My Last Weekend Has Shot Past & Its Nearly Time To Pack….

Well this is the last stretch of my time here now and the sun has decided to come out to help me finish.

This week has been nothing short of dramatic yet again, and its got to a point where I probably shouldn’t go out on my own unless i have a chaperone, and one that rather like hiking and exercise.

The Sun has come out and for most people this means lots of smile and out come the shorts and sunglasses but for a ginger ghost that gets burnt like a pretzel in less than 20 mins; even if its been raining before and after the spell (long story, Scotland 2009 field trip, rained for 12 days straight, 20 mins of sun and a massive sunburnt beacon of a face and shoulders etc, even the locals thought it was hilarious, which it wasn’t).  This means for me long bottoms-no shorts, can’t risk it, and factor 50; o yea and the ridiculous sun-hat that 2 sheep could shelter in!

But at least in the sun you can see the subtle differences in the shades of grey on the ridges which is actually a huge relief and help!

One good idea lead to another three days ago and I not only ended up doing lots and lots of work in my rhyolites on a huge high ridge, I had this ridiculous notion at about 5.30 when the dark clouds were starting to roll in.  I believe it went something along the lines of thank god am alive after climbing and working up this ridge for the best part of 6 hours, and then the summit of Moel y Hedd caught my eye.  Now from a distance this summit is actually very high and i never though i would be brave enough to get up there on my own, and i didn’t think i would have to time to do so.  But i found myself looking at this summit thinking and I quote “its not that high from here…Why not? It Wont take that long and it doesn’t look that steep…It will only take about 10mins at the max”

How wrong can you be….?

The grassy slope look very nice to climb until you started actually climbing it and i quickly realised that the slope was concave and extremely difficult.  But as people will know if they have done something equally stupid, when you are walking/climbing up you are only looking at you feet and for the next few steps you are going to take, so when you take a few breaths and stop for a second, you quickly realise that going back down and giving up is not really an option as unless you have a sledge and a death wish up is the only viable route.

Well i got to the top and was surprised at the flatness of the summit it was really rather nice, but by this time it was starting to go dark and black clouds were starting to circle. But the views were amazing as I could see Snowdon in the distance and the weather was pretty freaky.  After a short and sweet phone call to my Wales carers That went something along the lines of.–

Me: Hiya, Am going to be a bit later back than expected…

Linda: Why And how long?

Me: Well i climbed really high and got lots of work done, i will be back by 7 or so

Another phone call from the top of Moel Y Hedd

Me: Hiya, Am.. erm…. kinda… on top of Moel Y hedd and going to be a a bit later…

David: Ok its going to take about an hour to get down, follow the path, look for the village then follow the track.

Me:ok, see you soon.

Sounds like a simple conversation and then i clicked that it was actually going dark and i cant actually find the path down, as it is through a moor but i knew that i needed to head in a certain direction and everything was relatively dandy. Well until i couldn’t find the village or a track, then i found what could be described as the village but only later realised that it wasn’t.

I got back to the B&B at about 8 and it was getting pretty much dark by this point! So i was lucky i got down in time.

Moral of the story is don’t listen to my good ideas…i very rarely have a genuinely good one!

View from Moel Y Hedd

Moody Weather above neighbouring peaks

Snowdon (i think) under the weather

Now am pretty sure this one is Snowdon but don't hold me too it!

Now for the sun cream and off out on another day of adventure and sunburn!! Yay!

O and just for good measure i went down a slate mine attraction for tourists and managed to get one new bruise and whack my head on one of the corridor ceilings….its a good job we were forced to wear helmets. Then Some kids threw nail polish all over the bonnet of my car! Woop which proceeded to run all down my bumper! So luck has officially gone home and abandoned me!

I would normally write wish me luck, but i have a funny feeling it wouldn’t help and if it did i would need it by the skip full so….off i go!!

Wales Is Quite Beautiful In The Sunshine!

