TNH on Hoka’s: up the incline

It’s not unusual for the Thursday Night Hill to end up in Dinorwic Quarry. We often start in Llanberis, and given that we are hill training, you can then choose between the hills on the southwestern or northeastern side of the valley. If you choose the latter, you almost inevitably end up in the quarry. And there is plenty of vertical to increase your fitness on. A lot of that is in the form of inclines.

The place is riddled with them. But there is one special one. I am convinced it is by quite some margin the biggest. And it has been repurposed by the power station situated in the quarry now. There is some electrical infrastructure that runs all the way down. I have never run on it. I had never even walked on it.

This week there was another demonstration event, so that meant we were again starting in llanberis. The demonstration was for Hoka Speedgoat 7. It made me feel an old-timer! I remembered the promo event for the Speedgoat 6. 

I got to the shop and got my pair of shoes. They were comfortable! And it was busy. It took a while before we left. And from the shop we headed for the zigzags. At some point we turned right to go a bit deeper into the quarry and went up some inclines. Then Dyfed, who organises all of it, shouted to the front they should wait. 

We waited, as we regularly do, because we don't all run at the same speed, but then we went off to the left. To the big incline! I got my camera out.

Getting onto the incline

Most of it is fine for running on. But at some point it changes steepness, and there most decided to walk. And in places, the original incline probably had wooden bridges, which are not there anymore, and then you have to go around, over beautiful slate steps.

The incline changes angle

Up some slate steps

Lovely views

I really enjoyed it! And then we headed for the view point on a spoil heap, and then for the little road out of the quarry. I was glad, as I know that there was a stream there, and I had only a rather small amount of water with me. I was getting thirsty!

From there we went back to Llanberis over public footpaths. And back in the shop there were the usual drinks, nibbles and a raffle. It was a nice night! And the first time in all these years I was on the big incline…

Not even May and already no water

I don’t think I have been saying that much about the weather! It has been gorgeous here. Quite windy, but sunny all day. For quite a stretch. 

I don’t think you could already tell from my tan, but you could surely tell from my water butt. It was only April but I effectively emptied it! I regularly flush the toilet with rain water, and I also have been watering the grass seed I spread. (That seed was a bit old, though; it might not germinate…) And with all that going on, the water level dropped lower and lower until it reached the level of the tapping point. 

I think I only emptied it only once before! And that was in the middle of summer. Last year it got quite empty too, but only by late May. 

In the night from April 30 to May 1st, of course it rained. Not enough to fill the water butt again, but I think the weather wanted to make a point that this was an April thing. Rare! But I have enjoyed commuting in T-shirt and shorts. And not freezing my bum off on track or hill. Not many al fresco meals yet, but that might change! 

Ad hoc bridge closure

When I biked home on the first day of the dissertation presentations, I was surprised to see the bridge closed to cars on the Anglesey side. What was going on? I hadn’t heard anything. It had been fully open for a while since the last period of faff. And I could cross, so it didn't affect me very much, but I wanted to know what was going on. And there was no traffic coming from the other side, so it seemed closed entirely.

On the other side, there was a bloke in high viz, patrolling. He was possibly there to tell angry drivers why they couldn't cross. I asked him what was going on. He said that in spite of the clear sign saying that vehicles over 7.5 tons should use the other bridge, a heavy vehicle had crossed. And that apparently meant that they had to check whether there had been any damage to the bolts holding the bridge together. And as long as this check was going on, no car was going to cross!

None shall pass! Pic taken with cones of hi viz man. 

I had not come across this before, but I assume it is standard. There are cameras on both sides of the bridge. There is nothing stopping you driving a heavy vehicle onto the bridge, but there is also nothing stopping the authorities from knowing that you are doing it. I assume a hefty fine is in order. But also, inconvenience for other traffic users. I think it could be a while before this bridge becomes straightforward again!

The actual dissertation presentations

After a tiring day I got up to have another one. This one would be tiring in a different way. The first day of the dissertation presentations! I would have to be in the office quite early. They started at 9 am, and I hadn't been able to put all the paperwork in the rooms, as several of them had been in use for an open day over the weekend. So I needed to sort that out. And make sure the door of the building would open automatically. And see if there was anything wrong.

Putting the paperwork in the rooms (and putting the room numbers on the doors) went fine. And while doing that, I bumped into one of the technicians who sorted out the front door for me. But then the first problem arrived! There was a technical problem in one of the rooms. The staff member in that room managed to circumvent it by using her laptop, but that wasn't ideal. So I got on the phone to the main campus. And they would send a technician. 

