The Big Exam

It went well, I think I passed! Which means I might get my GCSE in August, like my tutor Jenny had predicted! And I know it's dangerous to make such statements before the results are in, but I just have a good feeling about this.

On a beautiful day I biked to the language centre, and went to the indicated room. It didn't look big enough! But this was only where we gathered. The language in there was Welsh; everybody was keen to get into the right mood for the exam. One man was worried; he was the only man! That would change, but in the end there were four women for every man in the lecture room. Weird!

After a while we were picked up and guided to where the written part would take place. We did the reading exercise, and the "fill the gaps"; after a toilet break we also did the listening test. I am certain I did the reading flawlessly; I didn't do so with the gaps. I at least got a plural wrong, and a conjunction of a preposition. Oh well. With the listening I was alright; there was a question which mentioned an interviewer, but I didn't recognise the word as such and guessed it meant "contemporary". Easy mistake! And there was a question where the answer clearly was "the new treatment for diabetes that was developed would not become generally available for another five years" (but then in Welsh) but I didn't know what "treatment" was and hadn't caught the word. I went for "medical stuff"; no idea how many points you get for that. But I'm confident about the rest.

After another toilet break we did the writing part. We had to choose from several topics for a 100 word text, and then fill in a form about our work of about 150 words. For the first part I nominated my neighbour for " best neighbour in Wales". A rather imaginary neighbour, that is; it's a language exercise, not an interview, and talking nonsense is encouraged. I bulshitted my way through the other task as well; it asked for what my job title was. I don't know what "postdoctoral research officer" is in Welsh so I went for "soldier". And what quite often happens when I do these writing exercises happened now too; within no time I was slagging off the Tories. It's good to have a theme!

Then it was lunchtime. I sat in the sun, on the grass in front of the building. And then it was time to go in for the oral part. We got a list of topics about which we would have to talk with an examiner. I picked the statement "learning another language is easy"; we got 20 minutes to prepare. Then we were called; I got an examiner I didn't previously know. She was nice! She started with some smalltalk to let me get used to her, and then we started. The actual examination conversation is recorded, like the one you have to do in April with a non-tutor.

We started talking about language learning, evidently; I have plenty to say about the topic. But after five minutes the "general" part started; she started asking me general questions. Stuff I couldn't prepare for, other than that you can see questions like "where do you work" and "when did you come to Wales" coming from a mile away. And I was aware of all sorts of hesitations, missing words, dodged yes/no questions, failed mutations, but altogether we had a nice chat! And then it was over.

Next week I have the next exam; the lower level one, but of which Jenny says it's actually harder; I think it will be fun! And then in August the results will come in...

Cwmorthin slate mine

What is as much fun as going to North Wales with the PCG? Going to North Wales with the YCC! With the PCG we divided the time between the beautiful landscape and the slate mines; the weather forecast on the eve of the YCC trip there suggested we’d be better off underground the whole weekend. Except perhaps the time spent in the snug hut with the woodfire. We had been instructed to bring sufficient booze, as there was no pub around.

We drove up with five people in one car, and arrived to find club-loner Nick, who was trying out is own alcohol collection in his van, as we had the key.  Soon we were inside around the fire with a drink in our hand! But soon it was bedtime. 

 

The cute little hut

The next day was for a slate mine both the PCG and the YCC had been before. I had a reasonably good idea what to expect! I looked forward to it, but was slightly worried as Matt had told me the specific goal of this trip was a walkway bolted into the wall, with a dodgy safety line. Sounded scary! 

We drove up, got changed, and walked up, past the beautiful mining remains. And got in. Rather soon we came to a pitch. And from there we had an explore. We didn't really know where we were, but we made sure we remembered the way. We saw amazing archaeology, impressive drops, and dodgy decaying bridges (Croesor-Rhossydd style). And even a sort of zipwire-Croesor-style; a steel cable across a chamber, to which you could attach yourself with a karabiner and then pull yourself across. It was great! But when we came to the furthest point I was a bit frustrated; my light had practically gone out. I had bought that thing especially for not doing that! It hadn't been a good buy. Luckily I had my rather impressive back-up light. But it's nicer to be able to walk through a mine without having to worry about when your light will go out. And these large chambers in slate mines are best admired with a powerful beam!

 On our way to the entrance

 

Clapper bridge with mining ruins

 

We didn't cross this bridge!

