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Everything and Anything

2013 – France

France '13

3rd May

In May, we went to France. This was to be one of our camping trips, only in another country. As the only driver amongst us it would also be my first time driving on the Right side of the road and also my longest drive ever, a daunting prospect. On May 3rd we were to head to Portsmouth, take a ferry across during the night to St Malo, and then drive half the length of France to Les Sables d’Olonne. I’ll leave this google maps widget thing here so you can see the journey:


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As can be seen, it was quite the journey!

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Mark and Ash pose in front of HMS Victory. Ash looks away as if to try and look cool and in awe.

Anyway, even though as a night ferry, we would be leaving the UK about 9pm, we left very early, wanting to leave plenty of time for us to get to Portsmouth. Even though I blundered at Birmingham and drove down the M5 instead of the M6 > M40 (which took us toward Swindon, then down the M4 to meet the A34 btw, if you know what that means (you won’t).

Despite this, after quite some journeying and a couple of rest breaks so Ash can smoke and we can eat, we arrive still quite early in the day. Now, I’d been to France before many times as a kid, but hadn’t been on one in coherent memory, so was not quite sure what to do. I knew we needed to drive into the waiting area and check in, but couldn’t remember boarding procedures or anything like that for the life of me, since it was always Deggsy who dealt with that.

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The Navy keeps a lot of its firepower at Portsmouth. This one was having some work done though.

But given the amount of time we had, we parked in a pay and display and decided to walk around the front for a bit. Now, Portsmouth, if you don’t know, is home to the headquarters of the Royal Navy, and also houses the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where many older ships and exhibits are kept. Unfortunately, going on board any of them is an expensive thing to do, so we couldn’t do that. We could, however, have a nose around the public areas, and pose for images! So we got in front of HMS Victory, Nelson’s ship – and took some photos.

As we walked back we saw a line of black cars with some VIPs in. Mark swore he recognised one of them, but wasn’t sure who. Given that the Navy is pretty big, it could really be anyone, but perhaps it was someone he’d seen on the news.

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Our ferry, the MV Bretagne.

After looking around the gift shop, which even sold wood from Victory from before it was replaced, we went back to the car, and drove down to the front (the docks being in an estuary). As soon as we parked up, we could see our ferry heading toward us.

I’d been on this specific ferry before as a child. The cabin we had then was an awful thing, in the middle of the ship, and square shaped. Worse was that there was some sort of structural support or pipe in the midle of the small room , and there was no en suite. There was also a strong stench of engine oil or some sort of fuel, and we were pretty far down in the ship. The ship itself was launched in 1989, so was almost as old as I was.

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One of the Isle of Wight hovercraft ferries

We watched it pass by, then decided we needed to eat. Even though it would be imminently docking, there was still a few hours before we needed to board – they needed to get everyone off and turn it around, and it’s much smaller than a plane!

Lucikly for us, there was a nearby pizza place on the front, Mozarella Joes. We ordered a Pizza and it was made pretty quickly. We were outside, but it is hand made and baked in an oven right inside, not just heated up! We were able to watch the local ships come by, including the hovercraft service to the Isle of Wight right from our table. Pretty nice!

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Whilst waiting to board, another Ferry docks. The MV Mont St Michel.

After our Pizza, we headed back to the car, and then moved on to the port itself. When we got there, we were asked for our materials. Unfortunately, we hadn’t recieved them, due to a computer problem at Keycamp. Luckily customer service forwarded us printable versions; so we provided the agent with them, and we were allowed through. There was a small queue of cars, so myself and Ash immediately went to the nearby toilet block. After finishing our business though and coming back out, the queue was starting to move! A quick dash back to the car and moving off didn’t cause too much of an issue!

Unfortunately we were marshalled right into another queue. This one we were in for 40ish minutes. The ferry was in front of us now, with the various boarding ramps attached. Whilst waiting, another came, and vehicles began to pour off. It gave us something to watch, I suppose!

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Mark and Ash in front of the Bretagne’s colossal chimney

After a while, the queues began to move, one at a time. Filling a ferry is a complex procedure, with heavy lorries and taller vehicles in the bottom, and cars in the upper garage decks. This way nobody scrapes a roof! We entered the ferry as if being eaten by some sort of gigantic beast, but were then marshalled up a ramp and into precise position by many of the crew. An attended then provided us with materials to find the precise stairwell closest to us. Very good customer service from Brittany Ferries.