Room number! 

There was another problem; one of the staff mailed that he was ill, and couldn't come. Could someone step in? Luckily, one of my other colleagues immediately realised that there was one session with three members of staff, so we could transplant one of them. That went well! 

I also had to finish putting all the student presentations in dedicated session folders, and finalising the abstract booklets for the next day. And I obviously had quite a lot of student enquiries to answer! And when I figured the morning sessions might finished, I collected all the leftover paperwork, and put in paperwork for the afternoon instead. And then I had lunch. And by the time I had eaten it, main campus had sorted the technical problem. Great!

That afternoon I had my own session. It wasn't a long one! I had a rather high percentage of students who didn't present. And when it was done, I agreed marks with Martyn, with whom I had shared the session. And then I did another round of sweeping the rooms and getting them ready for the next session, the next morning.

Then I could go home. Unsurprisingly, I was a bit late arriving in Welsh class. But so be it.

The next morning I was back in post. And again, there was a problem! I had accidentally put two students in a session where they didn't belong. Luckily, I had also put them in the session where they did. I'm sure they never even looked at the documentation of the other session. Why would they? So they never panicked about being listed as a speaker in two different sessions. So that was easily solved. Otherwise all went well!

Around lunchtime, I did my usual round of collecting paperwork left over from the morning from the rooms, and putting the afternoon papers in. At the end of the day I could just sweep all the rooms, and take the numbers down. And I managed to put my grades and feedback where it belonged.

My next task was to find out which students had actually presented. With the presentations, it is not so easy to see if a student has done the assignment. Uploading your slides is one thing, but presenting is another! So I had to email all the staff to tell me who hadn't shown up. And then I had to make sure I sorted a mop up session for these students. And somehow get the staff to provide grades and feedback for all the students who had shown up. That can be a bit of a job!

Before all this will have died down, the actual dissertation will have hit. But that will be another post!

Birthday Neil

Neil had his birthday! And he likes hiking. So that is what we had planned. With the intention of dining out afterwards. And he came up with the idea of walking a generous loop around Cwm Eigiau. Sounded good!

The evening before we had been for dinner at Susan and Dean’s place. That had been lovely! But we got home quite late. It hit midnight before we had managed to get to bed. So I could congratulate him as soon as his birthday officially started! 

The next morning we were up quite early for our hike. We were a bit groggy! We’re too old to cope well with late nights. But I presented him with a birthday cake, part of which we then packed for our hike. We had breakfast and got our bags ready, and were off. 

5 candles for 55 years

There was plenty of parking space. And it was cloudy but lovely. I like the place. It is at the end of a tiny road with several gates on. It feels very remote. 

Cwm Eigiau

I had brought a lot of water as we would spend a lot of time on the ridge. Neil was a bit worried about the share weight of my backpack, and volunteered to carry one flask for me. That was kind! I wondered if that would mean I could finally keep up with him. 

We headed into the valley, and had a little look at one of the small slate quarries there. I hadn't been to this one before! And it looked like indeed; this time I could actually keep up with Neil. That is unusual. He is a bit of a Duracell bunny. I am hardly terribly unfit, but he tends to run ahead like a gazelle.

Small quarry

Beyond the quarry we headed up the ridge, where we had a cake break. Then we continued our way to the summit of Pen Llithrig y Wrach. The views were lovely! And from there we did the down-and-back-up to Pen yr Helgi Du. By then we were hungry again, and sat down for lunch. We could see a few climbers in the cleft! 

Pen Llithrig y Wrach

Next up was Carnedd Llewelyn. And from there we soon left the path. We intended to bushwhack in between reservoirs below us (Dulyn and Melynllyn). Level with these we could pick the path back up.

Summit selfie

The off-piste bit was gorgeous! I should go there more often. And take more pictures. We sat on a rock for more lunch. We had made sure to not eat everything the first time around.

We got down without difficulties. It’s a rather birthday-ish path; we had used it to for Kate's 40th and my 50th! On my birthday, the weather was so rubbish we didn't get far. Today we didn't have that problem. But we were almost there now. Just a trudge back to the car.

When we got back to mine we first had a shower and a hot drink. And I gave him my present. Then we trudged to the pizza van by the cheese shop. We didn't linger; not because we were so hungry, but because we were scared we otherwise would fall asleep! We were both very tired. We blamed it on the late night the day before. And Neil’s cat howling us awake at 6 am. And Neil blamed some on the extra weight from the flask.