 

Happy caver

 

Industrial remains can be good for taking a break

Matt admires some of the objects left by the miners

We headed back to the round trip. We stumbled into it in an unexpected way. And soon we went up a long internal incline which passed all the levels. At most levels we stopped off to do a little explore. And at some point we finally came to the traverse that was the goal of the trip. It's called the catwalk. And when I looked at it I saw it wasn't half as intimidating as I had expected. The footholds looked solid, and the safety line was immaculate! Maybe even a bit too safe - you had to change over your cowstails what seemed like a million times. Fewer points of attachment would have done too! I took forever; my one cowstail was too short, and I had to use a sling to attach myself, which is extra hassle. But I got to the other side. Where I installed my camera for some long exposure shots. A nice photo opportunity! It took 30 seconds exposure time, but it was worth it. Even taking into consideration that I broke the tripod while setting up the shot. 

 

Matt on a traverse that actually leads nowhere

 The catwalk!

And here some pics Gary took on a previous trip, and which I inelegantly nicked:

Soon after the catwalk we were back at the pitch. And soon after that we were out! Into torrential rainfall. It made the landscape even more dramatic. Not waiting for it to get dryer meant we hit the cars during a dry spell, so we quickly changed, and drove back to the hut in more torrential rain. And we got back to  a nice hut, with fire, Matt cooking pasta, Laura making very potent garlic baguette, and a fine selection of beers. My kind of day! 

 

Laura as a cool silhouette in front of the entrance

 

Walking back through the deluge

 

Clearer skies ahead!

 

The living room by the time we went to bed 

PS This is a rather good 10 minute film, made by people I don't know, of what it's like down there. They catch the difference quite well between what you see when you're just scurrying through with a not-too-bright lamp on your head, and how clear it all becomes if you take a picture with a long exposure time! I expect nothing less than a minute in some of these pics...

The day after the day before

I had been warned there might not be too much enthusiasm for an underground trip on the second day of our weekend away. And my enthusiasm had drained with my batteries; I had managed to charge one set, which is one comfortably lit hour. And we were in South Wales, which is also beautiful above ground! And the weather was nice. So we all decided to stay at the surface.

The two couples decided to go for a run. And the others planned a walk. One of the guys had a nice route in mind, and with three cars we set off to its start. I was in the first car. After a few minutes the phone rang. It turned out to be Kevin, who was last in line in his shiny new rental car. He had driven it off the road! We immediately knew where he'd have done that. There was an impossibly sharp and steep junction near the hut; that must have been it. And it was.

It turned out Kevin had used his handbrake to safely negotiate this turn. But it was an electronic handbrake, and the car's computer had decided at some crucial point the handbrake had to come off. And hop, off went Kevin into the fence. Luckily it held; the slope below it was steep! But the car was lying on its bellyplate on the curb.

 Oh dear.

Our first attempt was phoning the rental company, but they didn't asnwer the phone. Then we went to plan B: trying to get Mountain Rescue involved. We had seen their vehicle just down the road. Such a Landie could pull the car back onto the road! But the team members were far away on a hill. Bummer.

Somewhere along the way a chap passed us on a bike; bike nor chap were the newest model. He looked at the situation, and said in a Welsh accent you could build large buildings on "ah, a modern car!" That summed it up.

Plan C was asking for help from a guy who had stayed in the hut. He had a Landie! He even had a hand-winch in his car. Unfortunately, the rental car had much more friction with the curb than the Landie had with the tarmac. We only dragged that across the road. That was no use!

Futile attempt

Plan D was getting Mountain Rescue involved after all. They showed up, but they were afraid of insurance issues if they would damage the car when pulling it out. Understandable! We decided to just try again with the winch. And then a car appeared. We felt a bit bad; there was no way it could pass! But when Kevin went to talk to the driver he came back with good news; the chap's father had a farm nearby, and was probably willing to drag the car out with a tractor. That sounded promising!

The father was phoned, showed up, pulled the car out, accepted some financial thanks, and buggered off again. Some things are so simple when you have a tractor! But by now it was so late we decided to can the walk. Instead we went to Abergavenny for lunch. And then we drove home! Kevin felt bad about the whole incident, but we would probably all have beached that thing there (there was little sympathy for electronic handbrakes in this company) and it had been an interesting experiment trying to get it out of its precarious situation. It was a nice day after all! And we've learned things: 1) don't buy a car with electronic handbrake 2) be friends with farmers 3) if you drive your car off the road, do it on a sunny day at a location with lovely views. And with friends around. Perhaps not with bloggers around, though....

