Mount Snowdon

On Saturday we decided to climb Mount Snowdon. This is the highest peak in Wales and England. It is 1,085m high. We climbed the Llanberis Path which is 14.6 km return and we gained 998m in altitude. We reached the summit in 2.5hours and returned in 2hours. The climb was really difficult and we felt like turning back a few times but we made it in the end. The scenery from the top is fantastic and the temperature seemed to drop dramatically. Luckily we'd packed our new cold weather gear so we were ok.
We've been inspired now and are going back to climb the more difficult steeper path! There are also some other mountains nearby that we want to scale.
This is the summit.


Ben talking on his mobile on the final part of our descent.


This is a view from the summit. You can actually walk along this ridgeline

This is a seagull which of course, can be found on top of Snowdon (it's not near the Sea).

Betws-y-Coed

On the weekend we ventured into Snowdonia National Park in the north of Wales. We stayed in the popular little tourist town of Betws-Y-Coed. The town is gorgeous and surrounded by the beautiful Gwydyr forests. We stayed in another B&B, the Bryn Conwy guest house.










The town is made up of many Victorian stone buildings and has cute cafes and touristy shops. We bought ourselves a Welsh wool rug...there are lots of sheep and wool things in Wales!


This was the window in our room in the B&B. The B&B's are definately good value.

The great Australian Beer mystery

Everybody has heard about it - Poms love drinking Fosters. To anyone in Oz who has ever tried it you would know it tastes like old dishwater from the sink of a student house lived in by boys, however over here it is very popular both in bars and shops. I have tried it and discovered the difference. The fosters here is completely different than the shite we have in the motherland, so they at least have an excuse. Something else I have found here that you can't even find south of coolangatta is fourex (XXXX). This fantastic QLD beer can be bought here both on tap and in cans. The crazy thing, is that it is even more different to Oz XXXX than the fosters. Fourex here tastes like a strange german lager, nice but not Fourex.
I am only here to enlighten.

Welsh Ducks are bloody fantastic

This is what a welsh duck looks like after it has been stuffed and slowly, sumptuously roasted and basted with orange marmalade, garlic, peppper, paprika and salt for 2 hours in a birmingham oven. We bought this baby on sale in wales and cooked it sunday night - Damn i should be a duck cook. It was better than - well you know and lasted twice as long, we had some more tonight. We had a fantastic orange juice and herb reduced gravy too. Ducks are really cheap over here and are bloody delicious so we plan to get into a few. The bucther down the road sells 2 for 5 pounds - bargain.

Spring-time Walk in the Woods

Last week and on the weekend again we went for a walk in the woods near our house. There are a few "Woods" about - these are actaully large parks/forests that are designated as woods. We went walking in Hagley wood and around the area.

This is Hagley monument and is easily reached from a very 'one way' lane.


From this hill we looked across the valley and could see a random castle so we went over and explored.







Over an electric fence and besides a little cottage we found this private castle. No name and very private - definately no visitors allowed.
The area was very nice and we saw some fine english rabbits that looked like they could take on most small dogs.