DARTH

Okay, so this is going to be one of those catch up posts that seem to happen round these parts with too much regularity. The main problem I’ve had has been work being rather busy – which isn’t a bad thing, in fact quite the opposite but it has meant motivation for processing photos from our holiday in August and writing posts on here has been rather low. Things are easing up as we are firming up the latest release of our software and I’ve been experimenting with going to the gym of a morning instead of evening with the intention of freeing up more time in the evening after work. Which is just as well as I have plans to get my professional blog up and running as well as starting a photo blog to help me improve my photography skills.

Way back in August we were off on holiday, this year it involved staying in the UK as there were some places we wanted to go to and it tied in nicely with Cropredy. First stop was Tickton in Yorkshire to spend a couple of days with Nina. Of course no sooner had we arrived, but the three of us plus Nina’s pal Jackie were heading back north a bit to Masham for a weekend of camping, drinking Theakstons and a spot of walking. It was an organised thing with a group that Jackie is a member of. We took over the bottom corner of the campsite, and I’m sure there were more tents than should have been there, still we found room for our two. The main event was an evening trip to the Theakston Brewery. Now with most of these sorts of things you get one maybe two beers as part of the tour and then pay for the rest this was not the case. Beer was included all evening no additional monies needed to change hands, either before or after the brewery tour – oh joy of joys. They even let me have go at pouring my own, never having pulled a pint before in my life I thought I did okay. On the Sunday some of us headed off for a walk around the Yorkshire countryside.

We spent a couple of days with Nina back at her place, which allowed us to pop into York for the day. I hadn’t been since I was there with my primary school when I was in Primary 7 – early 1985 I think was when I was there. The greatest find was Rafi’s Spicebox. Freshly handmade mixes for curries, oh boy are they good. When Adele passed back through York in early September she popped back in for more, although they do have an on-line shop – and yes Graham this is place I talked about weeks ago and meant to send you the link. I have started to upload photos from the Yorkshire section, and you can get them here.

Adele, Jackie & Nina

After a lovely time in Yorkshire it was time to continue on our way south. Next stop was to be Banbury our base for the next couple of days before Cropredy. We stopped at Warwick Castle on the way past and it was mobbed, mind you with the schools being on holiday and it being a superb day this was not a surprise. We were a little surprised by all the things going on as we didn’t expect all the living history stuff with guys dressed as knights fighting hand to hand, falconry and a jousting show. Again we showed our skill (dumb luck) in visiting both the best Thai restaurant and best pub (according to our hosts at the B&B anyway). Certainly there were no complaints from us regarding either, in fact the pub even had a string quartet on which proved a great way to end the day. The following day had been planned for quite some time, a trip to Bletchley Park. I was in history buff/geek heaven, Adele enjoyed herself too (I think). We were there for pretty much the whole day, but I still need to go back as not everything was open. That evening we endured a poor Scotland performance as they capitulated to Norway, mind you we had a good laugh with some fellow Scots & Norwegians in the pub we watched it in.

Our next port of call on our tour of the UK was the short trip to Cropredy for the Fairport’s annual gathering. Obviously we had to make pit-stop for food and drink first before picking Graham up off the train. We ended up in Field 7 this year, which was slow going as we ended up having to get through the village first. We know better for next year though and will likely come at it from the other side. The festival was again brilliant fun and the weather was dry (save for some light spots of rain one morning). There were many highlights over the weekend and not too many lowlights. Whereas last years surprise was Robert Plant was a secret until he took to the stage, this year not so and everyone pretty much knew Yusuf (the man formerly known as Cat Stevens) was to be a guest along with Fairport during their set. Boy was he good and adding to the other stars of the weekend including (but not limited to) Ade Edmondson & the Bad Shepherds,  Dreadzone and Seth Lakeman. The weekend flew by all too quickly and unfortunately we were brought back down to earth with a bit of a bump as we headed back to Banbury to drop Graham off at the station. Unfortunately we got a puncture and despite our best efforts we couldn’t get the wheel nuts off so a call to the RAC and some quick flagging down of a taxi so Graham could catch his train were in order. Thankfully Graham made his train and we didn’t have to wait too long and we were soon on our way back to Banbury and Kwik Fit first instead of the planned Tesco visit for some supplies. We were soon back on the road though and on our way to Wales. Cropredy pictures are here.

Our trip to Wales was split into north & south with the intention of some coastal walking in the south round the Gower Peninsula then up to Snowdonia with the intention of doing some hill walking. First up though was the Gower. After camping at a festival we’d figured at least one night in a hotel would be the best option (the rest of the week was camping as well). We opted to stay one night in the Mumbles. It was really lovely wee place and the owners at the hotel (Little Langland Hotel) we were staying were really nice. In fact we ended up chatting away to them and some locals in the hotel bar before we headed off out for dinner, we actually ended up in there longer than intended. Following the owners recommendation we went to a Mediterranean restaurant for dinner, it was indeed a good choice.

Before heading to the camp site (Pitton Cross) we’d be staying at for the next couple of days we thought we’d get in a couple of walks en route. As is often the case with us things didn’t go quite to plan on that front. The first walk started out fine, but then at a critical point we somehow managed to end up on a different path to the one we should have been on and ended up going through an overgrown area. We followed the signposts and the directions we had on the walk guide so something wasn’t quite right. As the second part of the walk had taken us away from the coast we decided that the next one we would just double back at the point it turned away so we could continue walking along the coast. We continued along the coast looking for the start of the next walk, we thought we’d found it but once we’d got our bearings and picked out the landmarks it seemed we hadn’t, still the walk we did was very nice. Once the tent was pitched, we’d explored a bit around the camp site and we’d cooked tea (red wine risotto with some local sausages) we settled down to enjoy the evening sunshine and just chill. The following day we spent the whole day over at Rhossili Bay. We got there early enough to catch the low tide so we could walk all the way out to Worms Head. After a snack we then walked over Rhossili Down, before sauntering back along the beach. It was a great way to spend the day. Although we’d planned on perhaps heading a bit further up the coast to get another walk in as well, in the end we were glad we didn’t.

That was the end of our time in the Gower and the next day we were on our way to north Wales, to a camp site just outside Caernarfon. The weather had taken a turn for the worse on the drive up, and the forecast did not look good for the next couple of days. Luckily we got the tent up in the dry but we had to come up with some Heath Robinson affair to keep the rain off the food while cooking, we managed it though. The poor weather changed our plans somewhat. We had hoped to get up Snowdon but neither of us fancied the walk up in the rain coming back to the tent with no way of getting everything properly dry – just gives us a good excuse to go back. To be fair a visit to Portmeirion was always on the cards, me being a fan of the The Prisoner and all. It rained on the way there although it did stop when we got there and even brightened up a bit. In fact when we got back to Caernarfon it had turned into a lovely day (although it did look rubbish over the hills). We had a look round the ruins of the Roman fort before spending some time in the town. Our last full day in Wales started in a similar vein, being dull & grey but we’d already decided against heading up Snowdon based on the forecast. Instead we headed off to explore a copper mine, do a spot of shopping and spend a large chunk of the day at Caernarfon Castle. Photos will be forthcoming over the next little while – I’ll post to indicate when I’ve got them up to flickr.

Looking back on what was a packed fortnight it was great fun. We were blessed with some glorious weather for the most part. We will go back to Wales at some point – well we never went up Snowdon. Mind you we would likely do it differently next time as we effectively lost a day in the middle of the week we were there driving north. We enjoyed the camping for a change. Our three new investments were definitely worth it – our new tent which we needed for the porch on it, the air bed (well we were car camping after all) and the best of all the Trangia stove.