Wight Weirdos

The Gibson Family Blog

Up The Mountain – Snowdon Day 2

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I had decided before we went that I would walk up the tourist route not any route involving things with names like the horseshoe (with a narrow ridge and sheer drops) or similar. However, once I had walked up to the waterfalls the day before on the start of the innocuous sounding Watkins Path and seen that the climb looked steady on Pete’s map, I decided I would join everyone else going up the Watkins path and perhaps take the tourist route (or even the train) back. I also thought if I was finding it too hard I would turn back rather than feel like I needed to get to the top.

  

  

It all started off just fine – the path was wide and although steep in places it was fine. I didn’t even hold the group up – I wasn’t even at the back! I also found that my muscles weren’t aching and although I was getting out of breath I recovered quickly. The walking we have been doing regularly since our Cornwall trip must have paid off.

  

  

I started to believe I might actually get to the top – in fact I was starting to feel that coming down would be much worse, I don’t come downhill well and it was quite steep and a bit wet in places. I was loving my walking poles and also loving my walking boots.

  

Then we came to the scree – this was the point where I had initially thought I would go back – but I didn’t really fancy heading back the way we came and the scree was relatively short and I thought if I could just manage it then I could always take the train back. Besides I had started to feel like I had got this far I jolly well wanted to get to the bloomin’ top! I was really surprised by feeling like this because before we had started I really wasn’t bothered and I just wanted a nice walk, now I really wanted to get there (and beside I didn’t want to go back down).

I struggled up the scree, Martin helped me lots and my poles were now more of a help than a hindrance. At this point I was starting to hold people up. It took me a long time and I found the scrambling in the scree very hard but I did it, all the while telling Martin there was no way I was coming back this way! I was definitely slow on this bit and really admired my friend carrying her baby on her back. I was also interested to notice that Jonathan, who had been flagging on the steady walk up, did absolutely fine on this part but he also was not keen to come back over the scree.

  

The weather had been reasonably clear up to this point but now the visibility was really reduced and it was getting cold. We all regrouped outside the cafe and headed up the stairs to the very top in dribs and drabs, drank hot chocolate from the cafe and munched our sandwiches.

The general opinion was that going back down the scree field wasn’t a good ides so we’d go back by the southern ridge instead. I knew I was going to be much slower going down but decided to give this a try. The group decided to split in two with a faster group consisting of most of the teenagers and a couple of adults and the slower group with the smaller boys and most of the adults and the baby. Rebekah kindly stayed with us to keep an eye on the 10 year olds as she knew I wouldn’t be able to do that and that Martin would be helping me.

  

I needed a lot more help from Martin coming down and the poles seemed to be either absolutely essential or a complete pain. Most of it wasn’t too bad but there were quite a few places where I had to slither on my bum! It was worth it the views were amazing.

  

  

My knee started to hurt quite a lot on the way down but I managed it.

I managed it – I couldn’t believe the sense of satisfaction I had at the end – I was so proud of myself not only had I got up Snowdon but I had done it up one of the harder parts and I hadn’t felt completely unfit doing it either. Fantastic.

   

  

The teenagers hadn’t had enough with just climbing a mountain, they then went swimming in the pools at the bottom of the waterfalls – Ruth was particularly delighted to do this as she has wanted to do some wild swimming for ages. They also went for a little walk in the evening – youth is an amazing thing!

  

I went and did some hospital visiting in the evening and then came back to a lovely curry and a game of cards. My friend said she would give the day a 9 1/2 out of 10 and only not 10/10 because of the friend in hospital. I couldn’t agree with this more – it was one of the best days of my life even if my knee was hurting and my hips were aching. A great sense of achievement, the company of good friends, good food and playing cards – what a wonderful day.

 

Busy Week

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We’re just back from a mainland trip – as an aside when my children produce children of their own I want to opt for Granny Island as preferred name, talking about the mainland always makes me think of Katie Morag. There will be more detail later but here is an overview.

We started with Martin’s Dad’s retirement service and bun fight.

 Then a trip to Snowdonia with some HE friends.

Then back to Martin’s parents to help with their house move – Jonathan and I skived off to visit the Fishbourne Roman Villa instead.

 

Then Ruth, Jonathan and I dashed home and I dashed straight out again to the Lovely Lucy’s hen night.

Then Ruth and I spend a whole 5 hours on Friday making and icing cupcakes.

And then Saturday ended our week with Rick and Lucy’s wedding.

Lovely Longleat Weekend

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Going back a few weeks now (still catching up from our holiday) we spent a lovely weekend away with my family. My sister had booked a lovely self-catering place for the weekend with plenty of space for all 8 of us.

