Friday 23rd July
True to my reputation I turned up late by 45 minutes but the gang in good humour especially when they saw my grey plastic bowl. There was a reason, for a relaxing foot soak at the end of hard days walking!
The journey went well and we experienced loss of mobile phone signal which to us city people was an inconvenience We all thought if you are a phone provider that it would be a selling point if you could get a signal in mid/north Wales! We stopped at a Little Chef for a comfort break and back in the mini bus we went! We played guess the musical year which turned out to be 1996 but it made us group in our 30s nostalgic, but felt old when Jon (the baby of the group) said he was one on the year we thought it was!
Got to the B&B as myself, Jamie, Claire, Jools and Adrian consider ourselves beyond roughing it in a tent! At the end of the day I wanted a hot shower, warm bed and hearty breakfast! We checked in and Adrian had a room where it would be hard to swing a cat around Jaime rushed ahead to get the next room. But Claire had got us the best room we had a flat with a fridge and a dishwasher!
So we set of to climb Cadwr Idris Anthony issued us with our army provisions! Much amusement by exchanging our vacuum packed meals steak & veg, chilli corn carne & rice, all day breakfast! But also some useful stuff waterproof matches! So we set off from the car park, laugh and chatting. Anthony had gone on ahead scouting! We took a few breaks and enjoyed the view many times!
We finally made it to the top and we all felt really proud & oddly full of energy! We had a break Anthony offered to heat up a meal from the vast selection of vacuum meals and bizarrely I though about it but ruled it out, as unsure what affect could have on my tummy!
The real work started we down what can only be described as a cliff face! Every time you took a step you disturbed some rocks that would tumble down! Jamie faced his fears as he hates heights Anthony helped him down encouraging him and all of us! But I truly though mutiny was going to happen with the route we taken! Once all safely down, we carried on and seemed lost and I fell down a hidden hole! My phone rang and it was my Mum at Chepstow Races the horse I had picked out Polar Annie had won 25 1 and I had won £55! So cheered on by this we carried on, then Jamie, Jon and I saw Mike at the van hugged each other and jumped for joy!
We stopped off on way home for fish n chips another city trait, reared. They seem to take ages in the chips shop unable to cope with demand I guess! Got back to base, oddly not hungry shoved chips down and had a hot power shower! Then joined the happy campers!
We had a wonderful campfire, few burgers on the BBQ and chatted. Found it great to burn my feet, remove them and do it all over again! One by one we went to bed ready for the next challenge Snowdon if only I knew then what would happen!
Saturday 24 July
Woke up after a fab nights sleep! Odd thing happened with TV, turned it off at main and it still glowed bit like out of a horror film! Ate a full Welsh breakfast with gallons of tea! While waiting for the others I sank my feet into a bowl of hot bubbles pleased with my purchase of expensive walking socks, as had no blisters! Took a bit long than I though to get to Snowdon, I didnt mind the driving but others in the van braced themselves at certain points on the route! But you need to know Mike our driver, often helps out with Ambulance service! So he is used to answering 999 calls. In fact his record is 10 speeding tickets in one shift!
We got to Llanberis home of the Snowdon Railway station! £25 to go up and down, which was tempting! Any how I walked this route before so I lead us off to the mountain with glee!!!!!!! Anyhow it got very steep, very early! It then started to rain, softly at first but as we trudged further up it got worse! The rain soaked through the water proofs, no need for drinking water just open your mouth and thirst would be quenched!
As luck would have it, today was the annual Snowdon Race. Where stupid, mad, insane but brave people run up and down the mountain. Course record is 1hour and 30 minutes compare to the 5 hours we took to go up and down! These people ran in little shorts and vests, looked like drowned rats! A huge cheer went around the mountain when we saw the one runner we saw go up coming back down. Unfortunately one runner fell over coming back down and Claire and Anthony helped the race marshals look after him. In fact a mention of them is on the website thanks to the lady who gave me her fleece. But it was Anthony who turned out foolish gave his fleece as he was freezing! But Jon gave him his fleece and instead Jon had a cold walk!
When we had fought gale force winds we had been motivated by the though of a cup of tea, sit down and admiring stunning views! Well we could see anything but mist, rain and dark shadows of other climbers! But as we got there told closing in 10 minutes! But Mike our driver had got the rain up to the top with Jamie whom hurt his knee and could make the second climb they had bought us hot tea! That started my famous catch phrase the best cup of tea ever, which was applied to everything I did that day!
Tired, cold and wet we made our way back down again I experienced odd sense of joy and achievement! When I saw Mike with the van Jon & I jumped for joy and hugged each other as we had made it a tradition! But I then changed to my dry fleece but spent the rest of the journey sure I had hypothermia! We stopped of for food myself ever had the best Chinese! Due to the rain I invited the happy campers into our room to watch tv and have some milky tea yes the best ever!!
Yes second day running I had a hot bowl of bubbles for my tired feet!
We forced the campers out in to the cold night and a good night sleep followed!
Sunday 25 July
5 months till Christmas Day! Ate a good breakfast and psyched ourselves up for journey to Pen Y Fan! Travelled back via the Little Chef another comfort break! A sense of urgency about the group now! We met the union guys who had been really great, getting us equipment for the journey some warm fleeces and some on tour T-shirts! We started the trudge to the top with Sunday walkers out, it hurt! My calf muscles seem to have some post traumatic syndrome and though still Ύ way up Snowdon! Worse was to come, a passer by said come you guys you can make it these children have! But after two mountains it seem a tall order!!! A group of rather posh and polite RAF Officer jogged past on way down and a few admire glances went their way!
I had walked this on training walks with Anthony but he had lied so I thought we had further than we did when I got to top and did not know straight away!! Felt so pleased we had all made it, again a weird sense of extra energy surged through! We got out our banners one with Tesco on there! A stranger shouted that ..Tesco get every where.. So I shouted back jokingly we are up here to see if suitable for an express!
Mike drove us back to Tesco House, I fell into my car and drove home! Had a hot bath and spent the rest of the day asleep only awaking for food and to move to my bed! But I missed my fellow walkers and would do this again maybe even National Three peaks challenge. It was a great joy and privileged to do this to raise money for Clic Sargent Charity but also massive personal achievement! More importantly I missed my team I had spent the last few day with could not have done it with out them
Thanks!
Monday 26 July went to work as normal! Life goes on as they say!
