Cae Coch: ladies edition

Sharon, Lydia and me were keen to visit Cae Coch Sulphur mine. And Lydia was keen to do something during the Easter break. And we decided to combine the two! So on a Sunday morning we met in Trefriw. We decided to approach to mine from below, and that we would bring a handline. From the previous (and only) time I'd been there, I knew there was a passage down to a lower level that looks very slippery, and that I would love to explore. So my big bag came out again.

We walked up the forestry road, until we got to the transformer house. From there we walked up the incline. I remembered that! It is rather steep. I was a bit confused at the first drumhouse we encountered, but then recognised the situation again when we reached the second. I knew from there we had to walk along the isolines. Which isn't easy! It looked like every single tree in the forest had fallen over what must have been a tram line. But we got there.

When we walked in, Lydia and Sharon were positively impressed by how weird the place is, but potentially a bit negatively impressed by the sulphur stench. I had forgot all about that! And we just walk deeper into the mine, just having a look. I had forgot about where the various sites in the mine were. We just followed our noses! And there was enough to see. Mainly features of a chemical nature. I suppose some of the nice artefacts or structures you see in other mines would not have survived in the strange chemistry of this place! But in a sulphur mine, you get puddles and crusts and what not in the strangest colours.

Pretty puddle

Sliminess inside the mine (pic by Sharon)

Good colours inside the mine (pic by Sharon)

Strange ceiling: stalactites, snottites, and blood red water drops

At some point I realised I was a lot more out of breath than I should be. I worried a bit about bad air! I didn't remember that, but that doesn't mean very much. We didn't linger in the area where I felt uncomfortable. Later, Lydia would abandon a particular corner of the mine for similar reasons. She was also feeling the sulphur! It was giving her a headache. This would not be an unusually long trip. And I was already resigned to not finding that passage down.

After lunch within view of the entrance, we wanted to have one more explore. We headed to a spot where Sharon had been staring down into the depths. Quite a lot of depths in this mine are flooded, but this one wasn't! So we went in. And lo and behold; we found the famous river of snot. It has really impressed me the previous time I was there! It basically is a stream with so many snottites living in it that it genuinely looks like a river of snot. And that is the stream that vanishes into the inclined passage. Which we found by just following the stream. And there was a fixed handline! So I needn't have brought the rope. Oh well.

The river of snot! Pic by Sharon.

Me by some rare woodwork. Pic by Sharon.

I descended first. I noticed how fresh the air was! Lydia would be pleased. I descended, saw you end up in a horizontal passage, and shouted at the others that it was well worth coming down. Which they duly did.

In one direction there was deep red water. We ignored that. On the other side there was a more accessible passage. It went a fair way! Until it split into a horizontal level, and another level that went down. I decided to explore down. It lead into another horizontal passage filled with red water. This is where the stream goes! Somehow it must drain to the outside. We knew there were several drainage levels. But it looked deep. We went back up! And then explored the other passage that went horizontally on. I volunteered to see what it did when the water became too deep to keep your feet dry. The passage had collapsed! Hence the water levels. 

The passage down

The red water at the end of the handline. Pic by Sharon.

We then went out. Enough seen for one day! And we took the barely discernible public footpath down that went diagonally back to the transformer house.

Near the transformer house was another stream; we washed our kit there. And then we went back to the car to change. A successful mission! And this time I came out of the mine as healthy as I had gone in! That is important too.

A good wash. Pic by Lydia.

Now we will first have Easter, and then three hectic weeks with a lot of student presentations and field work. I don't think I'll be underground for a while. But it is nice to have a little community to do great trips with! 

Sorting out boat travel to the Netherlands

It is so easy to fly! You just book a ticket, which is probably going to be rather cheap. Then you drive to the airport (ok, you need to book parking as well), and get on the plane. You land in an airport that has excellent train connections. So simple!

I have lost a year of my life trying to book train tickets to the Netherlands. It looks like you really need to do that very far in advance. Maybe I should book them for Christmas by now? And it is a bit of a faff; you first have to find your Eurostar tickets, and then you need to book national trains tickets that align with these. And then you have to think about how you get to the nearest railway station in the first place.

I now have been sorting out all the details for my trip to the Netherlands by boat. I managed to book train tickets to and from Hull! And I think I am sorted with regard to transport between the Hull railway station and ferry terminal. The last thing I was struggling with was transport between the ferry terminal in Rotterdam, and anywhere in civilisation. It's not something you can just walk!

I find it a bit disheartening that flying is by far the easiest and cheapest way of moving around. Flights are so bad for the environment, but it takes so much money and time and stubbornness to avoid them! It is easy to imagine that not everyone thinks that's worth it. It would be great if the political will was there to make non-flying travel an easy default option. But I am not going to hold my breath. For now, the best thing I can hope for is getting some routine in organising either train or ferry travel! And that in the future, it won't be the struggle it is now!

Writing for Gwerddon

A popular assignment we set our students is to let them write an article in the style of the Conversation; an online popular science journal written by scientists themselves; not journalists. There also is the Welsh equivalent; Gwerddon. And the lady who is organising the Cymraeg + project had sent me the task to write an article for them. About foraminifera.