Snowdonia last day: slate mine

The last day we didn't want to leave first thing in the morning: we figured most other people would, and we would only end up in a traffic jam. And the weather was terrible, so we figured a museum would keep us entertained in acceptably comfortable conditions.

The enormous slate quarry of which the workshops were now the Slate Museum

At first glace it looks like a natural landscape, But who looks closely can see three inclines, constructed for transporting slate: 

I had no idea that Wales was (had been?) the slate capital of the world. But walking around near Llanberis quickly makes you realise it; there's a gaping hole in a slatey hillside everywhere you look. The landscape is dotted with engine houses and inclines and railroads and what have you, all for the slate industry. Just outside Llaberis there is an amazingly big mine; when it was closed in the sixties (if I remember it correctly) they basically just walked away from the quarry itself, and all the associated infrastructure and workshops. And only years later it had all been turned into a museum!

We wandered around from water wheel to steam crane, from slate dressing demonstration to foundry tour, from quarrymen's cottage to sawmill, from blacksmith's workshop to canteen. It was very interesting! And it was a good way of spending half a day. But then we departed; we didn't want to get back home too late.

We had a great weekend, with amazing hiking, unbelievable mine exploration, and a lot of cultural heritage. I hope to do that again soon! It was great!

Snowdonia: day 3

After two heroic days it's nice to take it easy. We started the day with cleaning our kit; Lionel had brought his rope-cleaner. And after that we decided to check out a hole in the mountain side we had seen when we walked to Llanberis. We got in; it was a nice little mine with lots of dead ends. And then we found a pitch. Of course we went down! From below, however, we could see what we had been standing on: that didn't look too good. It was all wooden platforms. We had a look in a level in solid rock, which had rather deep and very cold water in it, but after that we decided to get out of there. And we went back to the car.

The entrance

A crossing of levels inside

Lionel coming down the pitch

And we're out again!

Lionel suggested we could visit Caernarfon; it's a town with a famous castle, just up the road. So we did. We had a look around, and a pint, and then we decided to linger and have dinner there; we didn't think Llanberis would have anything better to offer. And then we went home. The plan was to go into town that night, but that did involve quite a scramble down, and worse: quite a scramble back up, later that night, in the dark; we decided against it. We had our own beer...

The city gate

There was some form of entertainment going on inside

The castle seen from one of its own towers

Snowdonia: day 2

Lionel had brought a printed-out trip report of a trip he had in mind for or caving weekend in Snowdonia. I had a look at it: it looked bloody die-hard! Would we be able to pull that one off? It mentioned terrifying crossings, and the need for lots and lots of kit. The group that did this in 2006, of which one member had written this report, didn't have enough kit to go back; that's why they had pushed on, and made it to the other side. That sounded daunting! But very, very intriguing too.

We all read the report. And decided to bloody give it a go. Maybe these people had been tested to the limit of their abilities, but there surely were ill-prepared nutcases too: one had gone underground in shorts andf T-shirt, and another had forgotten his cow tails. How much trouble can you invite? So we would not challenge fate as much. We would find out some of the trip had gotten easier in the meantime. Some had gotten harder...

It started with a problem that could be seen as a luxury. The entrance was up a hill; about 45 mins up. And the weather was amazing! Unfortunately it started raining while we got kitted up; we dressed conservatively because of it. But after that initial shower it was glorious. Too glorious to be walking uphill in a caving suit, carrying ropes, a boat, a pump, a buoyancy aid, and whatnot. But we got there.

Carrying all the kit to the entrance

These signs tell you clearly you reached a slate mine

The entrance was easy. I had never been in a slate mine! Why do they even mine that stuff in that way? I thought quarries would do. But evidently not. The place was rather impressive. And then we got to the first pitch. There was a fixed rope, but we didn't trust it; it could be who knows how old. We fixed our own. And left it; if we would have to come back that way we could.

It was a somewhat uncomfortable abseil; slate slopes are slippery and angular. But we all got down well. The next pitch was similar. And at the bottom of the second pitch we found a zip wire! That was fun! We used our own pulley, even though we found an in situ pulley at the far side of the wire. With pull-back cord.