Well the last two days have been brilliant to map in and I am praying to who every and what ever is listening that the weather holds out for a few more days..it will give my map a mega boost on the old colour and outcrops!

Last week was very much so dominated by the weather conditions and lots of half days were done due to this and trust me its no fun mapping with the rain pouring down your legs on the inside of all you gear!!! SO a couple of new pairs of water proofs and I was raring to go again!!!

I had a very *fun* time (with the emphasis on a very sarcastic fun) one day last week when I climbed a ridge for a really productive day of geology and lots and lots of progress was made!

Until it came to the decent!!!

Lets just say my field base maps just didn’t have the same number of closely lying contour lines as the colour laminated version at home!!

Two hours later, three bruises, one sore knee, a couple of close your eyes & just jump moments, and a few panicky phone calls, I lay on the grass at the bottom and nearly sobbed with relief that not only was i alive but i wasn’t missing any limbs or had turned into strawberry jam all over an unsuspecting sheep a few hundred metres below!!!

Now am not massively dramatic or a wuss but looking up from the bottom….yea I wouldn’t even attempt to climb up the steep boulder filled gorge with 5ft high monster bracken!! And believe me climbing up is usually a hell of a lot easier than climbing down!! Well it was character building and I must remember to take a picture of the route from the bottom, just for motivational purposes lol!

Well I feel like I am covering a lot of ground now and yesterday I somehow managed to get my self involved with a sheep dog very intent on herding the sheep and me! Lets just say that the dog was convinced I was a sheep and Couldn’t understand why I wasn’t moving like the others!! I proceeded to stay as still as possible and after lots of abuse shouted from the farmer he finally gave up on trying to herd me!!

It was pretty amazing to watch though.. the dog was obviously still young and training but he (i assume the dog was a he but I really don’t know!) was so clever and responsive to simple whistles and commands, even if he did get easily distracted!

I have seen some really beautiful views here and some strange sights. Up around Cwmorthen Lake, there used to be a lot of mining occurring back in the day and we (John & me) saw these beautiful slate houses that have obviously stood in ruin for decades.  What stuck me as odd was they are and would have been so beautiful! Just looking at the building materials (the beautiful slate) is of a remarkable quality and now they lie in ruin. Collecting nothing but lichen and moss instead of the memories they were supposed to.

The Slate houses at Cwmorthen over looking the lake! Right in the north of my mapping area.

The fireplace in the first 'house', the upstairs area was laid out too. Such a shame they had been ruined!!

Tomorrow I plan to either work in Cwmorthen or to do some more work around the big big Microgranite intrusion either way i promise more pictures because my collection is admittedly pretty limited!!

Wales is lovely…..for a weekend break!

Well this week has been a challenge between the weather, constant confusion, slight loneliness, punctured tyre and a day out in Beddgelert.

I haven’t got the strength to describe how abysmal this week has been so here is an over view.

On the days I went out I got absolutely soaked and moral hit rock bottom….literally! For one day only the sun came out and all looked glorious, then I got all sun burnt  and a little stressed. This day I managed to climb up a stupidly steep and high crag; that looking back, was a bad idea given the fact I was alone and didn’t have any rope or anything, not that I would know what to do with it.  I managed to discover 7 different varieties of RHYOLITE which really didn’t help the situation.  I feel the need for this is rhyolite may be the only description I can muster from now on.

The next day I spent most of the time on the internet and with my head in textbooks and journals trying to understand the textures I had observed and trying to get a good description of a ignimbrite, because I really don’t have a clue what one should look like let alone what one actually looks like in Wales, where absolutely everything just looks grey!

I would like to say mission accomplished but I believed I failed and I am not much wiser on the matter.

On Friday I went to Beddgelert to meet with the crazy lads (Adam, Mark & Tom) who are mapping Moel Hebog (seriously steep terrain), Ihad a relatively normal day and had fun talking about geology related facts and past field trips etc… It was really rather relaxing.

The saturday consisted of getting lost in a forest and mapping as much of it as I could given the rain and the GPS not liking the trees and thick canopy.

