Category: Anne’s Group 2010
Thursday, Afon Ddu Gorge (Anne’s group)
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
Wednesday, Anglesey, Cable Bay (Anne’s group)
It’s Eden and Izzie here!
Today we went to Porth Trecastell – (Cable Bay), on Anglesey Island to do some sea level traversing! It was a 45 minute journey, but it passed quicker than we expected 🙂 We were kitted out (HEAVILY) with helmets, harnesses, cowstails, short jackets, buoyancy aids and all our waterproof gear.
We got there about half ten and went down on the beach to do some practice rock climbing and scrambling. It was slippy and wet but fun and necessary. Next we went to a large wall, where we had to plan our own route up the rocks to reach the top of the wall, which wasn’t easy! We all helped each other and used teamwork to our advantage :).
Then we went back to the minibus where we sat with all the air blowers going trying to warm us up to eat our lunch and put on our harnesses and cowstails. We all put one item of food in Anne’s first aid kit in the waterproof bag to eat later on the rocks.
We then set off on the rocks to scramble and climb our way along the beach. As we were scrambling across there was a drop, with rushing water below and jagged rocks on the side. Three of us made it to the other side, including the instructor, but then suddenly, Josie’s foot slipped so she was hanging on to this rock by just her hands, using an incredible amount of upper body strength, and with Anne’s help, she managed to clamber back to her feet again! Vicky was really excited about jumping into the sea at the end, and at every available puddle or rock pool she jumped in, soaking her feet and waterproof trousers. Later on she jumped in a big one though and slipped and fell over, and me and Izzie couldn’t stop laughing! She was actually really happy and laughing about it though 🙂
After about an hour scrambling we stopped at a big drop to eat our snacks and have a drink while Anne set up loads of ropes to form a Tyrolean traverse – which is sort of like a zipwire across the waves in the gap. All of us were really excited to cross over the zipwire, apart from Eden who was really scared to do it. Anne went over first and we sorted out the order we wanted to go in. Miss Hodgett helped us to clip on our Karabinas in the right way and one by one we slid over the waves on the rope. Then it was Vicky’s go. She started off okay but then managed to get her ‘behind’ stuck on the rock that you needed to push off to get started. She was stuck for ages and everyone was laughing, including her, but then eventually she un-lodged herself and managed to drag her body along the rope. Then it was Eden’s turn to swing along the rope. She was really frightened, but she gathered enough courage together to push off. She screamed halfway down but everyone was really supportive of her and she made it to the other side. The others clambered across until Miss Hodgett had joined us on the cliff face. We then clipped our Karabinas to an orange rope that ensured we would not fall off, and we scrambled up to the green rope, where one by one we swung back to the other cliff top.
We climbed straight up the steep cliff face to reach a muddy grassy path, which is where we started to descend. There were puddles. Lots of puddles. Muddy puddles. Vicky went crazy, and decided to jump in every puddle we came across, but then near the minibus she jumped in one, slipped, slid for 10 metres then fell down. It was really funny, especially when Izzie had to use all her might to jump out the way to prevent getting splashed. We then finally reached the minivan, were we took of our equipment and played games all the way home.
We got back first, which was a great surprise because we thought we were last. We were all cheering in the minibus;) We got first dibbs on the showers AGAIN!:]
Tuesday, Snowdon (Anne’s group)
Today we were trekking up the very daunting mountain formally known as Snowdon. Snowdon is 1085 metres above sea level. Some people say being small is an advantage, and in many cases it is, like getting through small spaces or getting a kids bus fair, but when it comes to trekking up mountains this can be a bit of a disadvantage. Trust us, we know! First we went up Pyg path, which was not too bad but was a bit steep and tiring. As we got further up it got, let’s just say it was more than a little bit gusty, in other word gale force winds which tried it’s best to throws us off the mountain. During this there were many times where we nearly fell off the mountain and we had to support each other. Soon it got too dangerous and we had to head down, this is easier said than done. Walking down this very steep slippery bank, with gale winds and tons of rain, not what I would call fun. Slipping and falling all over the place and various people (me and clover), very kindly George (Kup) grabbed the back of my back pack as I was getting swept all over the place and nearly pushed over as well as me (Clover) almost get pushed off the side of the mountain by Vicky who had been pushed herself. We had a very amusing lunch in a yellow parachute like tent thing, which we had to sit on so it wouldn’t fly off, it felt like we were in a steam bath as it steamed up so badly. We headed back to the van on the path called Miner’s path, this was much easier than the way up. As expected we were all wet and windswept when we got back to the van. We were all rather relieved the we were sitting down and soon returned to find we were back first once again so we all had a nice hot showers. So over all it was a rather eventful day!
Monday, Pen Yr Helgi Du (Anne’s group)
Today we were separated into four groups. My group were assigned to climb Pen Yr Helgi Du, which translates as Peak Of The Black Hound. Me and Izzy were just like ‘Sirius Black!’ 😉 It was 833m above sea level, and it was what one would call torture. First we had to climb up this very very VERY VERY steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, but my group found out that if you walked backwards it would take off the pressure from the back of your legs and was alot easier. Then we had to climb past this massive lake and it looked so sparkly and appealing 😀 We were climbing on all this slate and rocky stuff and I kept slipping to reach the saddle, which was called; Bulch Eryl Farchog, which means Pass of The Knight Eryl. Once we got to the saddle we had our lunch and took lots of photos. After our break we set off for the summit. It was a really hard rocky steep climb, but everyone was really supportive and helping each other and we all eventually got to the summit and we were all really proud of ourselves and me and Izzy and George and Vicky went and stood on the edge and the wind was like blowing us around, it was like 1000838947 mph 🙁 We started our descent, and it was really steep and hard and challenging, but then the worst possible thing happened. There was this like mud puddle thing and I stepped into it cos i thought it was like 1mm deep. But I put one foot it and the next thing i knew I was shoulder deep in mud and sheep poo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! D: D: D: D: George and Izzy and Joe heaved me out and I was drenched in brown muuuuckk. it was absolutely disgusting, but after a while it turned into a LOL situation. Vicky couldn’t stop laughing 🙂 But we continued the steep slatey discent and we walked past like billions of herds of sheep and climbed over about a hundred stiles but then we got to the minibus at ten to three. We started to drive back to the centre and drived past the A teams minibus and saw them at the top of another mountain and we were like WHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY 🙂 our team chant throughout the ascent and descent was; “THINK OF THE SHOWERS”. Our team wanted to get back first so we could have first showers. We got back to the centre at half three, before everyone else, and me and Izzy got first showers and had everything done before the other teams got back.
Overall, an eventful day but definately enjoyable. Can’t wait for tommorow;)!
From Eden xoxoxo
