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Published: October 20th 2008
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This weekend was a bit spontaneous as a group of us decided to hop on a train and travel to Wales. Surprisingly, Wales is only a short hour and half train ride from Oxford which is over an hour closer than the Gatwick Airport that we usually fly out of. The trip was short and sweet and we got into Wales around noon. We had this awesome affordable Bed and Breakfast right on the water across from the huge rugby stadium. It was perfect. We got things started right away and dropped our bags off and headed to the infamous Cardiff Castle. It was really awesome as it still had the huge castle walls surrounding the towers and the castle house. We went on a tour of the castle and learned some history about it which was a mix between extreme boredom and excitement. The grounds were nothing too beautiful but the grass was quite green from the vast amounts of rain that Wales receives on a daily basis. The tower was the coolest part of the castle because from the top you could look out and see the whole city as well as some of the other 7 castles that
were in the area. It was really pretty as a lot of the trees were changing colors so there was a collage of colors surrounding our stone fortress. After the castle, we headed to the covered market which is really similar to the covered market at Oxford, mostly fruit and vegetable stands. The day was very low key and relaxing which was really nice. We went to the Prince of Wales for dinner which had to have been the cheapest restaurant in all of Europe. The food was decent but extremely cheap and drinks were even cheaper. It was nice to actually feel like you have money for once. Mitch bought me a drink or two…shocking. We headed back to the hostel around midnight because we had a really exciting day to wake up for…we were going waterfall jumping in the mountains of Wales.
We woke up to a rainy, windy, and cold day. Not exactly the weather you hope for when you are going to be jumping off waterfalls into arctic waters. We had a quick breakfast and got into the van that was waiting outside of our hostel to transport us up to the mountains for our little
adventure. It was about 30 minute drive to the headquarters where we were outfitted for in our sexy wet suits, helmets, and life jackets. Let me tell you, Mitch’s legs…in a wet suit, to die for. Putting the wet suit on was a task in itself as my body was most definitely not made to be compacted into a neoprene suit. It wasn’t exactly flattering. After we all got suited up we jumped back into the van to head up to the mountains. At this point, I was starting to get a little nervous as I don’t do so well in cold water or heights and here I am signed up to jump off waterfalls into 30 degree water for 4 hours. My motto for the trip has become, Tara really are you ever going to be able to do this again? The answer is almost always no and in this case, it was a definite no. So, here I am in the van on my way up for a “once in a lifetime experience in Wales”. The mountains were beautiful and the leaves on the trees were so vibrant it was just ridiculous. It is waterfall country up there
as there so many waterfalls and rivers nestled between the mountains. Our guide had on glove and special booty socks which made me kind of nervous because I had no glove and cotton socks. In other words, my feet and hands were at risk for hypothermia for the rest of the day…if I only knew what we were in for. Our guide told us the number one rule when we jump in is just to concentrate on breathing because when you hit water that cold you will forget. Awesome. We trekked down the mountain to this little river that was ripping through the different valleys. It was beautiful until I realized that I was about to be jumping into it. Ok, let me explain to you exactly what we did here. You know white water rafting? Well, what we did is very similar except without a boat. We are the boat. I was the first one to jump in because I knew if I didn’t do it then I would never do it. Closed my eyes said a little prayer and jumped in. Oh. My. Gosh. Breathe Tara, breathe. When I floated to the surface and looked out at my
friends standing on the embankment I could only stare at them with huge bug eyes as my body was literally in shock. It was unbelievably freezing as water had shot down the neck of my wet suit and left me gasping for air. Holy cow. Mitch jumped in next and he took like a champ, I guess those little chicken legs don’t need to much warmth. They seemed to be at home in the ice water. We laid on our backs pretending to be a boat and shot down the rapids occasionally getting a nice huge knock on the leg or butt by protruding rocks. It was awesome. I had to remind myself to keep breathing but other than that it was awesome. We trekked up the river bed jumping over rocks, sliding down rapids, scaling rock walls….we did it all. We even climbed up into a waterfall cave that was completely dark to the point where you felt like color and light no longer existed. It was eerie, dark, and cold in the tiny little tunnel that we climbed up which eventually led to a little chute that we slid down into the bottom of a waterfall. At this
point, Mitch and I both had no feeling in either our hands or feet. They were icicles. It had been about an hour and half since we had first jumped in and the only thing that kept us somewhat warm was the wet suit. I must admit that I did pee in my wetsuit around oh 7 or 8 times…not sure if it was the pre-diabetes or the shock my body was in but it was heavenly because I was warm for about 23 seconds. Hey, before you judge, Mitch did it too and he doesn’t even have pre-diabetes. We continued up the river bed climbing higher and higher up the waterfalls. We crawled along this ledge behind a crashing waterfall…when we reached the end of the ledge we ran and jumped off into the pool the waterfall crashes into. Of course Mitch did a flip in while I just shut my eyes and prayed for it to be over. It was awesome. The highest jump we did was between 15 and 20 feet which isn’t too bad, but for me it was way higher than I wanted it to be. I wasn’t about to be a baby and not do it. Plus Mitch would never let me not to do it…so I did it, twice. It was such a rush to run and jump off a ledge into the crashing froth of a waterfall. It was one of the coolest things we have done yet despite the lack of feeling in my toes and hands. After 4 long hours, the day in Waterfall Country was over…it was complete and total success. We could go back to Oxford a happy little waterfall jumping couple. Headed to Greece in 4 days…(where it is around 75 degrees….AND NO RAIN). Stay tuned.
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