The pizza man got wind of it being Neil’s birthday and gave him a very good brownie for free. That was kind. We had it all at a picnic table right by the pizza van.

We agreed it had been a good birthday! He is lucky with a spring date. Much better chance of nice hiking weather. Let's hope that this is the first of a lot of adventurous together in his 56th year! 

Ready to bring on the dissertation presentations

This year, the dissertation presentations would be on a Monday and Tuesday. And I didn't want to work during the weekend. So I would have to make sure that at least for Monday, everything would be ready by Friday.

On Thursday I got quite a lot done, but it did mean I left the office so late I missed Thursday Night Hill training. And when I got to my bike I realised I had a flat tire. That made me get home even later!

On Friday I managed to get everything done for the Monday. For Tuesday, quite a lot was done. I had finished 6 out of 8 conference booklets. I could finish the rest on Monday morning. And I had printed quite a lot of marking sheets and feedback sheets. That would at least get me through the Tuesday morning.

I would have to do a bit of downloading presentation slides, and putting them in the right folders on OneDrive. But that's a rather quick process. That would also fit on Monday morning. I didn't have to actually attend any presentations until Monday afternoon. And on Tuesday I didn't have to attend any of them.

I was hoping to finish the day with an ice cream with my Italian colleagues, but these ended up stuck in a meeting. So I just went home. And I had faith it was going to be ok!

I would have to be there quite early on the Monday. I would have liked to get all the rooms ready on Friday, but unfortunately, there would be an open day during the weekend, and that used several of the same rooms. So I couldn't get the paperwork ready. But plonking some piles of printouts in some rooms isn’t a big job, and after that I think everything will be on a roll. I will find out!

Fighting water wastage

There was water coming out of the asphalt of a little street around the corner. That's not good! This was happening on a dry day, so it didn't look like sewage seeping through. I suspected it was drinking water. So I contacted Welsh Water. Nothing happened for a while, but then I got a text. It thanked me for my message, and warned about that doing something about it might take a long time. It warned, for instance, that if a road closure would be necessary, it could take twelve weeks to obtain permission for that. I could imagine one was indeed needed.

Almost two weeks later I got another text. I was warned about potential low water pressure. I was sure it was related. And indeed: the next time I went to work I saw the road had been closed. (No months of permission seeking going on here!) Someone was already warning people about it. It's a tiny road, but it does lead to a school, so I can imagine closing it significantly affects the school run. People would have to approach that school from the other side.

And something was indeed happening! When I got home later that day there was a hole in the road surface. It looked like I had been right! And it had been a leaking water mains. I was glad I had contributed to stopping that.

The next day I left for work there was activity there, and when I got home the hole in the surface had already been filled. There had been nothing happening these few weeks in the beginning, but after that, the water company seemed to have been very much on the ball! That is great. For a country with so much rainfall we seem to have surprisingly many water shortages. And I think one should never take Drinkwater for granted. Letting it just leak through the road is not a good idea!

A leak?

Road closed, hole dug

The hole

Race loot, a year later

Last year I had a category win in the Trawsfynydd race. It is a charity race, and the prizes are donated by local businesses. The year before I had walked home with local honey. But this time I had spotted a £50 voucher for outdoor kit! That would come in handy. Nobody else had claimed it when my name was called, so I nabbed it. 

In the year that went by since I did not pass through Betws, where the shop is, very often, and the times I did I either forgot the voucher or had no time to stop. So in the end I banked it on the day of the next race along! The shop was on route. 

I knew one thing I definitely wanted to buy with it: a new flask for hiking. I missed the one that had given up the ghost. If I went out now, I tend to go with the whole collection of smaller flasks, and that is not very practical. And I had already seen on their website that they also did wide-necked flasks for hot meals. I'm sure that will sometimes come in handy! 

I added some little safety lights, great for making sure you can be seen from behind when you go for a run in the dark, and a little dry bag, to get to the amount of the voucher. The little lights will probably not come in handy for a few months, but that's OK! I'm sure the dry bag will see some action in summer. 

I know I've just blogged about getting rid of stuff, but that did not involve flasks! I can use an almost infinite number of flasks. And rear lights. I’m not feeling any clutter-anxiety with this loot. 

The bloke at the till had a bit of a problem with the voucher as it had a code, which was handwritten. It wasn't necessarily clear which letters were uppercase and which were lowercase. The software would only accept it if he got everything right! It took a while. And then I could go home with my treasure.

