After taking full advantage of the breakfast at the hotel we set off to explore as much of the city as possible. We crossed over Liberty Bridge to start in Buda & wandered up the west bank of the Danube until we reached the castle gardens when we headed up the hill. We climbed up to the Castle Musuem and planned to walk along the top of Castle Hill past the Royal Palace but the rote was closed (possibly for some ceremony or concert?) so we had to come all the way back down then up again partly along the Király lépcső (Royal Steps) & partly taking less steep side paths (there was a long queue for the funicular). We walked to the north side of the Royal Palace (via some souvenir stalls) then back towards ... read more

Friday was wet again. We breakfasted on fried eggs, bacon, mushrooms & black pudding (well, each had bits of that). Chavaunne & I went for walk up the Clywdog Trail from Bersham church, past Nant Mill, around the edge of Coepoeth then over to Minera Lead Mines & County Park before returning down Clywdog Trail. We got rather damp! At least it wasn't cold though. We saw a cuckoo on a wire on the way there & a tawny owl in wood. We returned for a late lunch of crackers & cheese before Chavaunne & Vicky went riding whilst I failed to watch Much Ado as the TV refused to talk to Vicky's laptop! Saturday Vicky & Chavaunne went riding again whilst I sat in the sun & read (sadly no pony suitable for my inexperience). ... read more

Wednesday was the best weather day so we headed over to Snowdonia to go up Cadair Idris by the Mynffordd path. I've done this was a couple of times before, once with Vicky but it was new to Chavaunne. We climbed up to Llyn Cau and ate lunch overlooking the lake hoping the clouds on the mountain tops would lift. We climbed higher and were contemplating the final ascent of Craig Cwm Amarch when the cloud got lower so since we already had good views & I knew how hard to find the path beyond the summits was we turned back & the cloud followed us down for some way before turning into rain! Lots of inappropriately clothed walkers about though.... We got down before the cafe closed & treated ourselves to tea & cake whilst ... read more

Saturday morning i drove to Vicky's, transferred my luggae to her car & headed off up the M40, stopping briefly ar Warwick services where we sad to discover Tossed don't have an outlet at the northbound services but compenstated for the loss of tasty wraps with a big plate of chips! Continued north & west into Wales and arrived at the house around 4pm where Chavaunne shortly joined us & we had tea & cake. After an interlude to visit & feed the ponies we graduated to wine & bean stew for supper before washing it down with more wine & crisps! Sunday we had a lazy start and went for a walk from the house around local farms & up the hill behind the house. This included a field of very friendly bullocks, a farmer ... read more

Another beautiful day so we set out in the morning to explore Castle Tioram & Loch Moidart. The tide wasn't quite out enought to let us reach the castle with dry feet so we decided to do the walk first. We set off along a narrow, rocky path along the edge of Loch Moidart with stunning views of the castle, loch and autumnal foliage. We also got a glimpse of a couple of otters on a rock, we continued quietly along the track to get a better view & them spotted more swimming over! We were then privileged enough to get a fabulous view of a family of otters interacting on the rocky islet below us! So magical! We continued the walk along the loch past more breathtaking scenery before taking a small path up the ... read more