The Malvern Hills Revisited

The past 3 or 4 days here in the West Midlands have been absolutely beautiful! The sun has been shining, it has been really warm, and there hasn´t been any rain! I even wore my shorts to work on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It has been so nice that I´m really wishing that I had a barbeque and outdoor patio or something similar where I could sit outside in the evenings and chillout after work. Alas, I´ll have to make do with the oven-grill and sitting in the front room with the window open (and a glass of cold Sauvignon Blanc)!

On Sunday, I did some more walking in the Malvern Hills. Unfortunately, I had to buy an icecream at the icecream van so that I had some change for the parking meter before I left my car. I didn´t want to be wasteful, so then I had to eat the icecream.

Naturally, being a lovely weekend, there were lots of people out making most of the weather. I came across this guy Mountain Uni-biking down Worcester Beacon! I´m not sure if he´s clever or crazy. I would have liked to have seen him go UP the hill on it!

There was this guy, too, who was paragliding in the valley east of the hills.

Anyway, here are some pictures from my walk in the hills.These houses are situated in a valley called The Dingle!

Proof I walked to the top of Worcester Beacon

View from the top of Worcester Beacon

Looking back up to the top of Worcester Beacon

St Anne´s Well. The view from where I sat to eat my lunch

Looking at Worcester Beacon from the South. I think the hill in the foreground is where they used to hang the bodies of poachers from medieval gallows!

Anyway, that´s how I spent my Sunday.

Hopefully I´ll hear from you all soon.

Love,
Lis x.

Wales

Hi everyone!

Last Friday one of the vets I work with asked if she could swap weekends with me so that she worked last Saturday in exchange for me working this weekend. That suited me fine, as it meant that I could be on the road to Wales early on Saturday morning, rather than early Saturday afternoon as I´d planned. Well, when I say early in the morning, I actually mean ten o´clock, but I felt that was pretty early for a weekend off work.

The drive into Wales was pretty easy- I only had to drive on 3 roads! I met Elise in Betws-y-Coed at 1pm and after having a bit of lunch at one of the cafés in town, we then drove in convoy to the campsite that Elise had picked out.

We stayed at Llyn Gwynant Campsite in Snowdonia National Park. We set up Elise´s tent next to the river, then headed back to Betws-y-Coed to go for a walk around Llyn Elis. We had a hob-nob break halfway around the lake, then headed back to town, thinking of the icecream we had seen at lunchtime and planning on having a small snack before dinner. Unfortunately, by the time we got back, the icecream shop had closed! We were heartbroken.

We headed to a pub down the road for dinner, and met Lois and Mark, Elise´s friends from Sheffield. We had a couple of pints and some food. I had a steak with Welsh rarebit on the top. I never knew what rarebit was before (I must confess that I thought it may have been rabbit!), but it turns out it is a cheesy mixture which is usually served on toast. It was pretty nice, and I must say the nicest steak that I´ve had in the UK.

The next morning, we woke to the sound of rain on the roof of the tent.

We were a little disappointed as we had planned on walking up Mount Snowdon, but decided to wait it out a little and see if the weather got any better. Elise cooked us some porridge for breakfast and we looked through some of our travel guides, trying to decide what to do. In the end, Elise found a walk which was about a half hour drive from the campsite, and we thought that maybe the weather might be a bit better there.

So we hopped in the car and headed to Dolgellau, and found the carpark from where Precipice walk starts. This was a two and a half hour walk which took us up the side of a hill, among grazing sheep, and along a precipice which overlooked a pine forest and out towards Cardigan Bay. It then took us to a lake, where we stopped for a Hobnob break, before walking around the lake and back to the car. The weather held out for us luckily and we only had a couple of light sprinkles of rain whilst on our walk.



We drove back to Betws-y-Coed via Blaenau Ffestiniog, an old slate-mining town which is cradled by mountains of slag waste. It was an awesome sight, and while it was an overcast day, the sun was shining so it wasn´t as gloomy as it must be on really grey days. I imagine that the pharmacy in town is heavily stocked with antidepressants.

Back at Betws-y-Coed, we decided to have a late lunch at the same café we dined at the previous day. I decided to try Welsh Rarebit the traditional way- on toast. It was great, definitely comfort food. We managed to get our icecream too.

After picking up my car from the campsite, I then got back on the road and headed back to England. I got caught in a torrential downfall on the way home on the motorway, and could hardly see where I was going, but did manage to get back to my flat safe and sound. It was a great weekend away, great to get out of the city and spend some time outdoors. I haven´t been camping in a while, and it was a good reminder of how much fun it can be (when it´s only for one night and there are facilities available).

Overlooking the campsite which is in the patch of trees at the tip of the lake

That´s all for now, stay tuned for more news later!

Love,
Lis x.