North Wales – Mini-METHS June 28 – July 2
Participants: George (Munro)
and Val Wallace, David (Harriruo) and Judy Harrison, Brian (Air Malawi's Last Hope)
and Jane Sayers, Steven (Ballcrusher) and Pauline Ward, Peter (Up the Down) and
Antonia (Twinkletoes) Tolhurst, Pete 'n Marg Jarvis (Honorary Members for this
meet)(=12)
At one stage, not so long before the
meet was due to begin I considered cancelling it: many of the regulars were NOT coming and we
had just the faithful Ballcrusher and Pauline as definites. I turned to old friends from Botswana days
(Pete 'n Marg Jarvis) and asked them. We
had a 6 bed selfcatering cottage to fill with only Antonia and I willing and
able. Finally came salvation in the form
of Munro and Val, then Harriruo and Judy and Air Malawi's last hope and Jane -
12 of us and we were in business - 6 of us in the self catering cottage and 6
in two B&B establishments, all situated within a mile or so of each other
up CWM CYWARCH due north of Dinas Mawwdy.
So let me sing the praises of the
narrow steep sided valley shut in at the end that is called Cwm Cywarch, the
starting point for TWO of the climbs, and a beautiful Welsh hill farming (and
that means sheep) enclave, once a lead mining centre (on a tiny scale I feel)
and a centre for mill power. Today
perhaps half the income of the inhabitants (all called Edwards) comes from
tourism, i.e. us - and the natural
tongue of these people is Welsh so that one felt they were translating our
speech into Welsh before they would answer it in English - this led to a number
of misunderstandings which early on threatened to scupper our arrangements. Fortunately these were resolved.
The pattern of recent meets was
repeated - two teams of participants, shall we call them Team A and Team B, the
high and the low, the foolish and the sensible. Up the Down felt it his duty to lead Team A
and Twinkletoes did the same for Team B. You can guess which team attracted the most
support! For the first climb up Glasgwm,
as well as Munro and Ballcrusher, Up the Down had the support of Val and
Pauline. By the second day we were down
to the three men - Val and Pauline turned over to Team B and joined
Twinkletoes, together with Brian and David, and Pete 'n Marg. They enjoyed themselves with happy walks
around lakes and scenic valleys while the poor members of Team A struggled up
the required peaks. These were, in
order:
Glasgwm 2557 feet asl
Cader Idris 2928 feet asl
Aran Fawddwy 2971 feet asl
The route in each case was a
circular one satisfying a need for shape and completeness, although the route
going up Glasgwm was in part at least the descent from Aran Fawddy. It may be
added that Up the Down made TWO trips up Cader Idris within 4 days, the first a
recce with Twinkletoes who quite rationally did NOT want to do the same peak
again, and the second of course with the two strongmen already mentioned. Up the Down led Up on these peaks and was led
down by Munro and Ballcrusher - Munro in particular seems to be able to walk
down steep paths instead of staggering from one uneven bunch of rocks to the
next, like the poor leader. (I
considered putting 'putative' there but that would just be showing off.)
As a reward for our labours we ate
together in the evenings - first at the Brigands Inn where they wanted to
charge us for vegetables as well as the main course (and charged us service),
and then later and more happily at the Red Lion in Dinas Mawwdy whose home
cooking and very reasonable prices and cheerful service won our confidence and
custom. We will return. Watch this space for next year - probably a
week later than this year. Let me add
finally how nice it was to see Harriruo on his feet again and dancing the light
fantastic with Team B. As he told me
afterwards the last time he had done any walking was the previous year at the
South Wales Meths meet - it was very pleasing to see him at least partially
restored to the form of past days.
Up the Down
©
WDYFO, 2011