So the expedition officially started early on Thursday morning when Bianca came to my house to pick me up, stood around for a bit while I panicked into my two full bin bags and then took me to Queen's Road. Once we were there, we headed to the back rooms to do all our packing and sorting out our stuff. A couple of hours later we were being loaded into the minibus and we set off for Wales. Other than a quick break at Oswestry ("All the girls standing in a line for the baathroom") we pretty much spent the whole journey sleeping or listening to music.
We got to the bunkhouse that we were staying out at some point in the late afternoon, and after quickly dropping our stuff in our rooms, went on a quick trip into Bala (the town we were staying in) to buy Jaffa Cakes - in case we didn't like any of the food that we were having that evening. After eating the aforementioned Jaffa Cakes and playing a couple of rounds of cards, it was time for tea. We all trooped into their dining room and sat down to a three-course meal of vegetable soup, pasta bake with garlic bread and chocolate cake. A progression from a bit horrible (my fault, not the soup's) to pretty good to really, really nice. Unfortunately no normal human could finish the cake on top of everything else, despite how nice it was lol. If only we could've eaten it in the opposite order hahha.
After eating I went to bed for a bit, until I realised just how many spiders there surrounding my bed. I have a phobia of spiders, I'm not just a bit creeped out by them. I managed to kill most of the littler ones with lots of scrunched up tissues, then spotted a pretty big one right over where my feet were. Not really being able to cope with that one, I asked Rachael and Jess to sort it out and went outside to calm myself down. After a quick conversation with Packwood and an introduction to Duke the dog, the all-clear was sounded and I went back to our room to get ready to see our assessor (whose name is pronounced 'De-wi', though I've no idea how it's spelt) We went to meet him, and he seemed pretty laid back, so it looked like we might get through this expedition after all. Then I went for a shower. Now, the showers in this place were a bit tricky, as the doors on them were practically see-through lol. However, I wasn't quite prepared to spend five days without washing my hair so a compromise was necessary. Jess came up with the idea of using one of the bright orange waterproof Survival Bags (which you're supposed to use in emergencies lol) as a shower curtain. Fortunately, this worked quite well , so we just asked the boys to stay out of the bathrooms (they were kind enough to comply) and tried to be as quick as possible. Soon I was clean, dry and dressed, and I watched Mock the Week in the boy's room (which had a TV), before heading to bed. I had a good night's sleep, other than the boys running around to our room at some point in the night to - get this - knock on our door (I know, how hilarious) and accidentally breaking a photo frame on the way out. Which they didn't even apologise to the owners about. Cowards.
We got up the next day at about 5:30, and were up, dressed and fed before the boys even woke up (at about 7) and spent about an hour and a half chatting and mooching around. By 8:30 we set off on a bumpy ride in the minibus. I don't know if it was the minibus or if it was because I read some of the place names on the map, but by the time we came to our starting point I was beginning to feel very, very sick. So ill that I was starting to wonder what it would be like if I tried to do my gold expedition with next year's group (a very unappealing idea), but after an hour or so I was feeling much better - though I don't know if that was because of the fresh air or just 'cause I was so determined not to walk with the silvers hahh . Friday weather was absolutely miserable, and the fact that we had a full day of walking with rucksacks didn't make it any easier. What we were supposed to be doing was walking about 4km in the wrong direction along some train tracks, to go and have a look at a quarry from a distance. Had the weather been nice, this would have been a very pleasant walk, seeing as railways are always flat. However not only had the track been turned into some sort of river due to the rain, but it was too foggy to be able to see a couple of metres away, never mind over to where the quarry was. So we gave up about two thirds of the way and turned back again, realising that it wasn't going to get much better.
We went through the ruins of Rhiw Bach and Cwm Penmachno Quarries, stopping for a lunch of sausage rolls and pasties at the top of Cwm Quarry. A steep climb down and a quick look around in Cwm Penmachno later, we were heading to Penmachno (where we were camping) along the road, because the field route was likely to be too boggy due to the weather. Now you may remember, if you read my last blog post, that in March I walked along the road to Penmachno with Hypothermia. Thankfully, this time the experience was much more pleasant. We eventually got to our campsite and put up our three tents (which in total could have fit about twelve people in at a squeeze!) then went down to the bus shelter to go have some food. After that I went back to get changed, and we played cards again. The lo and behold, Toby arrived! Toby was joining us for our final because Ashley dropped out and he felt that we needed someone to keep an eye on Jack. Or you could say that he was walking with us because Graham pretty much forced him to. Either one. The rest of Friday was pretty uneventful, and we all went to bed at a fairly reasonable time.
