Garden Hotel Bangor

... Mountain Goat, they generally live higher in the mountains, but this dude had a bit of limp which is why he was down by the road side - they're pretty rare to see (1 in 50 chance), our tour guide was pretty chuffed.

Caernarfon castle was next - this was the place where Prince Charles was inaugurated as the Prince of Wales in the 60's. It was a stronghold for King Edward the 1st when he invaded Wales and is heritage listed as one of the best examples of medieval castles.

Holyhead, Wales, United Kingdom bronandjosh09

Well from Fishgaurd we headed up along the west coast of Wales. Our first stop were Ancient Burial chambers, from prehistoric times - known as Dolmers (forgive the spelling!) they were massive slabs of rock, balanced on each other and then surrounded in smaller rocks, eventually making a mound. Goodness knows how they got the rocks up there! According to tradition (which Josh wasn't too happy with!) standing under them can improve your ...

... right down to Solar powered games, and dynamo powered audio messages for the nature walk.

The Touring site is better than Mablethorpe (Golden Sands), but still not brilliant lots of the pitches are uneven even if they do have lots of grass it's not lawn cut like Caravan Club sites – not seen any grass cutting whilst we were there. Some pitches are 100% grass others are not – some (ours is one) is ...

... i.e. greater than the length of a normal rope. It is also good for practicing placing protection (squeezing nuts or friends into cracks) and trying to get protection out again. A couple of guys were free climbing it.

It certainly wasn't challenging climbing, but it was fun for the kids and me. Nick sat at the bottom with the dog on a long lead, guarding the picnic and enjoying the scenery. He makes no pretence of wanting to heave himself up a rock-face.

Capel Curig, Wales, United Kingdom rachelkw

... for a well deserved foot bath or two. It was hard, and hot, but so worth it, I had such a great time... can't wait to climb more things in Scotland :D :D

*2/10/09 - Just uploaded my heart rate trace for the climb to Garmin Connect ...

Today we went to Snowdonia Park in the mountains and it was lovely. Everything is green here and lots of rocky terrain. There are many mountain climbers and walkers in Scotland and Wales. Everyone is friendly and is interested in our trip. From there we made a bee line for Llangollen Canal where we just made it for a 12:15 excursion along the canal in a 72 foot canal boot. The trip was lovely ...

So all flights, ferrys and buses we hve to book in advance are all booked, sponge bob car ready thestart of our rally to naples, Italy - along with my durcell battery water pistol!!

Just a few preparation pictures to show what we taking.

We left our wonderful friends Margaret and Barry Austin and our grand room at the Midland Hotel this morning. Hard to leave a top floor room with floor to ceiling windows for the entire wall that looked out on the Morecombe Bay! I am adding photo's of the hotel and view.

We visited Chester, England and it was a darling town with the typical English Tudor style buildings and beautiful Cathedral. They were having a special ...

Group of 25 headed up Snowdon in celebration of Andy Duggards retirment.

Brilliant time was had by all, probably the best retirement I have been on (obviously sponsored by Carlsburg)

Congratulations Andy.

Proved to be a good last workout before we go - calves are feeling the effect though.

Well done to those that completed this mountain for the first time - Scafell next!

... is that we plan to be gypsies from now on, leaving our beloved boat in the care of a new boatyard every winter, wherever we end up. Our plan this year is to spend the first part of the summer in the Western Isles and then, weather permitting, travel northwards to the Faroe Islands and then eastwards to the Shetlands, south to the Orkneys and thence down the eastern coast of the UK to over-winter in ...