And so to North Wales where a motley cavalcade of near MOT failures loomed out of the night to the Bryn Gwynant Hostel near Bedgellert.  Everyone seemed to have a good journey there on the Friday and thanks to those who arrived early to collect the keys.

Saturday was a beautifully clear day, with lovely sunshine and dark blue skies, the light really brought out the pretty contrasting colours on the hills and brightened the reflections in the lakes and made the whole of North Wales look like a picture postcard, especially with Snowdon being the only mountain topped with snow in the middle! So with this stunning weather everyone quickly made plans for their destinations for the day and set off relatively early. 

After leaving Nick's car at the Pen-y-Pass, Clare, Nick, Andrew, Matt F, Ian, Juliet, John B and friends all set off from the hostel on a splendid walk up the Watkin Path.  The weather was so warm that most ended up just wearing just T-shirts for the ascent, and at the top were rewarded with splendid views whilst sitting on the small patch of snow where they stopped to each their sandwiches.  On the decent John B decided that climbing Snowdon only once in a day wasn't enough, so he sped off on his own down the Pyg Track last seen heading-off towards Crib Goch whilst the others merrily trotted down the Miners Track to Nick's awaiting car. The initial party had consisted of four people but his had swollen to eight by the time they hit Pen-y-Pas. Luckily Nick and Clare had their bikes in the car so they gleefully whizzed down the mountain back to the hostel while Ian piloted the rest of them down in Nick's car, giving the cyclists a cheery honk as he narrowly missed clipping them with a wing mirror.

Rob M, Katie, Rob J, Matt F, Pete, Steiner and Camilla did the full ubiquitous (sic) Snowdon Horse Shoe route and as Camilla was slowing towards the end the rest of the party left Steiner with a head torch and told them they'd meet them at the restaurant as the car was parked at the pub.  Katie apparently didn't realise she'd been up Snowdon until that evening!  Maybe next time, she should perhaps be forced to navigate!  So a quick pint was in order at the end of their day before going back to pick them up.  Such caring hosts - doh!  Katie's friends went up the Pyg track and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Meanwhile, Hilary and Simon went to the Coed y Brenin, the dedicated mountain bike trail centre and cycled most of the Karrimor route that was quite punishing.  They missed off one section because it was a loop of almost entirely uphill cycling (NB.This is impossible unless the route is like an Escher painting. ed.), as denoted by the grumpy face symbols on the map and having cycled a fair few grumpy face inclines already, Hilary felt that was enough misery for one day and opted to cut across to a downhill bit instead to restore the smiles to their faces.  They both fell off!  But Simon's was more impressive as he went head first over the handlebars and emerged with a mud splattered face but thankfully no broken limbs.  He didn't see Hilary's tumble into a bed of brambles though!  Being in the lead at that point, she had time to pick out the thorns and pretended she had just stopped to adjust her saddle by the time Simon caught up.  Neither of them came close to AG's 'boy leaves bike in spectacular fashion' record though.  Must try harder!

That evening, after ascertaining that John B had only walked down Snowdon in the dark and hadn't been benighted, his absence explained by the fact he'd gone to visit friends in Llanberis, most went to the Bryn Tyrch for supper and a few pints of ale and to rest their feet.  The others had supper in Bedgellert and ended the evening with a raucous game of Trivial Pursuit back at the hostel.

On the Sunday, Simon, Hilary, Pete, John B and friends hiked up Cnicht which is Welsh for 'knight's pointy helmet' which refers, predictably, to the mountain's shape. It was a very attractive climb, not spectacularly high at round about 800 metres, but high enough to offer the most wonderful views on what was a gorgeous day, other than the odd swathe of cloud closing around them briefly from time to time, which only added to the atmosphere.

The 'bog trotters' aka Rob M, Rob J, Katie, both Matts, Ian and Jules set off around Cerrig Cochion and Moel Meirch.  From its nickname you can imagine the fun they all had crossing the marshy land jumping over and occasionally falling into the bogs and the final navigation failure in the rhododendrons! 

Meanwhile, Nick and Clare had a good blast round Coed-y-Brenin. They had a great time on the MBR trail and had a good lookout for Phil who was abandoned there on the Dinner Meet. They didn't see him so presumably he's gone back to nature and is subsisting on nuts, berries and squashed squirrels.

Thanks to Juliet for organising a splendid meet.