We started off with a lovely luxurious evening at Bath Spa with just a little stretching of the truth to get Rebekah and Ruth in. I have wanted to go to the rooftop spa since I saw some lovely photos my friend posted from her trip there. No cameras allowed so no photos, but it was lovely sitting outside with the rain falling but being very very warm, the steam rooms were a bit hot for me but the pool downstairs was great too.

The next day we were out to Longleat and had a brilliant time – we were hoping to use a mix of Tesco Vouchers and Blue Peter Cards but unfortunately we could no longer combine the offers so we were there courtesy of Jane’s Tesco Vouchers! I’d forgotten quite what a brilliant day we’d had until I looked at the photos again.

We risked the monkey enclosure – I think the kids were disappointed that a monkey didn’t tear off our aerial! I loved feeding the deer.

  

  

 We all enjoyed the beautiful birds landing on us.

  

  

Jonathan was particularly keen to see the wolves and the sea lions. The wolves because he wants to either become a falconer or else go to Norway and catch a wolf that he can train and then take to Japan where he is going to live with his friend eating sushi and training as a ninja! The sea lions because he has seen them on Roar. Mum seemed to like them too. None of the kids would stick their heads through the cartoon thing but Jane and Jonathan did.

  

  

There were scary snakes and spiders and beautiful butterflies.

  

  

Jane and Rebekah snuck onto the 14 and unders play equipment.

  

We finished the day with watching the falconry show – which was brilliant.

  

We’d had a great day and then went back to the house and had another lovely meal prepared for us by Jonathan – it was a real treat to have so many nice meals and not to have to do any of the cooking!

We had a brilliant time away, great food, activities and company.

Cornwall Holiday – Port Isaac

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So moving on from the Eden Project we headed via Bodmin to Port Isaac. We had very specific instructions on how to get the car up the road to the cottage. When we got there we realised why the road was exceedingly narrow and personally I don’t think I would have managed to get up there, martin however possesses better driving skills than mine and managed it. We all decided that we would not bring the car back again (there was a parking space but it was a 10 min walk away) until the morning we were packing up!

  

Compared to Helford Passage this was a metropolis, there were cafes, tourist shops, pubs, hotels and even a Co-op.

We still aimed to do very little, but with more access to ice cream and fudge!

We’d bought some very yummy looking bread from the Eden project so that featured in our food choices for the next couple of days, the rools with home-made burger were brilliant but the focaccia despite looking gorgeous was too salty and rather slimy around the holes – Ruth’s was much better!

  

We adored Port Isaac, there were lovely walks and we discovered the next port along had a lovely little bay you could walk down to, from the cliff path, at low tide.

  

  

 

As we discovered this on an evening stroll we were not clothes for splashing about but the kids did anyway.

They did manage to get completely drenched.

We had a couple of lovely days out and spent the rest of the time mooching, walking, playing cards and more chilling!

  

  

Cornwall Holiday – The Eden Project

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Moving on from our week at Helford Passage we were going to Port Isaac via the Eden Project. After much research we decided that paying for a prebooked gift aided ticket for the grown ups and Blue Peter Cards for the kids was the way to go.

We packed up at the cottage early and got on our way on what must have been the hottest day of the year. We arrived and discovered that Jonathan had not taken any notice of the hot weather and was in tracksuit and long sleeved top – so we needed to unpack half the car to find some shorts and a T-shirt!

Walking to the domes:

  

  

I was very impressed with these tea poems and plan to have a go at writing my own – click on the photos to see them larger.

 

We didn’t spend long outside as it was sweltering and I don’t do well in the heat. So we entered the domes. As we went into the tropical biome I really wished we had taken the girls here at the start of their environmental management course as they could have experienced some of the conditions they had learned about.

The Tropical Dome:

  

  

It was so hot and humid in the dome – over 40 degrees and hight humidity – so we couldn’t go on the viewing platform.

We came out into the relative cool of the cafe and bought a very expensive very sharp lemonade and a very good value very delicious pastry and salad.

  

Slightly cooled down we headed to the Mediterranean biome.

I had printed off a worksheet that I gave Jonathan the option of doing – it was not a successful venture as we couldn’t find half the stuff and everyone was a bit grumpy due to the heat by then!

  

  

 Then it was back into the outdoor heat:

  

  

We managed to find some more indoor activities and get out of the sun for a bit.

  

 We were too hot to hang about in the grounds and went out vis the shop – we resisted the urge to buy many herbs and notebooks but succumbed to a necklace and some lovely looking bread. Then we headed out to Port Isaac and another lovely week in Cornwall. If I didn’t live in the Isle of Wight I really think that Cornwall would be the place I’d love to live.