Sunday i logged the ignimbrites, which I must admit, I thought were rhyolites… and only realised when I arrived back at the B&B that they  were definitely ash/tuff.

Monday, set out to be a really good day, I did a lot of writing up in the morning and some food shopping and come dinner time I was ready to go out. I travel literally about 100m from the car park and the tyre just gives out! So me being me just got out kicked it and changed it much to the surprise of some passers-by and John.

Luckily my spare was pumped up and ready to go and a good tyre.  Otherwise I really would have been stuffed and since I hadn’t checked that tyre in months it would have been all my own fault!

So this morning i have done my weekly blogs, inked some map in and I am now off to get my tyre repaired so that I am good to go if another decides to die on me!!

And so the insanity has begun!!

Well Ivy i am sorry lol

That’s all I can say… I promised not to go insane but I am afraid it may have happened when I wasn’t expecting it and when I wasn’t keeping a look out!

The first day I went for a ramble to have a look at the area and all I discovered was tones of grey and green! With lots of sheep which as anybody could imagine looked even better in the rain!….Not!!

DAY 2

The second day arrived and thank god the lecturers arrived. I swiftly learned how to determine the difference between grey, grey, grey, slightly lighter grey, grey and green!! although I am not as good as I would like to think I am!

DAY 3

So the third day I set out very hopeful and painfully aware of the rain and the impending loneliness! It was going well until I managed to get attacked by shoulder-height bracken then seems to like hiding big boulders small animals and also holes that feet like to get stuck in!

DAY 4

The fourth day should have been better and it was for a little while, I walked a long way to the places i wanted to look at for the day and after making my way over the fields I had to overcome my first obstacle. Sheep. The One word that should strike fear to the heart of all foreigh tourists in Wales.

Now the sheep here are different, and I don’t want top comment on all Welsh sheep when I say this but my next statement defiantly applies to the ones in this area.

The nasty welsh sheep that have a serious attitude problem, now I dont know if its because am English or because they just don’t like me (am sure I haven’t encountered the same sheep twice, although I cannot be sure) but they seem to run off quickly then stare holes into me and BAAAA!! Very aggressively!! For Hours!!! Maybe they are guard sheep and they are guarding some gold or something but they really don’t like me!!

Can sheep hold grudges??

How long is the Memory?? I know I stole a really good sheltered area from two sheep a few days back in a storm.  MAYBE they told the others and now they are plotting a vendetta………..there again they are just sheep! There again maybe the insanity has just kicked in a little earlier than planned?

Well after the sheep incident I just so managed to fall in a concealed stream.  I have now learnt a valuable lesson.  If your in shoulder high and your can hear running water but cannot see it don’t presume it’s not in front of your feet and that you have already passed it.  This is where my common sense took a vacation.  to cut a long story short I ended up thigh deep in horrible boggy smelly stream water

After this I only managed 3 hours after this because there is only so long you can go on being soaked from the waist downwards.

DAY5

I approached the area from the eastern end and found a vital contact between my igneous and my sediments. and the rain took over the day so much happened after that.  Although I did manage to get mangles by a fence that holds a grudge. The thing is… I thought I was slim enough to squeeze through with my rucksack on and as I got half way through the fence thought otherwise. Am sure it moved to make the gap smaller but I can’t prove anything!!! This pushed me into the barbed wire. So the score was Jen 0 -fence 1.

DAY 6

This was planned as a half day as John (the partner/long suffering boyfriend) was coming up to Wales for the weekend to keep me company and accompany me up to the higher bits, so I wasn’t risking death on my own.  So I trekked up to the top dam in the hope of poking the baffling rock that looks like nothing I have ever seen before with all its ‘pock’ holes, as the climbers described them.

DAY 7- Sunday (Day of rest….You must be kidding!!)

Well….Mother Nature Had other plans and decided for one day only she was going to let hell loose with the old sky waters. And My god did it rain! The usual two massive waterfalls on the mountain turned into about 9/10 in a matter of hours, all before we even got up for breakfast.

