"Camping in Snowdonia" Vermaakjeanne's photos around Capel Curig, United Kingdom

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• published: 30 Mar 2011
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Preview of Vermaakjeanne's blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vermaakjeanne/the_world_2004/1219659360/tpod.html This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Capel Curig, United Kingdom Entry Title: "Camping in Snowdonia" Entry: "A week earlier I'd met up with Ian Spence for his birthday and was invited to join him, his brother Geoff, Brett and Tyrone for the upcoming bank holiday weekend to Snowdonia up in north Wales. Having managed to increase the number of girls to three - myself, Nikki, and Michelle, I agreed. And all we were told to take along was a tent and sleeping bag... 23 August 2008 - Saturday The plan was to leave London between 9:00 and 10:00. The boys had hired a car and the girls were to head up with Nikki. We all congregated at Brett and Tyrone's place to head off together. However, leaving London at 10:00 wasn't exactly as was planned. The first stop was to buy food for the weekend which wasn't supposed to be a complicated task, but when trying to keep two vehicles together in busy traffic, simple doesn't remain simple for long. After about an hour's shopping in ASDA in Roehampton, we were finally ready to leave. Only this time we were going to stick together as the boys had the GPS in their vehicle and obviously knew where they were headed, while us girls only had a map for navigation purposes. The first fatal error was that we tried to keep the vehicles together... not good. When finally we realised that wasn't working, us girls took alternative paths and finally got going out of the busy London traffic. We really weren't making good time leaving London only at 13:00 when the intended departure time was 10:00. Though progress was slow to begin with we made good time on the open roads. A common South African mistake is to assume that we would be able to travel speeds of 70mph on the open roads when really your average speed is nothing more than 60mph at the best of times. So where we thought it would take 4 hours to get to Wales, we were very much mistaken. The girls having managed to successfully find our way 30 minutes ahead of the guys decided to stop off in Llangollen for a few minutes and explore. The weather was wet but it was just such a cute little town that we couldn't resist. We were hoping the guys would join us for a bit but realised that we really needed to get going as it was about 18:00 and we still were no where near our destination. At about 19:30 we pulled into Gwern Gôf Isaf Farm where we paid our £8 (£4 pppn) for our camping over the next two nights. The wind was howling and it was raining horizontally while we tried to erect our tents. Nikki and I made good progress and managed to set up our mini tent in no time. The other two tents were enormous in comparison and took a fair while to set up and secure. Like I said, it was cold and wet, but being the enthusiastic South Africans that we are (or should I say the boys are) the portable braai (bbq) was lit and our meat and mielies (corn) braaied. My efforts were completely negligible, sitting in the tents trying to keep my feet warm. The meat tasted really good, and though a few ciders were drank, it wasn't until the red wine was consumed that I started warming up from the inside. Though our tent managed to keep the elements off us and keep us dry for the most part, we did struggle to remain warm for the whole night and were very much disappointed to wake up to some more rain, fortunately however, the wind had subsided. 24 August 2008 - Sunday We woke up to some very tired people. Ian had spent most of his evening trying to keep his mattress inflated while the rest of us just tried to remain afloat and ensure we weren't blown away. Some muesli and coffee later, we were on the road trying to head for Snowdon for our hike, which is after all the main reason for this trip. We parked at the bottom of the Pass of Llanberis, and started our walk from there as there was no parking available any higher. When we reached the beginning of the hiking trail we had a chat with some of the people in the car parks and were informed that it would take us about 2 hours to get to ..." Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vermaakjeanne/the_world_2004/1219659360/tpod.html Photos from this trip: 1. "Beginning of the hike" 2. "On the path up..." 3. "One of many streams down Snowdon" 4. "Clear water from Snowdon" 5. "Path built up the mountain" 6. "Clear lakes" 7. "Almost at the top of Snowdon" 8. "Building a railway to the top of the mountain" 9. "Rewarding view down" 10. "Enjoying the view" 11. "Pass through to Caernarfon" 12. "Snowdonia National Park" See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-0124-7ce2-b803?ytv4=1