Annual visit of PCG

There they were again! The PCG comes to North Wales every year, and the time had come again. And I had managed to get everything done that needed doing by Friday evening, so I could spend time with them on Saturday. On Friday I phoned Dave; he suggested we meet up near where they were staying at 9:30. I wan't sure where we'd go; I thought he had said Moel Fferna, but he also had said it was quite a drive south. Moel Fferna is east! But I didn't really care; I came for the people.

I got there at 9:30. Soon three cars appeared, and they started to eject people. Big Dave, Dave Jean, Dave P (do you see a pattern here?), Rich, Laura, the lot! Well, not the entire lot; I received disembodied greetings from Lionel and Rick. But it was lovely to see those who were there. We moved my stuff into their cars and off we went. We were going to Moel Fferna after all! Nice, I hadn't been there before. Dave followed his satnav along a wild goose chase to Bethesda. From there, things made sense. Soon we were close. We tried a very narrow, steep and slippery road to get to where we wanted to park up; that wasn't a success. We backed out and tried the other possible route. That just about worked! We parked up and more cars appeared. Oh dear! They turned out to be from NWCC, with which we have good relations. Several of them are even in the cave rescue team; I would see them the next day as well. We got changed and kitted. It took Dave a fair while. What else is new! I waited for him and we walked up. The previous year he had been the fittest I had ever seen him. But that was then, this was now! He struggled on the gently sloping path.

 Walking up past the old mill

I got to the pitch. Rich was rigging it. It looked unnecessarily complicated, but well, I shut up. People went down an electron ladder with a safety line attached. If you have a safety line you clearly have a rope; why the ladder? Oh well. We waited our turn and the NWCC waited with us. In the end we were all down!

We set off down the adit. It was a nice place! Soon it opened out. It was a very dark place! The rock was black and absorbed all light. It was nice though! We just scampered off in random directions. We saw chains, pumps, winches and whatnot. It was cool! We also hoped to see a certain bridge and actually managed to find it as well. It was rather spiffing! But we didn't have a lot of time; we would have a pub meal afterwards, and people wanted to get back to the hut before. It was about an hour's drive, and we would have to all get out on that electron ladder. And walk back to the cars! A lot of faff. So not long after the bridge we headed for the exit and climbed out. The NWCC were right behind us; we agreed they'd just come up on our kit. They had their own; we would just carry theirs down, and they would de-rig ours and bring that down. 

 Nice relics

 Difficult to see how big this is!

 "The cog"; another of the big sights of this place

The bridge (or mayby another bridge)

We went back down. It was a nice day! With nice autumn colours. We got changed, and exchanged kit with the NWCC. Then we had to get Dave down; the other car had managed to turn around and could just drive down, but Dave's car was too long and had to reverse a fair distance. He was afraid it would start tobogganing down the lane. But we got there!

We picked up my car and went to the pub. There the three who had not joined us as they had preferred to go into Cwmorthin instead. We had a nice dinner! But then it was time to say goodbye. I had a rescue day to get ready for, and a big fat meeting after that! I hope to still live here next year, and team up with them again!