After turning off the engine, and trying to ensure the alarm is off (I think clicking lock doors once on the fob instead of twice keeps it off, at least), we went to find our cabin. The agent at the initial booth gave us printed materials for the rooms, so no more waiting at reception on the ferry as we did when kids. We went straight to it; it was a standard affair. En suite bathroom and shower, four bunks. We threw our luggage on one, then went up on deck to check out the view. Whilst there, they continued loading. Now,  for some reason, I love being on the deck of a ship. I can stay up there for hours, looking at the sea, whilst it’s in motion. This I did, whilst Ash and Mark went back in after some photos in front of the chimney.

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Just before they took down the flag.

I took the time to take some photos of the Navy ships at the docks. We cast off just as some sort of ceremony took place on them all, whereby one man on each ship took down the flag whilst two others looked on. There were plenty of ships in port, including alot of the Navy’s new high tech destroyers, and a visiting ship with Arabic writing on it, as well as HMS Warrior, one of the first iron ships from 1860. After we passed the Navy dockyard, we passed Portsmouth itself. Here, the Spinnaker tower looks over the entrance to the docks and the estuary itself. It is a landmark for the city and is viewable for far out to sea.

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Goodbye Britain!

As the night closed in, I took a few shots and then went back indoors. I found Ash and Mark in the lounge with a pint each. They’d been here since they left me. Mark regaled me of Ash’s first encounter with a moving ship, as when the engines fired up to reverse us out, everything had shaken, and he had displayed such a look of panic it was apparently hilarious! I was sad to have missed it. We watchd a magic show put on by a pair of women from Portsmouth, and then went to get some food from the restaurant. They had a very nice steak on offer, so we all went for steak and chips, but as usual Ash wasn’t impressed with anybody else’s attempt at cooking.

At this point I was worried about getting GB sticker for the car. In the EU, you need to display which country you’re from on the number plate on your car. Most countries are fine, and have mandated mandatory blue bars on the plate with the country code on. But not Britain, oh no; here it’s optional, and my car didn’t have one. After looking in the ships main duty free shop, I couldn’t find one either, so now was worried about flouting the law in France and getting arrested. Fortunately, there was a separate Travel shop on board which sold them. I bought two, since they were magnetic, and one was a spare.

We retired to the cabin, and after assigning bunks, went to sleep.

4th May

France '13
Land ho!

Luckily they won’t let you sleep in on Brittany Ferries, as an alarm goes off 60 minutes before arrival. This gives you plenty of time to get on deck and get some approach photos. Sure enough when getting out on deck, we could see France approach. It wasn’t that far away either; and the weather seemed okay, even though there were now plenty of clouds around. During the night, we’d headed West, then around the Cotentin peninsula, and down between the two channel islands, Jersey and Guernsey. It was still quite early, around 6:45am; the ferry could make a much faster crossing, but they slow it down as to let everyone sleep.

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Around the breakwater into the port of St Malo

As we headed into the Port, we stayed on deck and watched the ship dock. They call people to the garage depending on where you are, so we knew when to leave. Foot passengers leave separately. After watching us dock and the men far below tie the lines to the quayside, the tannoy announced our section should report to our vehicles. We were able to do so without any issues; however we were on the upper garage deck, and the lower decks had to go first, before we could be lowered. By this point I was pretty nervous about driving on the right side of the road; I’d never done it before, and so understandably was a little anxious.

Anyway, the ramp went down and off the ferry we drove. Exiting the port was fine, despite the French soldiers (border police?) with machine guns around the security booths.

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Docking in St Malo

After leaving the port though, that was problematic. I’d turned roaming off on my phine to not get charged ridiculous costs, and the iPhone using just GPS couldn’t get a signal for the TomTom app. So we were officially lost. Now I’m panicking and Mark’s trying to get directions. I keep driving down the road since it seems like it led out of town, but then Ash sees a McDonalds and starts wittering on about McDonalds for some reason. Not what the situation needed; I shout at the guy to shut it just as we get to our first roundabout –  I get beeped at since I looked the wrong way. Ash then says I shouldn’t speak to him like that but by now I’d seen red and just told him to shut it again.  Then we were able to pull over in a layby to get the TomTom working.

