Eleven go to Spring in Snowdonia – Sunshine, Ice Cream and a Rice Paddy

Starring Daniel, Louise, Tim, Tricia, Hazel, Matt, Lisa, Neil, John, Ally and introducing weekend virgin Peter. Guest starring Simon and Rhydian the Rangers

Our annual weekend in April started with the hope of having the same glorious weather we had had last year so when things did not bode well upon travelling along the motorway through rain.  Nine of us met on Friday night at the Hendre Isaf basecamp outside Betws-y-coed.  Tricia, Tim and Hazel ate their evening meal at a nearby pub and upon their return and Daniel’s later arrival we exchanged stories and then headed to bed.

Act I

Saturday dawned cold with overnight snow on the hilltops but we hadn't come this far to stay at base so we headed out to meet Simon the Ranger on the Craflwyn Estate.  We were also joined by Matt and Lisa who had driven up from Manchester that morning.  Our task for the day was taking out rhody seedlings with mattocks or pickaxes.  We set off up the hill with our tools, stopping part way up to be informed of the red squirrel sighting and how they were trying to keep tabs on them in the wood above Craflywn Hall.  Simon told us it was 20 minutes’ walk to the worksite but 40 minutes and some scrambling and gasps later we reached it.  It was well worth the effort because it gave us terrific 360 degree panoramic views.  Simon showed us how best to take out the saplings and how to dry out the roots by hanging the saplings from the skeletons of former rhody bushes.  This was a bit like decorating a Christmas tree.  Lisa was very pleased with herself as she managed to take out what she called a massive rhody sapling.  Make your decision with this photo…

At lunchtime we got our annual story from Simon which this year was the legend of how the Welsh built Snowdon (by entombing with stones the fierce giant Rhita Gawr after he had been killed by King Arthur).  After lunch Hazel left the worksite to start on the preparations for the evening meal and the rest of us carried on with the task.  The task came to a natural close at about 3pm.  We had managed to clear about 2 acres and we descended the hill by a slightly different route.  Upon arrival back at the car park we decided to start a new tradition of going to the amazing ice cream shop in Beddgelert which has an enormous range of ice cream with flavours ranging from white chocolate to mango sorbet.  On arrival back at basecamp dinner preparations were well under way so whilst some went to have showers and a chill out session others helped in the preparation of dinner which, selected by Daniel who was leading the weekend, was Lentil and vegetable cottage pie with peas and for afters we had Apple crumble and custard/cream.  That evening we swapped stories, attempted questions from the basecamp’s The Survival Game boardgame then we went to bed.

I N T E R V A L

Act II

Sunday dawns cloudy but dry. Today our task would be chopping down willow and birch in a SSSI meadow near the basecamp.  We were up early again today and ready to leave at the appointed time of 9.30 with Rhydian who met us at the basecamp.  We followed him in his little white van and were soon at the day’s worksite.  To get into the site we had to pass through a rather smart garden belonging to a smart house and over a fence.  The worksite was a field next to the house and garden and was very wet and as Neil said would have been very suited to growing rice.  We toiled away with the loppers and bow saws we had collected from Rhydian’s van to cut down all of the willow and birch in the field.  Morning coffee was called and it was to our surprise provided in china mugs by the occupant of the house who use to work in the local National Trust office.  Not only were there china mugs but also homemade lemon drizzle cake!  We carried on working - some chopping, some sawing, some dragging and some burning.  We had to have two fires because the field was quite large.  The first fire was very good and was looked after by Rhydian.  Louise, Neil, Hazel and Ally later found out that that fire had been helped out with some ‘cheating liquid’ whereas their fire had been diligently tended by Hazel.  It wasn’t quite as good as the cheats’ fire but they had had an hour’s extra and cheats liquid.

Lunchtime came and so did the first mishap of the day, a stuck-in-the-mud moment with a boot nearly being lost, but we won’t say who - we’ll leave it up to you to decide.  Clue: it was a man.  There was no story today much to Matt’s disappointment, just the fun of Ally trying out the ‘smile setting’ on her camera phone.  We also ate Tricia’s very tasty St Clement’s Cake (orange and lemon drizzle cake).  Whilst the majority of us ate lunch the smaller fire was looked after by John - Thank You John!  As most of the chopped trees at the end of the field with the cheats fire had been burnt more people were able to work on the smaller fire after lunch.  Ally picked a rather large willow to cut down thinking it would be easy but as usual got it wrong and help came in the form of Peter.  The two of them worked together to get the tree down - Thank You Peter!  We worked away until about 2pm when it was time to down tools and head for home, so we gathered our tools, returned over the fence whence we had come and headed back to the basecamp.  Back at base we swept the floors, divided up the leftover food, cleared away the washing up and said our goodbyes.  Hazel and Daniel were the last ones to head back to Manchester.

Sunglasses, Snowdonia, Sparkling company and delicious food make the perfect weekend.

Spring in Snowdonia 2016 – Done!

Here's to next time MNTV!

Curtain Down

(words and photos by Ally Hardy)