Unrelated foram

I had booked the latest timeslot she had available for going through it. That would buy me some time to write it! It is a sizable task. And it wasn't really that quiet a time. I admit that some of it I wrote during a dull meeting I had to be in. I submitted it in the morning and we discussed it in the afternoon!

When we were done discussing it, she revealed that her intention was that we would actually send it to Gwerddon. That threw me a bit! It was written in a bit of a hurry, and I hadn't vigourously checked anything. I did give a number I wasn't entirely sure of. It is, of course, quite easy to check it, but still! Publish this? Crikey!

Another issue is that generally, you submit something to a journal like that when you have just published (in peer-reviewed literature) some interesting research you think more people should know about. And I haven't published anything about foraminifera in a while, and nothing about this particular topic at all. But whether that is a problem or not is, of course, the decision of Gwerddon. I am sure they would be quite happy to tell me if that is an actual requirement.

She asked me to add one paragraph. I haven't written that yet! By the time I have, we can contact the editors. But who knows; I might be spreading the word where I never expected it!

Cake competition second round

There has been a bit of a gap between the first and the second round of the cake competition! But in the end, it arrived. And I was one of the two first bakers to snap into action again. And I had decided what to bake months before; I sometimes make an apple and fig cake, and I decided that this time, I would make vegan version of this.

The day before I asked Susan if I could hitch a ride. If I bike all the way to work with a cake in my panniers, I think it will arrive as a bit of a car crash of a cake. And she spotted immediately why I would ask that. And revealed that she was the other baker.

When the actual competition started I got to try both. The problem with a cake, unlike something like soup, is that you can't taste it beforehand. I thought it was good! But hers was better. She had made a lemon and blueberry cake. It was really tasty! I figured she would win. But I got some satisfaction from seeing one of our vegans wander into the room and helping himself to a piece of my cake. 

My entry

Later the votes came in. She had indeed won! And that is the end of my involvement in this cake competition. But I think we will take the rest of the academic year for the final rounds, and then I will participate again in the 2023-2024 competition. And I intend to make all of my cakes vegan! And if I practice a bit, I should be getting good at this. I have at some point also made, if I can say so myself, quite a good vegan banana bread. I should try a vegan chocolate cake soon. And some time ago I made a vegan tahini-orange cake. That wasn't quite the success I wanted it to be, but I know what I want to do to improve it. So for the coming months, I will only be judging. But I will be training for the next first round!

Sunny hill walk: Pen yr Helgi Du

The day after Dave’s birthday celebrations, we had the afternoon free for a stroll. And the weather was good! So we could go up somewhat high without ending up with our faces in the cloud. And we chose Pen yr Helgi Du. We checked if we could travel to and from start- and endpoint of this walk by bus, but it didn't work out. We drove.

I was still feeling the previous day a bit in my system! I suspect Dave did too. But the walk is not very ambitious. It is rewarding, though; the whole valley is beautiful, so the views are great from the start. And there is a lake by which you can sit and have lunch. And I am never not impressed by the sudden view on Cwm Eigiau you get when you reach the ridge. 

Llugwy reservoir

Just under the summit selfie; anonymised on request

At the ridge I did feel the cold wind! And I was quite chuffed that the most useful part of the prize I had won the previous day (instead of a silver medal) was a thermal headband. It immediately came in handy!

Distant Dave on a pointy hill

Coming across the leat

We took the slightly swampy way down. But that was okay. I was sure that if I would have been on my own, I wouldn't have done much! I felt a bit zonked. But I was glad that Dave had dragged me out. It's really nice to get a few hill hours in on an unassuming Sunday afternoon! 

Sorting out the guttering

 A few months ago I had noticed a new sound. It came from my flat roof. It sounded like water falling. And a look one rainy afternoon confirmed that. It came from the southern end of the house! There was something with the guttering but I hadn’t been able to see exactly what. I put fixing that on my to do list, but it never reached the top.

Then one day the neighbour knocked. Could I do him a favour? The water falling on my flat roof was also falling on the ground next to it, and eroding out an unwanted depression on his terrain. Could I sort that? And that promoted the chore to somewhere near the top of the to do list.

The morning of the race I had had a closer look. Some guttering was indeed loose. That must have happened when the rendering had been redone! That was SO long ago. I was a bit embarrassed. But it was clear what needed to be done to fix the problem in a way that would do for now: guide the water to the flat roof. Maybe in the long run I would want to guide it all the way down. That would be a bit more work! Maybe I could discuss that with the neighbour. At least I would have to check for the nearest drainage point.

The evening of the race I was celebrating Dave’s birthday. I had felt the race in my system, and not managed to stay upright beyond 11:30. Dave had lasted longer. And that meant he hadn’t got up particularly early! But he had been warned: I had asked him to help me. This is exactly one of those chores that is a lot quicker and less onerous if you do it together. So as soon as we came to my house we set to work. I had got most tools ready!