To be fair we took a good old stab at the day but only managed to get half way up the road to the dam before it turned into a gushing river.  So we aborted the original plan and set about Plan B.  All was going well until we reached the part where you cross the reservoir overflow channel, and found that the people in charge had decided to flood it.  Something they haven’t done for years apparently. So Plan C kicked in with renewed vigour, we headed off the the local scrap yard  that was situated in an old granite quarry, to find out that it was closed because its Sunday and we couldn’t get in!!

Overall, Sunday was a washout and that’s without the weather!!

DAY 7

John goes home.  After losing his car key and spending god knows too long trying to find it….in his pocket. He managed to take my car keys back home to Manchester with him!! Yep, Not good

DAY 8-Today

My car keys arrive in the post after I was dropped at the base of my mountain in the rain by David, my new carer/B&B owner/mountain expert/very good at making bacon sandwiches.  It took a good hour to walk up to the confusing rocks now named Rhyolite and I set about graphic logging them in the rain whilst to welsh blokes watched from their van.  Between reading the paper and warming their hands on the heaters they took a few minutes every now and a gain to laugh a little at the insane person outside fighting with graph paper in the rain.  in case your not following…me.

Then the mist came down and it was like something out of a horror film.  I could only see around 2m all around me and being alone and stumbling over crags, it was very unnerving. I decided enough was enough. I did some geology related stuff on the way back down but after ringing David (the new carer/B&B owner/bacon sandwich wizard/taxi driver) I decided it was home time and I would complete my work after a nice hot shower!!

Well That’s the last few days of my traumatic last week and I have a few tips for anybody mad enough to come to Wales for this extended period.

1. BE SURE you want to come and your not scared of sheep!

2. Don’t rule out Spain because of the heat, unless you are a redhead like me and would melt once crossing the border or stepping off the plane.

3. Stay in a lovely B&B like the one I am in, I will happily divulge the address and contact details…with permission from my current keepers. This would have been much harder in a tent…Am pretty sure about that.

4. Bring plenty of wet weather gear!

5. Take a partner so the bracken doesn’t try not to eat you

6. Avoid areas where you can hear running water but cannot see it….you will only end up wet.

7. Don’t try to squeeze through gaps in fences, especially when the fences don’t like you, or don’t know how to say excuse me in welsh.

8. Learn some welsh, its polite and helps a little when you nip to the corner shop and everybody around you isn’t speaking English.

9. Take a partner to avoid insanity and near death experiences.

10. Either go somewhere with lifts or escalators built into the mountains or go somewhere the rocks aren’t all grey or if they are make sure they have nameplates on the sides of the exposures.

Good luck and wish me some…..I am going to need it!!

Arrival In Sunny Wales…

Well I set off at 3 and after a whole list of problems I finally arrived at my accommodation after driving around 3 hours along the motor way and taking the scenic route.

Well the “Tom Tom” and I both agreed upon my route before I left Manchester but i really didn’t realise that a Sat Nav could manage to get itself lost! After hearing “Please make a legal U-turn” whilst on the M56 around 4 times I suddenly realised that this was going to be one hell of a drive to North Wales. Don’t get me wrong I got there in the end but not without going down countless tracks and narrow roads.  Plus it didn’t help when the Sat Nav lost connection for around 40 mins and I didn’t have a clue where I was or which way to turn at junctions, Plus all the signs were in Welsh….Great!

Well after coming into contact with 3 cattle herds in the road, 2 sheep herds being negotiated by the farmer and a skilful sheep dog,  2 encounters behind tractors and one crazy boy racer (who was about 50 and balding) i finally realised this way going to be one of those trips!!

I soon arrived and the owners of the B&B came to greet me and helped me unload, which was a massive help considering I had managed to fill the car bringing everything but the kitchen sink!!

Well I think the B&B option for the accommodation was an excellent idea considering the weather that is no doubt on its way and the reports back from the other guys in the region!!