A chamber near the entrance; it was quite a recent mine

The first pitch, as it was rigged; we chose to use our own ropes

Lionel (bright headlight and all) coming down the zipwire

Only tens of metres away was a suspension bridge. Fun too! This pace was amazing! Not only were the chambers so big it was truly impressive; there was also a veritable assault course set out. Great!

Hugh on the suspension bridge

On the other side of the suspension bridge we ate something. We would need the energy! The next thing was an old wood bridge. All the sleepers had gone; only the longitudinal beams were left. How rotten were they? Better not ask. Better clip in (there was a safety rope), balance well, and hold on to the ceiling. No problems.

Richard on the relatively intact bridge

The next impediment was a chamber (flooded, as the previous ones) where the original bridge had a) completely collapsed b) not been replaced. How to cross? A rope was bolted into the wall. You had to tarzan your way to the other side. Without footholds.

Was that it? Of course not! Now we were faced with the real challenge. It was called the "bridge of death"; we had read all about it in the trip report. Except that half the bridge had collapsed since. Basically, there were a rope and a steel cable bolted into the ceiling, going to the other side, and also fixed in the middle, where one bridge sleeper still remained. All four of us looked at it. This was hardly possible! But we had Lionel. The navy seal in him woke up, and he hesitated not; he just clipped into both rope and wire, and started to just monkey his way across. All well as long as the rope slumps down. Where you have to get back up, that's where it gets difficult! Not for Lionel, though. He effortlessly made his way to the middle. There he had to manage to clip into the wire on the other side, and detach himself from the rope on the near side. Easier said than done! But in the end he managed. And got to the other side of the chamber.

Richard dangling from te wires of the Bridge of Death

The Bridge of Death seen with long exposure time; notice the rotten, broken off far end

What is difficult for Lionel is really challenging for non-Lionels, in general. We sent Richard next, carrying a rope; He's light, strong, and experienced, so we figured he would make it. The rope would then help pull Laura across. And Hugh and I would have to make it on our own. Would we manage?

Richard made it. And Laura too. Then it was Hugh's turn. He even brought a bag along; he has a much more favourable weight-to-strength ratio than I have. So he made it fairly easy. And that left me. I attached myself to the rope and the wire, and had a go. Down is easy! Up is not. The karabiner with which I was attached to the steel wire had so much friction I struggled to pull it across. It jammed. I was dangling in mid-air, and was wondering how we would solve that situation. But Lionel shouted I only needed one metre more to get to the middle; that motivated me, and I just pulled really hard. And made it!

I took a break in the middle. And then went on to the other side. On that side, you could reach a rotting beam if you got halfway, so I got there, hooked the beam behind my foot, pulled myself in, and just moved along the beam for the rest of the way. Not bad! And by now we felt like proper adventurers!

The next obstacle was yet another flooded room, where a canoe replaced the bridge; you had to lower yourself on a rope into it, and then pull yourself (or be pulled) across. The next person would pull the canoe back and repeat the sequence. This really was yet another unprecedented piece of underground fun. But it would be the last! Just behind that chamber we found the boundary between the mine that we had entered and the one we hope to get out from. It had been two separate ones: Croesor and Rhosydd, but each had infringed on the other's territory, and the breaches allegedly had allowed miners from each mine to escape into an early end of the working day through the other's territory. The connections had been bricked up. But these walls had not survived mine exploration.

Laura coming up the rope on the far end of the chamber of the canoe, which can still be seen in the background.

Having reached Rhosydd the antics were over. We just walked. And soon saw daylight! We had to pick an exit that didn't look too dangerously steep, but we managed. And then we were left with a beautiful walk back, over the crest of the hill, to the entrance, quite far away. We had to get our ropes back! Richard and Lionel did that while I took pictures, aided by Hugh, and Laura waited for us. And then we could walk back to the cars, looking back on the most outrageous caving trip any of us had ever done. It had been great!

Daylight!

Where we came out

Me and the hole we clambered out through in the background

Little figurines on the left, and a lot of the quarry on the right

Walking back underneath dramatic skies

When we got back we drove past a pub that had many Hillary/ Mt Everest memorabilia, but after only one pint it was time to get home. Time for yet another very late meal. But not such a heavy trip the next day! We had earned a bit of rest after these two trips...