We woke up to light showers on Saturday, and full of hope that I might catch a glimpse of some blue sky, I headed down to the portaloos at about 6am singing "Yellow Submarine" to the watchful sheep of the next field. Half an hour or so later I was in some clean clothes, with hair done and makeup freshly applied in time to help get started with breakfast. We were having sausages for breakfast, with the early risers getting two and the lazy bones (Jack) just getting the one. Unfortunately it was raining a little heavier when Rachael started to cook, so we had to get the good old survival bag out and use it as an umbrella of sorts. We all ate and finished packing daysacks etc. and it was soon time to go to the mine! We were meeting in Cwm Penmachno for about 10:30, I think, and we weren't taking the road this time. So we trekked through the boggy fields for a little while, stopped for a quick photo at the village welcome sign and met Graham and Ed (our guide person) by the quarry, though they were both late.
We got our over-sized wellies on (much of the mine had a river running through it) and headed up this massive hill to get to the entrance of the mine. The entrance itself was a tiny little door hidden away in a forest on a hillside, but we managed to find it and get through it once it was unlocked. We stomped through the river of the mine with our headlamps on, paying vague attention to the patterns in the rock etc. We went into lots of little cave/room things and Ed the guide told us lots of facts and things about the people who made them. Then there was one part where we had to all pile into this rubber boat thing (which, by the way, had a hole in it) and float over a ten metre deep lake, hoping that the person opposite you wouldn't move enough that you would topple overboard and suddenly remember that you aren't actually all that amazing at swimming - and what if there are piranhas living in Welsh mines? It was a scary moment to say the least, although a moment almost equally scary was when we all had to hold onto a bit of rope and scuttle across this tiny ledge (the photos don't really show how steep and slippery the rest of the rock was). The ledge was, of course, right over another piranha infested lake thing (okay, right, no piranhas in Wales. But what if..)
But other than Bianca having a bit of a scare (she slipped and took three people with her, but they were all tied to the rope so it was okay), the scary bits were crossed pretty much uneventfully. Not long afterwards there was a really cool bit where we walked up a waterfall for a while, stopping to explore a couple more rooms, then carrying on up right until we hit daylight. We climbed out of the tiny little door and sat on the side of a hill for lunch, before ignoring Graham's weird and complicated instructions (which were given to Toby, who wasn't even officially supposed to be there) and going along our original route back to Cwm Penmachno again.
We stopped to go to the park, for swings and slides are a remedy for all, before going along our long and unpleasant journey over the hills and far away. The worst thing about walking up the side of a valley, is being able to see quite clearly how much further you'd be if you'd done the sane thing and walked down the middle instead. Nevertheless, we continued our expedition across the side of the valley and enjoyed the riveting discussion that Jack provided. Jack Foulks has downs syndrome, which means that he can be quite a difficult member of or group to get along with. It seemed the only way to deal with him on a short term basis was to take all in good humour, so that's what we did. With conversation spanning from his desire to become a fat stripper, to smashing people's head in with a crowbar, to marrying Beth, I can't say that he wasn't one of the more amusing people I've spoken to recently. Time flew by, and a little while later (after a couple of mishaps with barbed wire and waterproof trousers) we were back to campsite where we pretty much lazed about all evening lol. We had pasta with vegetable sauce for tea (that's right kids, I ate vegetable sauce) and then set about the task of forcing Jack to do the washing up. We'd already made him do all the stuff we'd left from breakfast, but there was a lot more to do now and it took three people (Rachael, Toby and I) to get him to do it all properly. While we were up there he started to talk about Beth (who he had something of a crush on) and he told us all that he was going to marry her, by offering her her own bowl as a replacement for an engagement present. He stayed true to his word and once he'd finished washing up he marched right down to the campsite and got down on one knee.
Beth turned him down, as she has in fact got a boyfriend who would probably be less than impressed, but Jack went into his tent and refused to come out until she said yes. We persuaded her that he knew it wasn't serious, and so she finally accepted. Unfortunately the whole relationship (if you can call it that) went downhill when Jack's engagement gift to Beth was the sausage rolls that he was supposed to have for lunch the day before but hadn't been able to find in his rucksack. She broke up with him shortly after he started throwing bits of sausage roll across the field.
This went on for a bit longer, but I eventually got tired (it was getting on for half past ten, and it's pretty impossible to catch a lie-in when camping) and clambered into our tent, trying not to wake up Jess. We had a slower morning for Sunday, which was nice. We were getting up and going to a local church, which was apparently full of hippies (we were warned by Toby, who had been before). We were supposed to do some exploring and then go to meet Graham, but seeing as we pretty much knew the area backwards we decided to skip the exploring and spent a bit longer on breakfast before meeting him. He led us up some massive hill only to find out that the service was actually being held in the valley, but we managed to get to the church in time for a round of "Jehovah Jireh" (featuring the sophistication of a man with a guitar and an OHP) with a communion of shortbread biscuits and orange squash replacing the traditional bread and wine.