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The Caravan Chalet

After this brief spat, the TomTom got us on our way. We were already heading the right way apparently, and so got onto the AutoRoute (French Motorway) and headed South East to Rennes. From there it was a straight drive to Nantes, and then to Les Sables D’Olonne. Just before Rennes, Ash and me made up with a handshake; and we pulled into a McDonalds. The place was empty, and it would be our first attempt speaking in French. Mark went first, ordering in French, but the guy responded in English anyway! Myself and Ash ordered in English.

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A fridge full of beer and a head full of stupid.

After many more hours, we arrived at Les Sables D’Olonne. We drove down the front and then to the site itself. We were taken to our caravan (which Mark insists on calling a Chalet, despite it being a mobile home and not having any Chalet characteristics, though apparently it’s what Butlins accomodation was called in the 60’s so perhaps thats where it comes from?). The site itself is quite nice. I had been to it three times as a child, once in a canvas Cabanon tent and the other times in caravans, so I sort of remembered the area.

Once settled, our first business was to get some sort of food. Not to mention, Ash had not smoked since the previous night’s Ferry journey – he was out of cigarettes and needed his fix!

So we ventured to the nearby supermarkets. We first arrived at Super U in the nearby Talmont-Saint-Hilaire. Here, we found foods were different – quite different in fact. Bacon was different, bread was different, and so were many other things.

Luckily we still completed a shop, and most importantly got ourselves lots of beers. Mark had also brought his own cider, so wouldn’t be put out by the lack of choice, if any. What did cause a concern is that there was no cigarettes. Nowhere. We tried some other shops, but found nothing. Ash was really anxious by now. After returning and unloading the food, we found that in France, only licensed Tobacconists can sell cigarettes, and supermarkets cannot be licensed. So we had to find a tobacconist (Tabac). Luckly, Talmont-Saint-Hilaire provided one, and Ash was able to get some by ordering “the blue one”. Or as he reportedly said, “BLEURGH”.

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The rocky foreshore

Once Ash was drugged up with his tabac, we returned to the site. After a short while, we decided to walk down to the sea; I remembered it was a rocky place, not stony, but rock formations, the beach being long eroded away by the relentless Atlantic ocean. Once there, I went out to the largest rock and climbed up on it. I remembered climbing it as a child; something me and my brother had Christened “Crab Heaven”, because of the sheer number of crabs hiding in the cracks there.

After this, we returned to the site again, just a short walk up the hill. We got changed and went to the bar, but did not stay for long; it had been, after all, a really long day.

5th May

France '13
The tourists are here…

The next morning, our plan was to head into Les Sables d’Olonne, and visit the beach. So off we went. The town itself is only a ten minute drive from the site, so we headed down the road and entered the place. Unfortunately a rather weird one way system is in place, and we ended up looking for a car park for ages. Eventually we found one run by Vinci, and I was able to buy a ticket on the debit card.

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The marina… and grain silo.

Our main issue though, was that we had dressed like tourists. I mean shorts, flip flops and brightly coloured clothes. However; everyone else was in a normal shirt and jeans with shoes. So we stuck out like sore thumbs. I myself have never really been a “beach” person; I find them boring and full of sand. The swimming’s fun but you can do that in a swimming pool.

We found ourselves quite a distance from the front, so had a bit of a walk ahead of us to even get to the beach. Eventually, we did though, and I thought to myself “this won’t be so bad, I’ll lie down, get a tan and a bit of relaxation, maybe even catch up on some sleep”. Wrong. After just two minutes – thats 120 seconds, Ash and Mark decide food is on the agenda instead. So the beach was over already. We climbed the stairs, crossed the road and started looking for restaurants.

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The Les Sables d’Olonne sea front.

However, having no French skills, they don’t know any of the French menus. I know some of it from when I was a kid; moules = mussels, avec = and, frites = chips. Everyone was nonplussed by the mussels suggestion, not that I would try them myself. Steak haché = beef steak? We were up for this, so we entered a restaurant and ordered up.

Ash was still up for trying to order in French, but the waitress clearly wasn’t impressed and used to English tourists so took an order for three steak and chips instead.

After eating, we decided to go back to the caravan, so we did. On the way back though we found a shortcut, so didn’t even need to walk so far in the first place, and we’d been carrying towels around like a bunch of muppets the whole time. Oh my lord.

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Dangerous Despers

After that, we headed back to the site. We spent the next few days lazing around, travelling to the supermarket, having coastal walks, eating barbeques, and then in the evenings retiring to the pub. The bars in france are dangerous – there were no pints, just 33CL glasses. On the other hand, Desperados was on draught. On the other other hand, 33CL of draught Despers cost more than a pint would in the UK. It wasn’t cheap at all!

