A United Kingdom Reconaissance

To celebrate the recent unemployment of Mark, we decided a brief sojourn to England and Wales (with the trad rack, of course!) was necessary.

Sadly, we didn't have much time - so it was merely a day or so, here and there, chasing the sunny weather so we could get out climbing as much as possible. Two days at Tremadog, then another two at Gogarth, before popping up and across to the Lakes and finally heading down to Stanage. All washed down with pints of bitter and fish and chips for tea!

A History Lesson

What the Lakes didn't offer in terms of great weather and dry rock. it made up for in abundance with history.

Seeing a plaque by the side of the narrow, winding road we were on, we pulled up to discover a Roman fort ...


Apparently this place used to be home for up to 500 soldiers, and had a granary, offices and a fancy home for the bigwigs. It was surrounded by a stone wall (with four gateways, and a tower on each corner), and just outside it - there was a bathhouse! Complete with sauna, too.

And then later in the day (after our soaking, as discussed in Optimism), we came across a variety of stone circles. Why did they need several of them, all so close to each other?!

Although she's posing here, Jen did let the team down, as she could not be convinced to dance around them naked.

Optimism

Def: Carrying two ropes and a full trad rack, with the aim of climbing at a crag 6km away with 600m in elevation to gain, when you're in the Lakes, the weather is "changeable" and it's already after lunch ...

Shortly after this photo was taken, the heavens opened and the wind became a gale. We were soon soaked.

The wind and rain didn't last long, but by the time it stopped, our desire to keep hiking uphill to find these climbs had somewhat diminished.

Lighthouse Arete

The view from the top

Rappelling down

First pitch, traversing out

Green but not slippery!

Up we come ...

A day at Holyhead Mountain

It had rained in the morning, so we decided against a sea cliff - and there was a crag on the nearby mountain with a selection of fun (and easily accessible and escapeable!) things to climb. This was the view - looking out over the ocean.

Jen is still learning to lead on trad (after how many years?!), but Mark had placed the gear on this route, so she lead it whilst placing a few more bits of her own. A little scary, but Jen got to the top in the end.

Jen then dramatically dropped the grade and lead another route ... placing the gear herself (and lots and lots of it - just for practice, of course!). No dramas there - maybe trad leading isn't as scary as she thought?

Evening was approaching, but there was time for one more ... Mark's lead this time. And a great route, too!

Just in time for sunset from the top.

Bugger!

OK, so our trip to the UK didn't exactly get off to the best start.

As we pay for roadside assistance insurance for all of Europe (ANWB), we thought we'd just make a quick phone call and some lovely person would come along and fix it for us. We called and called and called again. We were promised that someone was on their way and would be there soon.

We waited so long that we eventually decided to fix it ourselves.

We now know how to change one of Fred's tyres. And we've cancelled our roadside assistance insurance!

Waiting

So we've done the "trial run" to Chamonix for a few weeks.

It was so great that we didn't want to go back home! Particularly not when this also meant having to finish up work (booo!) and pack up an apartment. Summer time was ending and the storm clouds were moving in.

It's not all doom and gloom and boxes, however. We've broken up this time with the wedding of good friends (yay!), a trip to Switzerland for Jen (yay!), a trip to Luxembourg for Mark (yay!) and so on. There's also the regular fun stuff, like climbing at the gym, catching up with mates over a biertje or three and enjoying our last days by the canals.

We'll be on the road again soon!