Supporting Epilepsy Action Blog

Walking in Snowdonia

I spent this last weekend enjoying glorious summer weather in North Wales, staying in the Swallow Falls YHA just outside Betws-Y-Coed with Shaun and Steve - both also going on the Magnetic North Pole Expedition next year.

After arriving late on Friday night, we set out for the car park at Pen-Y-Pass at 8.30am, but as suspected it was already full and we had to park a mile down the hill.  Regardless we started our attempt on the Crib Goch route up to Snowdon by 9am - the highest peak in Wales at 1,085 meters (about 3,500 feet).  There are a number of routes up Snowdon - including the popular "Pyg Track" which is a well established fairly easy walk with steps for the last steep section.  Of course, you can also get the train!  The Crib Goch ascent however is a real scramble - "three point" climbing with a jagged ridge requiring good balance and a pretty good head for heights.

We made a good ascent to the top in time for a lunch enjoying the spectacularly clear views on offer, descending down the opposite ridge across the West and East Peaks, to drop down onto the Miners Track.  This route is known as the "Horse Shoe" and gives the best views of the entire region of Snowdonia.

On Sunday in equally spectacular weather, we parked by Llyn Ogwen and climbed Tryfan to the North of Snowdon.  Again this was technically quite challenging and at around 980 meters is not much smaller than Snowdon.  Again we were rewarded with spectacular views, and treated ourselves to an easy amble down by 2.30pm, to start the long drive home.

Here's hoping for equally great weather on the rest of our weekends away this summer...!

Thames Path - Twickenham to Fulham

Left work slightly early yesterday and met a good friend at Twickenham Station in South West London at 6pm, for a walk back to Fulham along the Thames Path.  Since our original evening plans involved Soho, Chinese food and beer, I was thankful for good weather!

The Thames Path is a well sign-posted walk that goes from Oxford right down through London to Greenwich, around 150 miles.  As the crow flies it's much shorter, but with the weaving of the Thames it's probaby around double the distance.

In 3.5 hours we covered around 14 miles with the sun setting behind us.  It was lovely to see parts of London which are so close and yet such a contrast to City life.  We walked through beautiful Parks I never knew existed, past canals and house boats which look 100 years old, and saw locks and pubs nestled in quiet green Utopias minutes away from one of the busiest roads in the UK - the A4/M4!  We made Fulham in time for a well-deserved pub dinner with pints of Guinness!

I'm looking forward to exploring more of the Thames Path over the coming weeks and months, and would recommend it to anyone with a few days, or even hours to kill.

And for the record, I'm feeling fine today, and still looking forward to the Jersey Itex 50 mile walk in June!

Training Updates...

I spent some of the bank holiday looking through the diary and planning out one weekend a month dedicated to training for the North Pole.  I'm also looking at organised events like runs and walks that give me some fixed bench marks to aim for, and break up the monotony of training over the next 12 months.

The first training weekend is at the end of May, and although we haven't planned anything yet, depending on who can make it and what the weather is looking like, will probably involve mountains in the Lake District or Wales.

My first organised run is a 10km in July - although I'm looking for a 10km earlier than that - with more 10kms and the Great North Run (half marathon) at the end of September.

In a spasm of (slightly deluded) inspiration I've also signed up to the "Itex Walk" in Jersey on Saturday 20th June.  This is a 50 mile walk around the coastline of Jersey starting at 3am.  I registered, booked my flight and hotel all in the space of 10mins, then considered what I'd done - 50 miles is a long way!  It's 25 miles from my house in London to Maidenhead, so given that I have a vacant rental property out there, will punish myself in the next two weeks by getting the train out and walking back.  Will let you know how it goes...

On a lighter note, I've also signed up (and signed up most of my office in the process) to abseil down Earls Court as part of a Leukemia Research charity event, also in June.  I'm not anticipating abseiling in the Arctic, but when the option is placed in front of you - like walking around Jersey, or an Expedition to the Magnetic North Pole - you just get that gut instinct and have to run with it, or regret it for the rest of your life!