On one of the later days, we were anxious to hear if the local club, Wrexham FC, would make it back into the league, with their playoff at Wembley. I had planned to go to Wembley earlier in the year, but intense snowfall stopped that plan.

On another day, the other two decided it would be a good idea to go to the pool. However, the manager strictly enforced the “no-bermudas” rule, meaning it was Speedos or nothing. So off they went to the shop to get some. Ash, thinking that the tight material would be “too small” went for a larger size. This was an awful mistake as he realised later, when the too large by far swimsuit tried to leave him naked in the pool surrounded by children. That would have been an interesting trip to bail him out at the local police station! Luckily he realised and they both returned within an hour. It definitely seems that both beaches and swimming pools just don’t work!

France '13
General Secretary of Pool to the UN, Ashley Powell.

One night at the pub, Ash brokered international relations with France by having a game against a French tourist. He won two, and “let” the Frenchman win one as well.

On the last full day, we went for a stroll down the coast and found a cave, which Ash promptly decided to explore. However, after a short foray inside, he found it full of spiders; absolutely loads of them. “Oh no!”, we cried to him, “the French biting spider!”. At this, Ash egressed from the cave as fast as humanly possible. I’ve never seen somebody move backwards and hunched so fast.

The next day, we left early. We drove northward, this time avoiding the toll system. We got to Caen about an hour before the ferry was due. The port for Caen was miles away from the city itself, and actually in a place called Ouistreham. The ferry arrived on time and we were able to board. Ash decided to tease Mark, saying it “looked rough”. When the deckhand put chocks under the wheels of the car after we loaded, he said “oh it must be rough, they’ve put the chocks down!”. However, upon boarding, things seemed fine. We set off, and despite a strong gust, we went on deck to get some photos of France leaving us behind.

After we went inside, things did get rough. But myself and Mark did not care. It was Ash who was suffering. He went pale, felt totally ill. He nearly collapsed twice. Upon going to reception, they had to get the ships doctor involved, and he prescribed some anti sea-sickness drugs! Then he purchased a cabin (so much cheaper in day trips) and went for a lie down.

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Dark, windy and cold.

Five hours later, we arrived in a dark and gloomy Portsmouth. I spent most of the time on the deck: I just like observing the sea. I was freezing as a result though.

After getting through customs (and the agent said I had a baby face, gee thanks), the drive back was surprisingly short. Maybe it was because we were driving back.

I dropped the guys off, and another holiday had come to an end.

Categories
Everything and Anything

2013

Quite some time since the last post! Oh well.

Since April 3rd, when I last updated this blog, I’ve been to France, London, bought a new Car, then went to Cornwall, London again and not to mention Shell Island twice more.

I’ll probably write some blogs about some of these over the next few days.

Categories
Everything and Anything

Updates, innit

It’s been a while since I updated this blog last. I guess using Facebook means I use this less.

Way back in 2009 I bought a new BenQ monitor. 24 inches and in HD, it was amazing. Well, a couple of weeks ago, it up and died. That means it lived not far off four years! A new record, perhaps. I think it was something to do with the DVI cable always falling out. I had recieved a PS3 for Christmas, and in order to have it show on the monitor I needed to swap cables, so I left the screws loose. I also move my monitor a lot in order to see it from the bed. Anyway, I now have an ASUS VK278Q. Some might think 27 inches is too much for a monitor, but I respectfully disagree. I’m not sure I can ever go back. The webcam is slightly disconcerting though because the image is always upside down. Not to mention this has a DVI and HDMI in, so no more cable swapping, and it has speakers so I can actually hear the PS3.

Snow March 13 On the weather front, snow has caused mayhem. As can be seen on the left image, we had around 19cm of snow settled on things. The drifts were even worse. We had to abandon a journey to Wembley to see Wrexham FC play. The Sky signal was gone for days, and the driving snow had blocked the ventilation for the boiler, so it wouldn’t start until cleared. Thankfully we were able to, and we maintained heat, and the internet.

One game we were able to see of course was Rugby – Scotland vs Wales up in Edinburgh again. This time we rented an apartment for a few days. It was pretty damn snug, though due a bed shortage I used my camp bed and sleeping bag. We won by ten points, and went on the following weekend to beat England by an extremely large margin – 30-3!

