heaters to dry; taking turns in the restroom to use the hand dryer to warm up our hands or blow dry our many wet pieces of clothing.
Dinner and dessert was great as we all gathered around talking till late in the night, which thanks to daylight savings resulted in being able to stay up a little longer to talk with the intentions to take advantage of the extra hour of sleep in the morning.
Sunday morning came and my extra hour was cut short as my cell phone alarm went off without the time being readjusted. I spent most of the morning in the restroom trying to dry all my gear from the day before with some success. My shoes were only slightly damp by the time we were heading off for our next hikes, this time I joined Cheddar and his group on a lovely hike in the forest. It is amazing what the sun can do for the scenery. The trail was next to a river that had coffee brown water and lined by trees with brilliant autumn colored leaves. It was such a picturesque fall day; relaxing yet still a good hike and we found another tea house where I ordered a cup of hot chocolate. A perfect way to spend a Sunday!
Back in the minibuses all packed up we headed back to Southampton. Everyone was exhausted, trying to nap as much as possible on the ride home. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant/pub which was pretty nice and had a good deal on food. It took ages for the food to be ready, but it was worth it once it was out. We had a great weekend of hikes and when I got back to Montefiore around 11pm I slept like a log. I love Wales!
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| 30 minutes from the top of Mt. Snowdon |