This might be the best prize I've ever won in a race! Which is a bit weird, given that this was only a category win, and I have managed everything up to gold in the past. But so be it! I will enjoy this for many years to come…

 

Ras Llyn Trawsfynydd 2026

I really like this race! It strikes a lovely balance between beautiful landscapes and even terrain. At 14 km it is also a nice distance. And the proceeds go to a good cause: the South Snowdonia Search and Rescue Team. What's not like? And I suppose it helped that the first time I ran it, I ended up on the podium. So when the 2026 edition approached I was really looking forward to it. 

The weather was lovely. I got my race number and did a bit of a warmup, on my lovely hybrid shoes which are really good for a race like this. And then I lined up at the start. 

At the start

In the beginning I took it easy. I wanted to do the course faster than last year, but the way to do that is not by burning out. And after not too much time, there is a fair amount of going up and down, and that is something I tend to do on feeling. But I was feeling relatively confident. 

Steffan, who would win, already looking pained a few kms in

Me looking happier. The lady right behind me would still be in that position at the finish! 

When I ended up flat part of the race on the southwestern side of the lake, I could try again. I was thinking of my breathing, and try to do it slow. And while doing so, run reasonably fast. I was enjoying it!

About halfway, there was a lady with a dog along the course. She shouted at me that I was in fourth position, and that the lady in third position was only just in front of me. That was very interesting. I could try to overtake her! I could see a cluster of people in front of me, and none of them looked particularly feminine to me, but they were so far I couldn't be sure. I just tried to get closer. 

By the time we ran into the village, I had overtaken the closest one of the clump of people. And all the others I was now close to also looked like men. Where was this cryptic third lady? Maybe she had accelerated away. And in the meantime I kept an eye on whether anyone was approaching from behind. I might be chasing someone, but someone might be chasing me at the same time!

I spent the rest of the route battling it out with the remainder of the clump. Some I got ahead of, and some I didn't. It didn't really matter, they were all men, and I'm not directly competing with those. I never saw the lady I was chasing. But I could tell from my watch that I had a good chance of indeed improving on my time of last year. And then the finish was nearby and I thundered over it. In exactly 1:02! That was just over 3 minutes faster than last year. A few seconds would have been enough! But I will take the minutes. 

I had a little chat with other finishers by the finish line, then I decided to go to my car to get my recovery drink, more drinks, and my phone. I was a bit thirsty, and I was keen to let Neil know how I had got on. And when I got my phone, I saw I had indeed been fourth woman, and the fastest woman over 50. Great! And that also meant waiting for the presentation. 

With my backpack I went back to the finish line, cheered on more runners, chatted with more finishers, and drank several beverages. As time moved on it got quieter. They won't do the presentation until everyone has finished, and many people won't await that. I got chatting with a lady who turned out to be Steffan Sayer’s mother. Steffan had won! And not only that; he had taken about a minute off the course record. I was very impressed. And also; he runs in the 40+ category. It is never trivial to run a minute faster than anybody else has ever done in a race, but I find it even cooler for  veteran runners! 

When the presentation happened I went nostalgic and chose the same prize I had one two years ago: Mawddach honey. Other options were Purple Moose beer, a box with things such as bara brith in, and envelopes with vouchers. I had had a look at the prize table beforehand, and of the edibles the honey really was my favourite, but the envelopes hadn't been out yet. Or I hadn't seen them. But I had made my choice. It looked like the vouchers were things such as breakfast for two. Sounds romantic! But this is quite a southern race. The local businesses who are providing the prizes are generally also quite southern. I could imagine it would be a bit of a logistic nightmare to use these vouchers. I stuck with my honey. Steffan’s mum volunteered to take pictures of me. That was really sweet of her.

Presentation 

Then a man approached Steffan and me. He had noticed our identical-sounding last names. He was from the local newspaper, and he was wondering if he could get a picture. We explained that we weren't related and our names weren’t spelled the same, but he liked the idea of people winning prizes with such similar names. We're going to be famous!

Then everybody went home. When I got there I realised I was quite tired. I had clearly given it quite a lot! But well, you have to pay for that 3 minutes faster time somehow. Well worth it! 

http://mmmmargot.blogspot.com/2025/04/ras-llyn-trawsfynydd-2025.html

https://mmmmargot.blogspot.com/2025/05/back-to-parkrun.html

 

Cutting back the willow

I have a sizeable willow in the garden. I have felt the need before to cut it down to size a bit. It gives a lot of shadow in quite a large part of the garden, and the plants in the raised bed underneath that don't like that. I had been thinking about taking some of the trunks out. And one Saturday Neil and I tackled it. 

