Snowdonia Weekend - 19th-21st October
according to Scott (with final highlights from Vince)

Friday 19th October 07
First blog of the new walking club era….trying to remember the day after a few (quite a few) beers, including some on the drive down (Don’t worry, I wasn’t driving!), so apologies if the recollection of day 1 seems slightly disjointed.

We (Me & Ben) met at Beckett’s bar at Headingley for a few ‘pre-shopping’ beers. Vince & co. arrived slightly *cough* 20 minutes *cough* late, and we set off for Morrisons.

I heard the words I least wanted to hear…”Have you got the shopping list?” to which my obvious reply was…”I thought you were doing the shopping list!?”…already the year was off to a flying start! We managed to do the shopping from the previous years receipt….just! (So thanks to Steesh, James and Tom who helped us). We got back to Beckett’s pretty much bang on time (6pm), ready to find a group of fresh-faced beautiful people standing in the car park (Why they weren’t in the bar, I’ll never know!).

We left without further incident and the only major thing to report on the journey down (I was in the blue 17 seater, so if anything amazing happened in your vehicle, please tell me, but I doubt it did because we were in the bus of fun!) was Ben and his weak bladder making us stop in a lay-by about 20 minutes from the hostel to have a pee, then a 5 minute delay because we (Ben!) couldn’t shut the van door…..not THAT interesting I know, but after about 3 hours in a van, that’s classed as entertainment!

We found the place relatively easily and Ben got his little quiz on the go for the bounteous prize of *drum roll* ……a box of Maltesers, and to the runners up *drum roll*……another box of Maltesers! Oh yes…we’re all about variety at the walking club!

After half an hour of ABSURD questions (Sorry Ben, but if ANY of the international students got more than 3/35 then, they cheated, because I think I could only answer about 5…you crazy Radio 1 influenced fool! After the loosely named ‘quiz’ had finished, everyone settled down for a beer or a cup of tea and had a general relax and got chatting to people. Everything seemed to go quite well and the group had more of a rapport than they did in the deathly silent mini-vans, which is definitely good thing…because a talky walking club is a happy walking club…fingers crossed!

Saturday 20 th October 07
Early start means early pub yea? Unfortunately not! Vince wanted to set off for 9am and by some miracle we were all mini-vanned up and heading to Snowdon by about 5 past 9…must have been the super bacon sarnies we had for brekkie!

We arrived there in good time and after the groups had split up into those doing Snowdon and those doing a longer more challenging walk around the area but not actually scaling Snowdon itself (kindly led by Martin) we set off! I was in the group doing Snowdon as I’d never done it before so, again, if anything awesome happened in the other group, let me know and I’ll try to include it on the website.

The walk seemed to go very well and we kept up quite a good pace and after stopping for dinner we continued around the ridge and stopped to let everybody catch up and have a bit of a breather and a fantastic challenge ensued after some very strong words by either party….I’m talking about (In case you didn’t know) the gauntlet laid down by Tom to Paul, saying he could make it to the top first. There was quite a bit of banter and things started with a handshake and the promise of a beer bought for the winner, by the loser….

Me and Carl found ourselves struggling up the last incline which was an absolute killer and I think the joking between us helped a lot because my legs were hurting quite considerably! Thanks Carl! :D After an hour of scrambling over loose rocks and kicking stones down nearly on Carl’s head (Sorry! I promise it was all by accident haha) we both made it to the top and had a celebratory beer and saw the few people that had made it up before us. After talking to Tom and Paul and seeing a rather chirpier Paul and a rather depressed Tom, I found out that Paul won the bet and got to the top first! Well done sir!

We took lots of pictures and sat around for a little bit feeling pleased with ourselves and then when the majority of people were up, we decided to head off down into Llanberis….walking downhill is harder than walking uphill!

When we fiiiiinally arrived at the pub we all sat and had a beer and generally slipped into walk-induced comas. After me and Ronan having a bit of banter with some crrrazy locals (All good fun though, check out the pics once I get them on) we got a lift back to the hostel and everyone was looking forward to a hearty tea after a good days walk.

