After retiring but still spending money in the same (reckless) manner, I have recently started to reign in a bit (lot), sort out some pensions and cancel stuff I no longer need.
This is unlikely to be the holiday Sue wanted but we have decided to utilise all the camping gear that we bought a couple of years ago and have never used.
Sunday morning, I took the dogs to thee kennels ready for their week away from home, returned and proceeded to load up the car with the aforementioned camping equipment.
We left home just after ten for a journey that, according to Google, would take about three and a half hours. We were booked into our campsite for three so would have to kill a bit of time en route.
Oddly, Google, took us along the A5, avoiding the M6, before branching off through the humourously named Knockin (with it’s local shop imaginatively called the Knockin Shop) before heading for the hills and dropping down near Lake Vernwy and Bala.
To kill that time that we needed to do, and after checking t’internet, we decided on stopping at the Lake Bala Railway for a loo stop, drinks and, of course, a ride on the little train.
The weather took
We purchased our tickets, got into the front of the coach directly behind the engine (Holy War) as the very dirty fireman, who was a woman, and the almost spotless driver (you can see who does most of the work) climbed onto the loco and we were away.
We definitely experienced the atmosphere of the railway as a lot of the smoke and soot was blowing in. It couldn’t have been too bad as Sue was seen to smile and I have photographic evidence (see exhibit, right).
Because of the timetable, we had driven to the far end, Llanuwchllyn, so were now in Bala. Actually, we were near Bala as the railway stops short of the town. However, there are plans afoot to take to railway into it’s namesake.
After a short turnaround, we chugged back to Llanuwchilyn where we did a quick SideTracked cache before returning to our journey West.
We returned to Bala (by car) then headed for the hills overlooking the Tryweryn valley. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was on with, firstly the wiper and then front and rear fogs as we climbed into the clouds.
As we crossed the summit, the fog cleared and it was dry and clear all the way to our destination, just the other side of Criccieth.
We are staying at the Camping and Caravan Club site where we were welcomed by the warden and shown to our pitch.
Then came the fun part as we had never erected this tent but it went up surprisingly well. Being a blow-up design was a great help and the tent was up in around forty minutes.
Then we spent a similar time getting all of the crap that goes with camping stashed away inside.
I was about to start cooking the evening meal when Sue declared, “You know what else we’ve forgotten?”. I’ll get to the others later. She continued, “Something to light the gas”.
Not wanting a sandwich, I was dispatched to find a local takeaway but a drive to and around Cricceth revealed nothing but I stopped at the local Spar and bought drinks and a box of matches.
Back at base camp, ready to cook dinner, I turned on the gas, opened the stove and discovered the piezo-electric ignition !
A little later than planned, we were sitting down to fish and rice. Once we’d worked out how to light the stove, it worked quite well.
What else did we/I forget ?
- Sue’s Earrings
- Sue’s Nightie
- Spanner for the gas bottle (I managed to borrow some grips from a fellow camper).