Starting 

It went super fast! We managed to cut several trunks out without dropping them on our heads. And we barely dropped them on vulnerable plants. We could cut off all the branches in no time as Neil had brought powerful loppers. And we cut the trunks in two if otherwise they wouldn’t fit in the garage. They will be firewood! 

We worked until we got hungry and wanted lunch. We had only started after 11! I suppose we weren’t at it more than an hour. Afterwards we went for a nice walk.  But we really changed the light availability in the garden. And that after the work the neighbour did. It’s a different garden now! I hope the plants that get more light now will thrive. Time will tell! 

Finished

Getting rid of things

I have made a start doing a bit of a cull of my stuff. I had been wanting to do that for quite a while already, but I never really got around to it. I suppose the fact that I'm actually making some progress at least partially because of Neil's inspiration. 

Some of what I get rid of is going into the bin. But some of it might be of use to other people. I already got rid of my hiking snow shovel. I haven't done a winter hike in many years! That's the only time you need it. That one I actually sold to a student who was about to have a winter adventure in the Alps.

The snow shovel

I also got rid of a kitchen appliance I wasn't actually using. And an item of which I didn't even know what it was. I should've got rid of it years ago! I've been on the verge of throwing it away twice. But this time, I just asked on Facebook if anyone wanted it, and there were a lot of reactions. It has a new home now!

The unidentified thing

This is only a start. I hope to keep going with this. It would be nice to do a bit of decluttering. Surely I don't need everything I own. And some of it should really get a new lease of life!

Hot water bottle

I have been showering cold for years now. It’s fine! I feel really invigorated afterwards. But I do admit I sometimes come out with cold hands and/or feet. Especially in winter, of course. 

The hands are not a problem. The feet aren’t when I am just coming home from work. I make sure to shower pretty much straight away, as then I have hours to get them to warm up again before it’s bedtime. But it's not unusual for me to come home later. That tends to happen on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for reasons of Track Tuesday and Thursday Night Hill training. I often am home about 8:30 on Tuesday and 9:00 on Thursday. And I try to go to bed at 10:00. So that doesn't leave a lot of time to warm up my feet.

My standard attempt is to just light a fire. If the whole room gets warm, then sooner or later my feet get warm. And I can also put them quite close to the fire. It tends to work. But warming up an entire room to get warm feet is not very efficient; neither with regard to fuel nor time. 

The answer is obvious, of course. But I just wasn't used to it. Someone reminded me of the existence of hot water bottles and I figured I should probably give that a go. Just heating half a litre of water is quite quick! And I don't have a dedicated water bottle, but if you just put a metal water bottle in a thick sock you have the same thing.

I've tried it a few times now. It works! I put it in my bed and place my feet on either side of it. And then I can sleep like a log.

As it is now April, and fully spring, so I don't think I will be using it a lot more. But I will make sure that my little water bottle and my sock are ready when autumn hits again!

Reclaiming the lawn

My garden is always trying to get wilder, and I have episodic bursts of trying to move it in the opposite direction. This general Easter period was one of those bursts. And one of the first things I did was trim back the hedge. And that triggered another action. 

Most of my garden is lawn, and on several sides, other plants are trying to encroach. Ivy is trying to come from several directions, and one of these is from underneath the hedge. And that had become extra obvious now that the hedge was smaller. I had had a lingering desire to and do that for years, But the hedge work pushed that to the top of the to do list. 

I removed the ivy and whatever other plants had colonised this strip, and then removed the leaf litter. I’ve greatly boosted my compost heap. And then I raked back some top soil, spread grass seed, and raked the top soil back.

I first did that houseward of the raised bed. Then on the riverward side, but only until some lump. I think it’s an old tree trunk. I think I will clear up around the lump too, but I ran out of time. And when I was done, nature watered it. 

I hope the grass seed (a leftover) is still viable. I hope so! Then I can soon enjoy my extended lawn…

Before of the riverward bit

After

Vikings in North Wales

Penmaenmawr Museum does a public lecture series. We might have got wind of it through the Neolithic axe day in summer. I hadn't attended any of them, but Neil had alerted me to the last on in this season's series: about Vikings in North Wales. He wanted to go! And it's right up my street as well.

