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Showing posts from September, 2009

Barmouth September 09

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The weather has at last taken a turn for the better and the forecast looked good so we took advantage of this and headed off for the weekend. Our destination was Barmouth on the west coast of Wales. We obviously took the sea kayaks and the plan was to paddle the Mawddach Estuary. The Afon Mawddach rises near to Llyn Tegid and flows west to Dolgellau where it is joined by the Afon Wnion. It is navigable up to Penmaenpool which is roughly how far the tide reaches. It would be possible to paddle above this point but this would be more of a traditional river trip. Neil had work commitments on the Friday morning so we were not able to undertake the trip as detailed in the guide book which recommends paddling up the estuary with the incoming tide. Instead we started at Penmaenpool and paddled down to Barmouth with the ebb tide. Penmaenpool is a SSSI due to the special wetland habitat just above the bridge which is home to many nesting birds. The settlement is dominated by both the George 111

Scottish Road Trip August 09

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The weather forecast for this trip was much the same as when we left Applecross back in May. I do not think much has changed since then. The wind was still blowing the same and that made for three trips with identical weather. Anyway we still went and this will probably be classed as our 09 holiday. The first leg was up to Newbiggin at the northern end of the Lakes for an overnight stop and then onto Fort William the next day. Someone had got into a spot of bother on the tourist path up Ben Nevis and a SAR Sea King was in the middle of a rescue. The visibility was appalling and it kept having to land in Glen Nevis. This meant overflying the campsite a few times providing a good photo opportunity, but Kath had not yet arrived with her hi tech camera. On Friday we set off for Skye with still no prospect of an improvement in the weather. We stopped off at Eilean Donan castle for lunch in the tea room. Harry was enjoying the trip to the land of his ancestors. This was our first trip over t