Walk on the Wild Side (L. Reed – Parental Advisory)

About the only problem with moving to Lytham is my inability to find a group of blokes to “hang out” with. This is probably my fault. I think that I’m getting too mature to have to make an effort to meet up with people, and it’s much easier to stay in touch with people I’ve known for a while. Thankfully, the guys from the walking group in Southport still let me play and we stay in touch with a few of the Rotary/Round Table bunch.

Last weekend was the annual weekend away for the walking group. The venue was the Lancashire Mountaineering Club’s brilliant bunkhouse near Beddgelert in North Wales.

After a dreadful trip down on Friday, due to traffic and hold ups, my car load arrived at about 7-15pm after a 5 hour journey from Southport.

Saturday was a gorgeous, sunny day and we set off to walk on a circular route to Beddgelert. While I’m sure some of the younger and fitter people found this not too difficult, I found that the near 10 mile route over some quite tough terrain was a hard one, albeit with beautiful scenery and weather. An unfortunate tumble due to my walking pole gong straight through a rotten log and depositing me on my backside meant I walked the Aberglaslyn Pass on the road rather than the path on the other side. I was very kindly accompanied by Neil and John H who looked after me and made sure I reached Beddgelert safely. The main damage from the fall was to my pride!!

We landed back in Beddgelert in mid afternoon and headed straight for the ice cream shop (excellent) swiftly followed by the pub, before heading back for our evening barbeque, followed by lots of the daft conversations that blokes have when not being supervised by responsible adults.

Sunday morning fry up was overseen by me. This allows me to get out of the washing up and so is a “very good idea!”

As both me and my passengers were still shattered from the previous day’s walk, we were away by 10 o’clock ish and missed the Sunday walk which may or may not have been flatter than Saturday’s.

Thanks to John C for organising this weekend again, and thanks to all of the guys for still making me so welcome. I’m already looking forward to next year’s!

Be careful of the robo-dogs!!

P.S. I hope none of you minded me using your photos. There’s only one of mine here, but if you let me know which is whose, I’ll credit the photographers.