Saturday & Sunday in Wales
Saturday 10.30am:The whole group started to arise at the same time - weird b/c back in Kentish Town, I normally wake up around 7.30/8, notice I can sleep a bit longer & wake up again around 9am, but for some reason I slept straight through just like everyone else. We had scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, left over quesadillas, and apple slices for breakfast with orange juice. After the dishes were washed & everyone had on enough layers for hiking in cold, wet weather, we set off for our destination of Snowdonia.
The drive started out rather uneventfully, following the signs and bearing right or left when told to with intermittent periods of rain. After about 20 minutes of driving, we started to ascent quickly and as we did the rain turned to very wet snow. We reached the peak of the mountain & started the descend when the intermittent snow flakes turned into an all out full hail storm
& did not stop for quite some time, it even started to accumulate on the sides of the road. We finally reached the proper parking lot and by now the hail has stopped :) We pay for our parking permit, make sure everyone has everything they need & turn to begin the hike, at which point the sky's open up with more hail/snow/rain (wintry mix crap!!)
We decided to keep walking to the main road, see if we could sit & get some coffee before continuing on. We sat in the coffee shop, waiting to see if the hail & rain storm would subside any time soon. During this time we also took advantage of the heaters to let our trousers dry a bit, since the hail had been coming straight at us during our 5 minute walk.
The group made a decision that since the majority didn't have cold & wet weather gear, that we would bail on the hike and instead go to the Slate Museum (which was free!)
Saturday 2.30pm:
The slate museum was back past the car park so when the weather calmed for a bit, we started heading back. Along the way I was talking with Heather & Susan asking if there were every thunderstorms in the UK and how much I missed them. Heather had just finished telling me no, they were really rare, when BOOM,Crackle,BOOM noises started to roll over our heads. It was unreal, as if someone had over heard us saying we missed them.
The slate museum was pretty cool 
Tony, Jessie (background) and Amanda walking in the hail/rain storm into the museum
museum roof with cool slate behind it
demonstration in the museum
and in an interesting location with lots of great views 
Snowdonia National Park (above) Amanda & me (below)
and a play ground
Tony, Amanda, Mel on see-saw with Heather figuring out how to help the girls keep Tony suspended
me, Dom, Amanda & Heather on the see-saw, we're all kids at heart!
From the slate museum, we started to head home, stopping along the way to take some scenery photos.
Amanda, Dave, and Susan
After returning to the cottage, Amanda, Jessie, Mel & I went on a quick coal run. We were in need of a fuel source that would keep us warm, since most of us were cold & wet.
Saturday 6.30pm:
While we were off shopping, the rest of the groups started the shower rotation and Dom started his famous spaghetti bolognese . When we returned with the coal, I started a fire & hoped for the best since I'd never used coal in a stove. We all sat around chatting & munching on Amanda's homemade guacamole, chips, hummus & hot salsa. We threw a ton of coal on just before we went across the road for a fantastic dinner.
After dinner was finished, Tony & I washed the dishes and then met up with all the others who were back working on the puzzle. An hour or so later we broke out the desserts. Once the desserts were gone, we were all pretty tired, so we headed off to bed.
Sunday 10.30am:
Again slept late & had eggs & toast for breakfast. Most of the morning was dedicated to cleaning before our departure. As my father always taught us, leave the place cleaner than you found it. This wasn't hard for us since it was normally full of students, who I'm sure don't like sweeping, mopping, or vacuuming!
Sunday 1.30pm:
We were all packed & started our trek back to London. The drive started out beautifully, but as was our luck the day before after we hit Birmingham, the weather turned to snow. We safely arrived back at Heathrow around 7.30pm, returned the cars, and jumped onto the Piccadilly line for the final leg of the journey home. All in all it was a FANTASTIC weekend away, even without the hiking. Meeting Amanda's friends from WI was great - they're good people!
For future reference, coal is a great heat source, but doesn't smell so great. Saturday night we got the temp up to 72F downstairs and up to 65 upstairs (started out at 55F)!!!!
posted by Sara @ 3:10 pm
1 Comments:
I assume you got the coal to burn.
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