Blogs from Gwynedd, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe - page 6

He turned left and rode towards the side of the valley where, above the low gentle green fields, the first dark slope of Cader Idris climbed like a wall roofed by the sky.” -The Grey King There is a legend that if you spend the night on top of Cader Idris, one of the highest mountains in Wales, you’ll wake up either a poet or mad. It’s also known for intense climbs, dramatic landscapes and spectacular 360 degree views. And if you’ve read the aforementioned book, you’ll know that it’s the stronghold of a powerful force of evil and darkness, called the Brenin Llwyd, or the Grey King. Though if you’re familiar with celtic mythology, from which the “Dark is Rising” books pulled a lot of their material, you might have heard of him as ... read more

Yet another cold and rainy Welsh day saw us on yet another historic Welsh Highlands slate train, this time the Ffestiniog Railway, which runs from Porthmadog to Ffestiniog-Blaneau. The engines used on this railway are Fairley Patent engines, a double boiler articulated engine that looks like two engines joined back-to-back. The route of about 20 miles was more of a valley run compared to its sister railway, the Welsh Highlands railway which we had travelled on earlier in the week. While there was less spectacular scenery, the run was still very pleasant, passing through dense forests and past some fantastic waterfalls and lakes. There was even another castle or two to be seen for good measure. Unlike the other days, there was to be no sunny breaks in the weather all day, so we headed off ... read more

Off to an early start for the day, with the Welsh Highland Railway being our first stop. The railway runs for about 40 miles, from Caernarfon Wharf, up into the highlands and down to Pont Croessor, about 3 miles from Porthmadog. An extension to the line, to join the railway with the Ffestiniog Railway is due to open later this year. Our engine was a Garrett Patent engine, a double articulated type of engine especially designed for steep narrow gauge lines such as this. There is another Garrett engine at Puffing Billy railway, back at home, which we’ve also ridden on. We really enjoyed the 4 hour return trip, despite the cold rainy day and foggy windows! The scenery was beautiful, passing through quaint Welsh villages, old slate mines, past several lakes (including the one where ... read more

This past weekend Adam, Myles, Scott and I spent the weekend Glamping in North Wales. This is a posh style of camping! We headed out of London just after 6pm after a bit of a hiccup at the local car hire place. Our reservation had not been confirmed, so when we arrived to pick up our card there was no reservation. They did have one car available we could hire, just £50 more for the weekend that we had reserved, plus we had to run home and get a utility bill and bank statement. After negotiating our way out of London via Victoria, Edgware and Brent Cross we were whizzing along the M1. To our surprise we didn’t hit much traffic at all; however we made a fatal error as we approach Birmingham. There was a ... read more

Snowdonia & Tiggy Winkles 24th/25th April & 1st-3rd May, 2010 Rupesh loves organising surprises especially when they are a work of art on his part! He made the most amazing birthday cake I had ever seen - a hedgehog cake! And it was chocolate! That weekend we also paid a visit to Tiggy Winkles Wildlife Hospital near Oxford. We saw a couple of resident hedgehogs who had injuries or illnesses that meant they would not survive back in the wild. We also saw a baby fox and lots of bird life. Tiggy Winkles even has a museum dedicated to hedgehog paraphernalia. The following weekend was a bank holiday long weekend. We drove up to Snowdonia National Park on Saturday afternoon. The weather was terrible and the thought of camping was no longer very appealing. We managed ... read more