In five minutes we blitzed that pipe into position. Success! And that was great, as now we could do something enjoyable the rest of the day. It was noon by then, but that left the entire afternoon. A chore I had been postponing for months was off the table! That felt good. And having someone to do it with did too. And the weather was nice…

Fixed!

Steepest Street in the World Race 2023 - triumph!

On the day of the race I woke up with a headache. That was not a good sign! But I took a paracetamol and went about my business.

At 2 o'clock, Marjan appeared. She was going to be my supporter again! And I would drive both of us in the electric vehicle to Harlech. We got there at a good time. Parking was easy, and getting my race number was as well. So I kitted up and we went to the start. I was still wearing two layers I wouldn't be racing in, but that was okay as I could give them to Marjan just before the gun would sound.

We quickly found my colleague Alec as well. At work he had told me he was going to race it too. It is always nice to see familiar faces!

Marjan and me at the start. Picture by Alec

When we were lining up for the start I made sure to be quite far up to the front. I remembered having to weave through quite a lot of people at the start the previous year. And this time, I was actively chasing a podium position! So I didn't want to lose time doing that. Additionally, it was easier to keep track of how many women they were in front of you, if not many people at all were in front of you.

There were more than 100 people racing, and some people started quite fast, so soon after that start it was getting a bit confusing regarding the number of women around. But I realised I was soon overtaking more of them than were overtaking me. This was going quite well! One woman I noticed was even running with a cow bell. I overtook her on the steep bit.And I was breathing quite heavily, but of course I was; I was running up a very steep street. 

Running up that hill

It was a gorgeous day again! It wasn't as warm as the previous year. Then I had been running in a tank top, and this time I had chosen a T-shirt. But the views again were amazing! I was enjoying myself.

Almost at the top! 

When I got to the top I knew I should try to keep my speed up. I knew that there was going to be quite a stretch with a gentle slope down. It is tempting to try to catch your breath after all the way up, but I did not want to lose my pace. I kept pushing. And quite soon I overtook a lady I had been keeping an eye on. She was the only one I was sure of to be in front of me! And I know I am stronger on the way up than the way down, so even if I was the first woman that didn't mean I was going to stay like that, but it would mean the signs were good.

After a while I came to a junction with marshals. One of them commented that I was the first woman. I suspected as much! I was really pleased with that. But in the distance I could hear the occasional clanging of a cow bell. I was being pursued.

We came to the part of the route that sometimes goes up and sometimes down. Quite steadily, I could hear the cowbell coming closer. And a pair of footsteps that was closing in as well. Would that be the lady with the cow bell, and the one I had overtaken just after the top? The answer was no! The footsteps belonged to a man. I was not focused on the men. 

By another junction, the cow bell lady finally overtook me. At quite some pace! I expected as much. Soon after that it got steep. I am not very good at the steep downhill bits. And they had a surprise for us! Unlike last year, they sent us up some rather steep gravel path that late in the race! When you think you only have to go downhill…

In a hairpin bend in the steep part I looked back. There was no runner in sight! That probably meant I would not be overtaken anymore. And that would mean the silver medal! I was excited. I was still careful coming down the steep bit. If you fall on your face there, you might hurt quite a bit.

When the steep bit was over, I accelerated again. A podium place is a good motivator! And when I came thundering towards the finish I was loudly cheered on. And I heard the commentator say I was indeed in second position. I was chuffed! By the finish I found the lady with the cow bell again. I gave her a congratulatory hug. She was gold!

Barely believing my position 

Then I found Marjan. She gave me a hug as well! And then I heard the commentator say the third woman had come in. Both the winner and me went in for an additional hug. All female medallists in a group hug! I thought that was such a nice example of friendly racing spirit.

I then got my jumper and jacket back from Marjan. Now we had to wait for the rest of the runners to come in, and the medals ceremony to start. While we were doing that I heard Alec’s name called. I went to congratulate him too! We had a bit of a chat, and then he went back up the hill to find his family who were waiting for him there.

When the ceremony started, they first did the age category winners. Just one per category. It puzzled me a bit; none of us medal ladies got one. But if we were the fastest three ladies, surely we were also the fastest in our age categories? The winner didn't look like she was in any particular age category (below 40 they don't care about your age), but us silver and bronze ladies sure were. (When the results came in I saw that indeed the bronze lady was in the same category as me.) Never mind! Then they got to the overall female category. I was so proud to stand there!

Picture by Marjan

We also cheered on the first three men. These as well were an under-40 winner with two 40+ runners-up. We oldies are still to be reckoned with! But then it was time to go home. In spite of the two layers I had just put on I was getting chilly. And I had more to do that evening.

When I got home I got my time: 31:45. Or 31:47, depending where you look. That surprised me, as I had done it in 30:13 the previous year, and that was only good for bronze. But the route was slightly different. I suppose that was it! This year’s winners had been slower than last year’s. It might have been that sneaky gravel path. 

I had not been optimistic about this year's race! What with falling ill less than a week beforehand. But the human body is an amazing thing. I don't think I will be able to resist the temptation to register for next year’s race as well. When you really love running up a hill, this really is the race for you! And who wouldn't want to end up in the top three? Who knows if I can do it again!