We would come from our respective houses, so I drove to Penmaenmawr, parked on the High Street, and went to the museum. But it was closed! Oh dear. The lecture would not be in the actual museum? The presentation about Neolithic Axes has been in a different building! I quickly went to the website, and saw the talk was actually in community centre, a stone’s throw away from the museum. I went in and found a seat, and saved one for Neil. 

It turned out that he had gone to the venue where the presentation about the axes had been. So he was in the wrong place as well! But a different wrong place. We are a right pair. But I could tell him where to go. And he arrived shortly after the talk had started.

The speaker was a PhD student at Bangor University. Next year he should finish. And he had three years worth of data to talk about. I figured that would keep us entertained.

He started by saying that the conventional view was that there was no evidence whatsoever, or hardly any, that Vikings had been to North Wales. But he was there to convince us otherwise.

So what did he have? He started with written sources. There are some Welsh, Nordic and English sources that mention the Viking era in North Wales, and he told us how much mention that actually was of Vikings in Wales. There were a few! Sometimes just a reference to pagans, and these are then assumed to be Vikings. But sometimes named individuals: he mentioned a certain Gorm, an Ingrimundur, and the brothers Maccus and Guthfrith Haraldsson. Not much was known about the specifics of their whereabouts but they had clearly been in the area. Had they settled on Anglesey?

He also mentioned archaeological finds.. Sometimes, items associated with Viking culture are dug up. Baptismal fonts with Viking knotwork. A button. A piece of a horse’s harness. None actually proved that there were vikings here, but at least proof that at least their cultural influence had percolated. 

He also mentioned a burial in Llanbedrgoch, where two men seem to have been chucked in a ditch. One seems to have come from Norway. But his burial suggests he wasn't appreciated. Might he have been a slave? 

He also touched on toponyms that might be Viking. Maybe even Anglesey! He had found a reference to “Ongelsund” and he thought that was Anglesey. I found it a bit unexpected; generally, once you are an -øy, and you end up in the UK, you became an -ey like Bardsey. How would you go from sund to sey? 

He also discussed Iron Age fortifications. It can be difficult to find out who built them, but they would be a reasonable place to start digging. And he showed us geophys of a potential boat grave. He obviously didn’t tell us where that was. It would be great if it would be excavated, and turn out to be what it looks like in the blurry radar picture! 

That was pretty much it! Told with aplomb. I had enjoyed it. And then there was time for questions. There were several. My Ongelsund question was one of them. And one man offered that mention of ‘black peoples’ and ‘white peoples’, which had been mentioned in the context of pagan hordes, might be a reference to Norwegians and Danes, respectively. He said that in Irish sources, they were known as dark strangers and blonde strangers. Apparently, Danes are a lot more fair-haired than Norwegians. 

Then it was time to call it a day. We did a bit of after-talk chatting with other members of the audience. Neil knew several people there, and I enjoyed finally meeting them in the flesh. He had been talking about them!

The next series is not until October. But I think we will be back for more then! 

Dissertation presentation preparation

It tends to be my big task after Easter: preparing for the dissertation presentations. It involves finding out which members of staff are available when, making a schedule, finding out which students are allowed to either present to only the staff, of to upload a recording. Sorting out catering, communicating with worried students, making sure all paperwork is ready for all staff. And making conference booklets. I make sure every room has a booklet with the session's programme, and the summaries of the talks. I will only print out a few of these bathroom this year, as in the past, I have had to throw quite a lot of them away. But I think it is nice to create a bit of a scientific conference feel.

This year I was on it fairly early. That was easy, as this year they fell after Easter. If Easter falls late, that doesn't fit. This year, Easter is early, so I could start during the time the students were away. Great! So as soon as the students upload their presentation slides and talk summaries I can deal with that without also having to do the rest of the work, as that will be already done. I have faith it will be fairly straightforward this year! 

Shuttleworth

Old-fashionede early. I sort of have that habit. Also when I am in a YSS caving hut in the Dales. Gwyneth is the same. When I got up I found her in the living room. I had my breakfast there, and a nice chat. And I went to get my stuff ready for today's trip: Shuttleworth. I didn't know the place. I know it only takes two ropes to get in.

In dribs and drabs, the other ladies appeared. And after a while, we all made our way back to Cowan Bridge, and from there to the same parking place we had been the day before. And I thought I'd just get kitted up as the day before. I did not! Looking at my bucket I realised I had left my furry suit in the hut. Stupid! But I had been a bit warm the day before, so I could clearly wear less, if it was a vaguely comparable trip. I decided I would just wear my regular clothes underneath my oversuit and that would have to do. But the other ladies weren't having that. Gwyneth offered me mountain biking leggings, and Ellie a thermal top. That was kind! 