Despite the horrible weather, we went camping on Easter weekend. It was actually pretty sunny, and in the shelter of the tent it was pretty warm as a result. Leave the tent and you get buffeted by freezing wind, but that’s besides the point. Of course, when the sun went down it also got freezing, but we kept warm enough.

My car also seems to be dying. It needed a new ABS hub before it could try to pass the MOT. That cost £600. While they did the work I had a Courtesy car. A tiny Corsa – urgh. At least it was new, it only had a couple thousand on the clock!

Categories
Everything and Anything

January to Now

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Time for another big update of stuff that has happened! It’s been like six months so is probably required.

March

Wales Gran Slam 2012

In March I made the trip to Cardiff to see the Grand Slam win against France. Granted I went to see Wales play France, but they won!

We started off later than usual so there was a bit of a kerfuffle with parking, but in the end it was fine and we made it to the game! There were lots of mistakes on both sides, but Wales pulled ahead to win the game, and the Grand Slam!

April

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In April we went on the first camping of the year. This time it was just me, Mark and Ash! Also on arrival, it seems Shell Island have realised their portaloos are not sufficient, and are slowly upgrading them to semi-portaloos (think toilets in a portcabin).

On reflection, maybe it was too early in the year. We braved some wind, rain and also temperatures of –3 on the first night and we were surrounded by snow capped mountains, which actually made a nice backdrop. A trip to Tesco was needed to get our all important food (Ash is quite the chef), but ended up spending WAY too much! We also visited the Gelert shop in Porthmadog; which was definitely required to pickup some better equipment to better protect us against the cold! We spent the first night watching The Inbetweeners movie on an iPad, and were quite immersed so didn’t feel the cold until it was done! When it was, damn was it cold! As I said, it reached -3°C over the course of the evening, and even in our sleeping bags we felt the cold!

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The next day, we headed to Barmouth, to walk around and take in the sights. Last time we wanted to do this, but it began to rain and we did not want that!

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That night was spent in the warmth of the small Pub that Shell Island had! We spend a load of time near the fire here but then moved back to the tent so that Ash could prepare his legendary fajitas!

After we were fed we got the fire roaring as we do, and as the night was warmer than the prior anyway we were quite fine!

Unfortunately the Monday had been forecast to be windy and wet, so rather than have a big wet tent, we decided to evacuate a day earlier. We left and returned via The Berwyn Arms, a pub at Glyndyfrdwy! Never have I seen a friendlier place.

All in all it was a good experience! Never been camping in minus temperatures before…

May

Trio on a Train

Not even four weeks later off we were again to Shell Island! This time with two newbies; Dave and Sian, and Mark as a fellow usual!

The journey there was the usual but with a twist – WALKIE FUCKIN’ TALKIES! Oh yes. this shit just. got. real. We mostly used this for upcoming directions, or when to stop for fuel, or one time when we went past Harlech castle and I described how it was built by Edward I in 1283 to control the Welsh as part of an iron ring of castles. But that was just one time. "I'm on a Train!" The rest of the first day was used doing the usual – erecting the tents, going to P-Mad to visit the Tesco and get food. Again we got loads of stuff and spent more than we wanted by quite a bit.. yet this time we had few meals? wtf, I wonder if it was mostly snacks (hint: it was).

As a result of our lack of food, we decided to descend on Shell Island’s cafeteria. It’s a bit.. retro (think a 60’s school canteen) but the food was fine. While here we sat right next to the tourist information leaflets so we perused them and decided to visit some! We’d not done anything like this before while camping in Shell Island (we did it in Cornwall but we had a week there and there wasn’t much on the campsite). So we decided on the Ffestiniog Railway and the Llechwedd Slate Caverns.

So, the next day we got up with the intention of visiting the Ffestiniog Railway.  We travelled to Porthmadog to catch a train. We originally thought of returning half way, but instead in the end did the whole trip. This left us in Blaenau Ffestiniog for a couple of hours for food. I’ve described Blaenau before on this blog; precisely:

“…It’s a great journey, the only problem being you have to spend time in Blaenau Ffestiniog for a few hours to make a day out of it and the only problem with that is that you have to spend time in Blaenau Ffestiniog. The only two things to alleviate this issue is to do one of two things; Go under Blaenau Ffestiniog in the Llechwedd slate caverns, or get away from Blaenau Ffestiniog on the Ffestiniog railway. The latter made more sense, as it takes you away from that forsaken place.”

also:

“It was raining, the sky is grey, the enormous slate tips are grey, the buildings are grey, their slate roofs are grey, the tarmac roads are grey, the pavements are grey, and the only green areas are tiny gardens, and council run playing fields. Lovely.”