After the service we were allowed to stay for tea and chocolate biscuits (the latter of which I managed to snag two) then we went for lunch in the bus shelter. After eating we went to check out some old church that Graham had been going on about for ages, it was called "St. Tudclud's " and the most interesting thing about it was some old Roman Tombstone in it or something. I think Rachael has a photo, in case you're as fascinated as we were lol. After this we needed to fill a couple of hours with walking, but seeing as the route we were supposed to take led from the place that the church service was supposed to be, it was decided that we should make up a new one.
I know, it was a bit of a doss day to be honest. But we did all the walking and still had time to play in the Penmachno park when we came back, which we did. Lots of fun (and complaints of being stuck in slides) later, we realised that Jack had hurt his foot. On closer inspection it seemed that he had ripped part of his toenail off and that it was starting to bleed. Now, nobody can deny that Jack could be described as an attention-seeker, and soon after the incident his appearance seemed permanently plastered with what I nicknamed his 'pain face'. He insisted that he couldn't walk anymore, and Toby had to give him a piggy-back to the bus stop. We sat in the bus stop, amusedly watching the 'pain face' and waiting for Graham. He arrived eventually to take us to yet another church. Some woman (Hazel?) had bought it because she didn't want it to be knocked down and had instead been using it to store the rubbish that she couldn't fit into her house. Once we were inside, it was clear that this woman really was just filling the place with crap. Graham asked us a couple of questions about the church, of which I tried to answer two (but was bluntly ignored). Later, he started to ask for suggestions for the approach that the village could take to be a successful, thriving community without becoming another tourist spot. I tried to give my suggestion, and was constantly ignored - which was really irritating. I gave up on trying to communicate with the old man and decided that a breath of fresh air might be a bit more exciting that the horrendously dull conversation that they were continuing inside. I sat on the front steps of the church for about ten or fifteen minutes, watching a tiny orange spider running around on a pavement slab, wondering how the other groups were doing, and how angry they'd be if they saw me sitting on a step while they climbed up mountains and such.
Eventually everyone came out of the church, and I managed not to let Graham notice that I hadn't been inside. We took a photo and went up to the campsite for the night. That evening was another fairly lazy one, and we didn't do much other than make an OXO drink for Jack (I didn't even know they existed) and watched as he literally shuffled to the loos, occasionally turning back to check that we were watching and pulling his pain face at us. He soon got his act together when his parents arrived though, and was only limping slightly when he returned with them (although the pain face, unfortunately, was still making itself known).
The evening passed in a fairly sleepy manner, and although Bianca and Rachael decided to visit the top of the hill with Toby, most of us were in bed fairly early that evening, ready to get the last day over and done with. We got up quite quickly and efficiently in general on Monday, which was a nice change. It was a walking day, but we were only taking a fairly straightforward route from Penmachno to Ysbyty Ifan, which is where Graham lives. The walk itself was fairly unpleasant due to the steepness of the hills we were climbing, and Beth was having a lot of trouble with her knees. But it wasn't too long and we were at the park by Graham's house by about half past one. As we had already tried out the swings and slides of the villages we had visited, it seemed only right that we should sample those of Ysbyty Ifan too. For some reason, however, they're all fairly similar (though Penmachno was definitely my favourite) heh. After lunch in the park, we had to go and visit some old mill, which has been converted into a bridal shop. But although the majority of us were girls, the old mill failed to grab our attention. It was a hot day, our feet hurt, and all we wanted to do was sleep in the sunshine. Then Graham made us go on some pointless little trip to go and find where the water for the mill was coming from. So we ambled down a pointless road, to find some pointless thing, and all the way just complained about how pointless it was.
However we were rewarded when we returned, as Graham said we could all go for a quick paddle in the river. After warning everyone about my legs not being shaved for the past four days, I soon joined them in rolling up my trousers and hoping to stay overall pretty dry. We all found dry bits of rock to sit on and watched as Toby went off on some adventure to a different part of the river - I'm not really sure what his aim was, but we were all really hoping that he'd fall in. We were not disappointed, he did eventually fall in, but I think the fact that he was completely soaked made him notice more that the rest of us were dry lol. I nearly got away with staying dry, but they all noticed me at the last minute, and I got thoroughly wet.
I fetched my towel out of my rucksack and dried off as much of myself as I could, trying not to pay too much attention to the sunshine lines that seemed to be happening on my shoulders. We then went to Graham's living room and chatted about the high/low points of the expedition, whilst eating cake and Pringles and generally bringing our sugar levels back to their normal happy high places. After this, we all went outside to finish off drying our clothes in the sun before getting in the minibus.
Once in the minibus, we quickly stopped only to buy ice-creams and to pick up the other groups (who all looked about as tired and unattractive as us), and then got well on our way to Coventry. Half way through the journey we had the usual break at Oswestry to visit Burger King, but I pretty much fell asleep after that and didn't really wake up properly until someone said that we were in Coventry.
So there you are, my last ever DofE adventures. That's all for now folks xxx