The evening meal was looovely so thankyou thankyou for everybody that helped with it, you know who you are! After everything was cleared up and finished with, people were congratulating themselves (and deservedly so) on climbing a mountain, with some drinks! It started off very slowly and steadily but then somebody mentioned ring of fire and Me, Paul, Vince, Carl, Steesh and Ronan played a lovely drinking game. Some of us got drunker than others and it got a little loud and the game kind of ended there…a good decision I feel. Bed time and a late start……perfect…….even with the people drunkenly talking of getting up at half 5 and doing a geogaching walk….it was clearly just drunken talk……wasn’t it?

Sunday 21st October 07

NO IT FLIPPING WELL WASN’T! The mentalists (Ben, Steesh, Paul and Ronan) got up at half past 5 in the morning!!! (No, I didn’t know that existed either!) and set off……..how do I know this? I was in the same room unfortunately and was able to get back to sleep by about half past 6…….damn you Geocachers! (If you don’t know what Geocaching is….you honestly don’t want to! And if you really REALLY do……I’m sure Ben will be more than happy to explain it)

I woke up for the second time at about 9.30 and was downstairs for breakfast and getting everything tidied up with people, ready to leave for around half past ten.

The three walks that happened today were hard, medium and quite easy. The hard walkers climbed Tryfan, the medium walkers…erm…did something else…(Very detailed I know) and some of us didn’t walk at all and just lounged about Betws-y-Coed and had the best time ever! I was on the general vegging ‘walk’ and the best ride in THE world is the miniature railway in Betws-y-Coed! (See the pictures on the website and some on my Facebook account) Me, Kate and Kat definitely got the most out of our trip cost! After this thrilling ride we looked around the village and saw some very…erm…interesting shops…selling everything from touristy Welsh paraphernalia…to Gollywogs (Didn’t think you could sell them any more! :O)…to skulls on a string…gotta love these little places…they look so innocent when you first see them and they sell stuff like that! Crazy!

We then retired to a lovely pub and had fun playing cards and having a few beers. Mel and Vicky joined us a little later on and we had some chips and waited to get picked up and get back to the hostel.

Sunday was pretty much a relaxed day for this little group and so apologies if this part of the blog isn’t that interesting, but to us, it was an awesome day! We got back to the hostel and packed everything up and set off. I think I may have annoyed some people with my iPod and some beers but….hey…I was happy in my own little world! Thanks for putting up with me!

Sunday's easy walk
The easy walk left from Beddgelert for what was described as being a "gentle valley walk which gradual climbs and descends". We managed to find a parking space and we set off, soon to be stopped by a quick toilet break only 100 metres from the vans. We made our way along a beautiful trail along the banks of the river, past a couple of small waterfalls and caves. After a while the trail turned left into the valley and a not so gentle incline by a disused copper mine, which got everyone sweating and stripping off layers. At the end of the valley we came out onto the edge of a hill, realising we'd actually climbed 300m, where we had a group photo, which lovely views as a backdrop! It was a pleasant walk along the top of the peak, through a lovely bog and then turning back down towards Beddgelert. After a little stop, where Vince decided that heather was rather comfy to sit in, we began the not so gradual decent. We were soon scrambling down the hillside (wait, wasn't this the easy walk?!) back into the village, on a lovely boggy track. Much fun and amusement was had with a gate that must have been made when everyone was stick thin! We made our way down into the village where people spent a while looking around the shops and have ice creams! Well done to those who were already tired before the walk and only came believing it to be flat...you were great!

People all headed off from Headingley for a curry but I declined and went home to bed (Thanks to Cathy for the lift home), feeling thoroughly tired and ridiculously happy that the first weekend trip went pretty much to plan with no hitches. This is obviously down to a fantastic committee :P But seriously down to a lot of help and support from previous members. Thankyou very much, especially to Lynne, Martin and Chris for leading walks and thankyou to the drivers for getting us all down there! (Thanks James, Cathy and Vince). I think I’ve thanked everyone for all the help they’ve given over the weekend, but if I’ve missed you out then I’m sorry but I hope you know you’re appreciated…a lot!