It was a longer walk to the entrance, but still not cumbersomely long. The entrance looked a bit like a raised covered manhole. Open the cover and you see a tube with a ladder in it. At the bottom of the tube a hole was cut in its side. 

Ellie would go in first. There was a bit of faffing. The hole in the side didn’t lead to a level, but to a pitch. There was no floor outside that hole. It seemed a bit difficult to rig. 

It was one thing to rig it, and apparently another to go down it. It took people forever to vanish out of sight! And there was a cold wind blowing. I was missing my furry suit. But the other ladies, who were wearing what they had intended to wear, were cold too.

When I could finally go in I was at least out of the wind. But progress was slow. But the cave is quite narrow in its upper reaches, so I had no idea why. That's frustrating! If you can see what's going on, you can emphasise with it, but if you have no idea what's going on, the only thing you can do is be bored.

After that first short pitch there was a short traverse to a short pitch through a narrow gap down onto a ledge with a bit of a sideways pitch to a next shelf. Progress was so slow! As I was just waiting I didn’t get warm. After that shelf there seemed to be a long pitch, but even that took forever. Once Gwyneth, who was the one in front of me, was on it, I could see it had yet another rebelay. But after that, it was straight down. 

The pitch in the narrow gap

The final pitch(es)

That brought us into a rather large chamber. And in there, we crawled to a different part of the chamber, which has nice dripstone information. That is what we had come for! We walked around, admiring the scenery, and taking lots of pictures. That is; the others did, as we had decided to leave our bags behind by the crawl, and that is where I had my phone. So all the pictures were taken by those who had kept these on them.

Beautiful curtain 

Group pic

Looking at drippies

It was nice but for me, it hadn't been worth the long cold wait and the being home late. But that's the thing about caving; sometimes you're committed! So at least I was warm now, as the crawling warmed me up, and I just enjoyed the views and the company.

When we had seen it all we went back to our bags. Sharon suggested the snack break. But I was conscious of time. I hoped to have a little bit of evening at home! And I know the cat would be getting impatient. So I suggested I start making my way up. That was accepted. Sharon would come after me, helping Mary up. And then the rest would follow.

I thought I'd wait at the top of the little traverse, but they took quite a while. Before Sharon had reached me I decided to go all the way out. The first thing I wanted to do is check that no prankster would have closed the cover of the cave, locking us in. Probably not! But you never know. And the second thing was; one of the things I wanted to do at home was phone my mom. But I could just as well do it right here. As long as I was outside.

I got out, found a sheltered spot, and phoned my mum. That was nice. I also tried to phone Neil but he didn't answer. And by that time I could hear Sharon behind me. She suggested I come back into the tube, in order to shelter more efficiently from the wind. I did that. And together we helped Mary out. 

Out! 

Mary turned out to have all the car keys on her. They gave them to me and sent me ahead. So I could change back into my civilian gear and have a leak. And not much later, the others started to appear. This was the end of our trip! But it was already 5 pm, and it is almost a three hour drive.

We said our goodbyes and headed back to Wales. It had been a great weekend! I had really enjoyed the Lost John’s trip, and going for a meal afterwards. But now it was time to get back to the little cat! I am sure we will do things like this more often. 

Lost John’s with the UCET ladies

The underground ladies had organised another caving weekend. The previous one had been really lovely, so I was keen to go again. This one would be in Yorkshire. I wasn't very picky about where to go. I hadn't done much in the Yorkshire dales. 

I had decided to drive up on the Saturday morning. Then I could do the whole day of Saturday caving, and whatever it would be we would do on Sunday morning, and then drive home. That would be maximum caving for a minimum number of nights away from the cat. 

If I drove straight to the venue. It would be an early start! So what venue? And it turned out that the group would split two. One trip would be Lost John’s cave. That was one of the very few I already had done, back in the days with the YCC. The other one was Sunset Hole; I had to look that up. It looked a bit unchallenging. So in spite of having done it before, I decided to go for Lost John’s. 

With our little group of four we had we decided to meet in Cowan Bridge, and then car share to the actual cave. So I got up at 5:45, left about 6:20, and was in the village about 10 minutes before the agreed time. Travel has been flawless! But by that time, a great time had moved up half an hour, for reasons of the ladies already having spent the night in Yorkshire not quite managing the original time. That was OK; I bought my Saturday Guardian in the village shop, and just sat in the car reading it, and doing some more eating and drinking. It's always good to be well-fuelled when you go underground. The less you have to carry with you, the better it is!

