To mark the start of spring we spent the weekend in
Snowdonia, our first visit since the marathon in October 2013. It was great to
be back after 18 months. Four from the Merseyside group joined 12 of us
for the weekend and we stayed at the Hendre Isaf basecamp outside Betws-y-coed.
We gathered on Friday evening have mostly car shared on our
way there. Two spent Friday climbing Snowdon, two others climbed a mountain in the Carneddau, three did a quick tour of Bodnant Gardens and the rest travelled over from Manchester after work. There was cake coming from all over the
place whether homemade or bought. Ally didn't think she'd ever seen that much
cake at a MNTV weekend before!
On Saturday we again car shared and met ranger Simon Rogers
at Craflywn Hall from where we travelled to the worksite. Our
task was rhodybashing! The worksite was one of the most scenic any of us had
worked at with Moel Hebog and Yr Aran rising above us and a deep blue Llyn Dinas beyond. The sun shone down from
a cloudless sky and it was indescribably beautiful. Much cake was eaten on our
mid-morning break.
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| Cut down rhody and Llyn Dinas (A Hardy) |
After lunch and more cake Simon told us the legend of the red Welsh dragon and its victorious battle against the white Saxon dragon after they were released from a pit below the hill fort on Dinas Emrys (above Craflwyn Hall). He enthralled us for ten minutes. It sounded like a Norse saga and would have sounded magnificent in Welsh. We were then back at work doing what we do best - bashing away! After we'd finished and tidied up the worksite we all headed to Beddgelert for an ice cream from the award winning ice cream shop. There were such flavours as Pistachio, Cheese Cake, Mint Choc Chip, Coconut & Chocolate and Wild Cherry.
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| Llyn Dinas - yes, there really were no clouds! (D Black) |
In the evening we dined on Spiced lentil and tomato moussaka and Apple crumble and custard. We had the same meal last time so perhaps it’ll become part of the Snowdonia tradition. Thank you to Hazel and Sam for cooking. For supper later on there was of course cake!
On Sunday we worked with ranger Rhydian in woods near the
basecamp. Most of us travelled there in the basecamp’s minibus, known by its
occupants for the day as the Funbus, driven by Neil. Our task for the morning
was to clear some felled and sawed up trees and tidy up the surrounding areas.
We arranged ourselves into a fireman’s chain to move logs from out of the wood
and stacked them on the roadside for removal. Although it was a slow process, after finishing the task we realised we had actually done quite a lot (we estimated we shifted two tonnes of wood!) There is
still more to do. More cake was eaten. The bird of the weekend - spotted
this morning - was a Red Kite!
It was a terrific weekend - good company, beautiful weather and stunning scenery - and all of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We will be
returning for Spring in Snowdonia in 2016.
Ally & Daniel
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