The (is it or isn’t it) Family Meet.  

Members present: Lester Payne, Vicky Alderton and Duncan Lee.

Child present: Kieran Lee.

Vicky, Kieran and I took advantage of half term and set off towards the hut on Thursday stopping off at Castle Inn Quarry on the way.  Quick breezy ascents were made of “Route 2” and “School Mam” before Kieran gave “Easy Peasy”(F3) a good go.  Once at the hut a stroll through the blanket of bluebells in the woods rounded the day off nicely.

Over breakfast on Friday we found out that the meet had been cancelled due to a lack of expressed interest to the meet leader!  Hey ho, that will teach me not to be a Luddite and to use the scribbles page in future if that’s the way meets are now organised!

Anyway, back on the meet, overnight rain soon cleared so we headed over to Anglessey for a delightful sunny walk along the coast at Newborough.  Sand castles were built, waves were dodged (or not in Vicky’s case) and paddling took place but sadly we failed to find any deaf red squirrels.  The stunning views back across to the mountains on the mainland more than compensated for that however.

Saturday saw us following the “Path Plus” jolly through the quarries which Kieran enjoyed, especially the tunnels into California.  In fact the more nervous mum got the more he seemed to revel in it all.  Whilst passing Never Never Land Vicky and I took the opportunity to nip up “362” and “Fresh Air” whilst Kieran built and destroyed cairns.  Next stop was Caban for a late lunch before setting up a rope at Union Rock so that Kieran could have a play.  On the way back to the hut we stopped at Blast Shelter Crag where we did “Biggles Flies Undone” as Kieran pretended to be a farmer and harvested the grass! It kept him happy.

Fellow technophobe Lester turned up on Saturday evening having spent part of the day checking out the steam railway over at Rhyd Ddu.  His mission for Sunday was a sneaky recce of part of Jim’s forthcoming walk.

Sunday morning was wet and thus an ideal day for a visit to the excellent Slate Museum for a good look  about and lunch, Then, as the sun broke through we strolled up to the quarry hospital.  Having rushed us around that Kieran then insisted on going to see the divers in the Vivian Quarry.  So, not being ones to look a gift horse in the mouth we did “Mental Lentils” to round off the day nicely.

 All in all, a good weekend, despite the lack of playmates for Kieran.

Bring a child or earplugs along, or maybe both, for what will hopefully be a weekend of fun in the sun. That’s assuming it actually stops raining by then! There’s no particular plan, just to enjoy the hut and enjoy the climbing, walking or whatever you get up to. If there’s enough kids and the weather’s fine we may try a family cragging day at the Fachwen or a walk in Padarn Country Park. All are welcome, regardless of whether you have a child in tow or not, just don’t moan about the noise!