Soon, Ellie and Gwyneth appeared. Liz would also be coming. I had caved with all of them before. At least, that’s what I thought. Gwyneth and Ellie asked if Liz was there already, and they said they didn't know what she looks like. I was really surprised! But it turned out we had two ladies called Liz on this weekend, and the one who would be coming with us was a new one. And there she was. Liz and I jumped into one car, and then we drove to where we would park. It was in the middle of the Dales. Beautiful!

Where it started

Lost John's rigging guide

 

We got kitted up, and walked the very short distance to the entrance. And then it began! We walked into an active streamway. And after not much time, that streamway changed into a rift. A rift! Ever since having been in my first one I've hated them. It's something with depending for your life on balance and friction. But I've done them before and I can do them again. This one was, as rifts go, not a bad one. But I was glad to get to the other side of it.

The entrance. Pic by Ellie 

The rift

Then followed the first pitch. Not a very long one. Ellie and Liz were happy to rig it. Gwyneth and I were quite happy not to. All went smoothly. And then we got to some short drops. That required a bit of spotting each other. And then we got to two more pitches in short succession. And more level and more scrambles and then some more ropework that was a bit more convoluted. Gwyneth managed to do some impressive knitting which required her to do the splits in mid-air to get out of that. She managed it! And a bit later I saw my nemesis in front of me. Another rift! This one was a lot less straightforward. It was also rigged, for that reason. But even when rigged I didn't like it. Liz was already out of sight. Ellie was still within shouting distance. 

Me coming down the main pitch. Pic by Ellie

Slightly more convoluted pitch. Pic by Ellie

I started to make my way into it. But I knew that if I committed, I would have to do it twice! And also do the one near the entrance. Plus all the other things to deal with. I gave it some thought. I knew that I could do it; after all, there was a rope. But I decided I preferred not to. There is a limit as to how much adrenaline I want to produce in a day! And we also needed to be out on time for our booked pub dinner that night. And I suggested to Ellie I bail and just wait for the others. 

Gwyneth doesn't like rifts either. And she said that she feared her headlight was running out of battery power. So she decided that if I would bail, she would bail. And we decided to bail together. We would start making our way back, but not go all the way out; we would help the others carry all the ropes out. So we wished them a lot of fun; they were heading all the way to the bottom of the cave. And we headed back to where Gwyneth had left her little bag behind. That was where she had her spare battery. And we could have a snack and a drink while we were at it. 

We were sitting down by a gaping hole in the floor. I warned Gwyneth that she should hold on to her stuff. Anything that would slide down into that hole would never be seen again! And she heeded that. But when we were done, and got ready to move on again, I wondered where my left glove was. Surprise surprise, I had let it fall into the hole! So that was lost. Oh well. 

Together we managed to sort out the scrambles. Some of them don't have much to put your foot on, but together we were fine. Gwyneth sometimes appreciates a Hand of God! 

We went to the top of the two pitches in close succession. The first was quite long. Quite a workout!  I went up first, and then waited for Gwyneth. It was a workout for her too. I decided to sing a song for her. Maybe that would keep her entertained on the boring way up! And I can't sing, but acoustics in a cavern like that is so good you can't really tell. I ended up singing three Tori Amos songs. She didn’t complain. 

We went up other pitch and waited for the other ladies. We had enough to talk about! And they were so fast, it didn't take them long. In hindsight we probably should have waited one pitch lower. I could have hauled up their bags! But I hadn't thought of that. At least I could haul up their bags on the second pitch. And then take one of them to get back to the entrance.

It wasn't far now. The only thing of note was then the rift. I let one of the fast ladies go first. But negotiating it was not an issue. And then we were outside again!

Me in the rift. Pic by Ellie

We changed, got my car back, and went to the YSS hut. I needed to find myself a place to sleep. It turned out that Liz was in a room with no one else, so I joined her, until I realised she had been quarantined for reasons of having a noisy cough. I didn't like that very much! So I just joined all the others. That would be not quite ideal, but better than being coughed awake all night. 

I also had a shower and a cup of tea, and then we were ready to go to the pub. The food was nice and the company was great, so that was fantastic. And when we got back I went to bed quite early. A long but successful day!

Well-earned pub meal