09th July 2005
The Arrival
I left my house at about 04:15, went to Tesco’s to fill the car up with petrol and top up the tyre pressures. Petrol done, air machine not working!
Got to Andy’s at about 04:30, and Andy and Ray were up and ready, so a good start to the day! Managed to fit everything into and onto the car! We set off at 04:50, with me driving, I was thinking of asking Andy to start the driving, but then after thinking about it, changed my mind. I did not have a good night’s sleep, so thought if Andy didn’t have a good night’s sleep, it would not be wise or fair to let him drive an unfamiliar car at that time of the morning.
The drive was quite pleasant with one notable bit of fun! While driving on the Swindon bypass (A419), we noticed some poor chap seemingly appear out of nowhere at the side of a hedge, like he had just woken up after a night on the town…. The only problem is there was now town or village for quite a few miles!!!!
We decided to stop at Much Wenlock, for a coffee and a stretch of legs. The only problem was, as it was only about 07:15 ish, the only thing we could do was stretch our legs, as the coffee shop had not opened yet! At this point we had a change of drivers, Andy’s turn to drive… I will say at this point after having Andy drive MY CAR for the next 2 + hours, I have full faith in his driving abilities. Not that I had any reservations about Andy driving my car, but there are not many people I feel comfortable with when I’m not driving. So thumbs up to Andy!!!
We next stopped at Capel Curig for another break, this time knowing we could get a drink, so Andy and I had a Pinnacle Breakfast to go with our drink. Pinnacle Pursuits (sad to say this is no longer open) was just as you are about to leave Capel Curig, it is an outdoors shop selling good quality and named brands of outdoors equipment, plus it also has a café, which I would recommend to anyone. The weather was better than I expected, with brilliant sunshine.
I took some pictures from the car park behind Pinnacle Pursuits, of Snowdon and Andy & Ray. I am quite pleased with the pictures of Snowdon. The picture of Andy & Ray has them in typical pose!
After we left here, we travelled along the A5 towards Bangor, giving us a glorious view of Tryfan.
Arriving at the cottage about 11:00 – 11:30 ish.
The Three Amigo's
The cottage is on the outskirts of the village called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, or Llanfair P.G. to give it its shortened name. The name of the village means, The Church of St Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio near a red cave.
After emptying the car we just relaxed for a while. After having some rolls that the lovely Les had prepared for us, we went to Tesco’s in Bangor. Instead of seeing the big supermarket; we had been to before, we found an inflatable Tesco’s or as Andy called it “supermarquee“
Tesco's "supermarquee"
Before we went to Tesco’s, a lady called with some bad news, a gentleman who lived just down the lane from us had died last week. They were now doing a house clearance, and when they arrived today someone had stolen from the house…. a downer for us at the end of what had been a good day.