Hi – it’s Vicky, Izzie and George K here!
When we found out that we were off to Afon Ddu Gorge, we were so excited because we had been waiting to do it the whole week. After a 45-min journey we arrived and started to don out 20kg of gear each – waterproof jackets and trousers (Eden spent 10 minutes looking for her’s in the bus, absolutely certain that she had brought them with her but they were not to be found anywhere!), buoyancy aids, helmets, wellies, harnesses and Karabinas. We finally started up the hill towards the gorge.
To start off our ascent we first practised a little bit in the lower end of the gorge, where the water wasn’t too deep and the current wasn’t moving too quickly. However, Izzie still managed to fall in! Then we climbed around a sheer rock face after Anne had demonstrated it – most of us managed to get around except George and Joe … everybody was gradually getting wet 🙂 even through our waterproofs!
Vicky’s trousers (aka the puddle-lover) actually filled up until she looked like the Michelin man and when she squeezed them out, we were seriously killing ourselves laughing as she had a hole at the very top of her trousers where it all spurted out! 😀
The next challenge was to scramble around a deep pool, where there was some really smooth, no foothold rocks in the middle. Anne gave the group a choice an adventurous route or an easier one, Eden, Izzie, Joe and Miss Hodgett watched the rivine below the ledge they reached and saw George flailing his arms around trying to catch a disappearing Anne! We were all in hysterics at his funny face 🙂 Poor Clover was the last to participate in getting to the ledge and whilst trying to put her foot up, she unfortunately slipped and was swept away down stream! Everyone was cheering her on and Clover managed to regain her balance and joined us on the ledge.
We carried on our way up the rocks, and whilst taking a breather Vicky was dared to sit down in the middle of a pool, which because of her love of puddles, she immediately agreed to do it! We took another, more grassy, route to have a snack, and after about 10 minutes we set off, waving at the other group as we ascended once again.
All week our group motto was “think of the showers” which kept us going up all the mountains more quickly, and today, with the amount of water involved, just as we were steeping under a small spout of cold water, it was quickly changed by Vicky to “no showers tonight!”
When we finally got the top of the waterfall, we were offered the choice to jump like a pencil into a large, deep water pool of a rocky ledge, into the middle where it was deepest. It was so scary but everyone managed to overcome their fears and all jumped off the ledge twice. Josie (the smallest but makes up for it with her determination) jumped of the highest ledge there was.
We all sloshed our way down the really steep hill covered in really slippery leaves until we discovered that we could slide down faster on our bottoms. When we got to the corner we had to stand up again but Eden’s feet ended up running away from her as she couldn’t keep up with her speed and she stacked it! LOL unfortunately she hurt both of her knees – but not too badly. We have all collected a load of bruises in various places over the last four days! 🙂
The highlights of the day for us were Vicky sitting down in a puddle, Bartek singing ‘Barbie doll’, George’s various faces that he pulls, Izzie’s constant falling over, Vicky’s hole in her trousers and jumping in and watching other people jump in the really deep pool at the top of the waterfall. It was amazing to watch Anne and her skills and all the stuff she can do with ropes and climbing. One of the best activities of the week.
Loggin’ off for hot chocolate now! LOL