Drunken Dave (not really guys he was just lifting his eyes from his phone)

As can be seen, not a fan of Blaenau Ffestiniog. To make matters worse this time, the whole high street was closed. On a Saturday, and there was a big construction project to rejuvenate the place. Not going to work guys.. not without mass planting around the place! Trees would make the place friendlier I say. Digressing here though.

We found a cafe that I still think is a bit thin (never trust a thin building people), and had dinner there. Alcohol Not much in the way of hot food but I think I had some sort of food with chips. Not really sure. We then caught the train to return to Porthmadog; the return journey was made better as we were in a corridor carriage allowing the nice man to sell us alcohol.

When we returned to Porthmadog we decided to return to the campsite. So we did. It was still light, so rather than lighting a fire we decided it would be a better idea to explore the sand dunes again (again for us I guess, it would be the first time for Dave and Sian!).

This was of course, after our return to the car to even get there. I was going on about how I once saw a Seal in the water there when I saw some splashing. So like a great big fool I start pointing and shouting “look a seal!” when it was just a bird. Even the passing crazy man said it was not a seal. I think. He could have been proclaiming evil or the apocalypse.

Sian

So when we got back we did what we did the previous July; which is to climb the highest sand dune we can find and get to the top. Turns out it is still the same dune! Not sure how long it takes for a sand dune to change in this country.

Anyway, once we were done messing around in the dunes we returned to the tent for a while, not having food though we ate some bacon and sausages on bread!

We did however, get the fire going and chilled around it until the flames died down. Dave’s burning methods are a lot more refined than Ash’s!

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So. The next day we went to the caverns. There are two tours; we did both. One thing I noticed immediately upon entering the complex is that it is a lot like Shell Island: it has barely changed since it opened. Aged speakers that you can’t really hear and dummies that look older than anyone alive. The place could do with a re-doing!

The first tour involves getting onto a really small train that then drives you inside This one is fully guided – our guide seemed a bit new; but I definitely thought having a “real” guide worked!

The second tour involves being lowered 45° into a deep mine 200ft below. This one is self guided. I think either timers or motion sensors activate automatic voiceovers and lighting for characters that are lit – not animatronic, this is a wet mine after all, just stationary dummies. DSC_0210 This is not so good. If it had a live tour guide like the other, it would probably be a lot more engaging.

The tours required the use of hard hats through both – it was a mine after all.

One of the awe inspiring things is the size of some of the chambers – the largest are called Cathedrals, no doubt because of their size – but there were lift five levels above you and six below, of similar size. Those mountains are so hollow now a major earthquake could probably cause major subsidence!

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That evening included a return to the beach and dunes. This time we mostly stuck to the beach itself. It was sunny and lots were milling around. This was our final night here so we were to enjoy it. The next day was to bring rain but this time we weren’t leaving, and would persevere!

Once back at the tent Dave and Sian insisted on making the next round of Bacon and Sausage as Mark and myself had done so the previous evening. They did a damn good job!

The next day we rushed and rushed to pack everything up in a gap in the rain. However the rain never came back, and the sun broke through. Worse still, upon trying to leave the tide was in; we were going nowhere! We went to the harbour and played some games over the walkie talkies. Most fun.

Afterward we returned, no detours. It was a good weekend.

May – SNOWDON

DSC_0431We decided to go up Snowdon! No video this time! Man was it tiring. I haven’t done much in the way of moving in the past two years unless it is to go out for drinking so it was a real wake up call!

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Nontheless, despite a late arrival we made it up in record time! 2 hours and 40 minutes, in comparison to the 4 hours plus it took the first time. Granted, the first time we enjoyed 20 minute breaks and the weather was inclement. Really inclement. However we made it at quite the pace this time and even though it almost killed me I am glad of the feat!

This time the weather was clear and warm for the way up. Coupled with it being a bank holiday weekend and the Summit was rather busy!DSC_0402

Though once we neared the top, as usual the clouds came in. This was after we had suffered minor sunburn of course and also after we’d lugged coats and such to the top!

The way down wasn’t any easier, as lactic acid buildup had of course meant aching legs! Glad I could still drive, but not glad that there was also now a huge nail in my tyre, we limped into Wetherspoons Caernarfon for food.

The end.