A long walk to the summit

Well hello intrepid travellers. As some of you may be aware, I took some time out of life last week for a trip to North Wales. I was desperate to see trees and mountains and open spaces. I certainly found that in the place that has now become closest to my heart.

I stayed in a hostel in Porthmadog, in fact, as it turns out it was the birth place of Lawrence of Arabia.

I had a fabulous time the whole week, but one of my walking highlights was climbing the Snowdon Summit. So folks ... here's the story of a girl from Oz who climbed a big hill. For the purposes of this story let's call her Michelle. The day started out early - at 7.30am. But Michelle was ready to go ...

A short walk from the hostel, to the village of Tremadog. A kamikaze bus driver and single-vehicle roads. What more adventure could this Michelle need? A beautiful sunny day, and a big steep hill to start the day.

So this girl Michelle, she got a bit tired climbing this big hill. But, then she turned around and looked out at the wilderness.

Michelle noticed, that there were some people who took the short cut... It involved the use of a dinky little train. Michelle just thought they were cheating...

Michelle had a quick stop-over for lunch. Then up a rather intriguingly named hill called Moses' Mountain. Michelle nearly fell over a couple of times, but it was still worth it. By the time Michelle got 3/4 of the way up this big hill, it was covered in clouds and sheep ...

By the time Michelle got this far up the mountain, it was starting to get cold. By the time, she got onto the very top, it was very cold indeed.

Michelle did not stick around long at the very top of the mountain. It was just too darn cold. But, at least she stuck around long enough to get a photo for prosterity.

About 20minutes after I started the hike, I suddenly had a bit of an urge to go to the bathroom. Sadly I had left it too late, and there were no public toilets anywhere to be seen and there were so many people climbing the summit, I had no place to hide. So I had to ignore it and just keep walking. By the time I was walking down from the summit, Michelle's bladder was about to explode. All the way down, Michelle looked for places for a secret wee… But even though there was lots of misty—cloud cover, leaving only about 20-30 metres visibility, people came along so often Michelle couldn’t stop. Finally, Michelle had to take a diversion and had a very secret wee, behind some old stone buildings.

Michelle must say that some other people may have had the same idea, as there were a couple of pairs of underpants lying around…. Bit troublesome to think about why, but it was a quiet place and Michelle was about to wet her pants. After Michelle had relieved her bladder, she was able to enjoy the downward journey much more, but was walking much slower, as she was getting tired.

By the time Michelle got back to a little café near the start of the walk she was exhausted. The delightful man running the café, came to greet her and insisted on having a bit of free cake – a welsh specialty and some coffee. Never has Michelle been so glad to sit down. Michelle drank her coffee, whilst he told Michelle about all the great places to see around the area. He was so funny, and his accent was just great. Michelle caught the bus back to the hostel, and slept very well.