Boating with Chuckywinkle + Co.

After planning a wet weekend late last year for four , the gods were kind to us and left us with some decent levels in Wales.

So we christened the new paddle wagon (Xena) and headed across on Friday night, a quick roadside stop on the A57 to remove unwanted car parts and we were there, Bils and Lou were close behind. We had booked a cottage in Betsw-y-coed, very convenient for a late trip to the pub!

Day one:

A lazy start to let the overworked NHS employee (Lou) have her rest, we finally got on the road at 11-ish. Over the hill from Betws-y-coed we found the Mawddach at a decent level. We foolishly carried up 100 metres to paddle the 'public toilet falls', and were unsuprisingly repremanded by the house owner on the bankside.

Bils about to 'encounter' the local.

Something along the lines of 'we don't want your city types here - don't come back - your not welcome in these parts' but with some nice antiquated views added in.
(To be fair, he put his point across in a civil manner and all that - just some odd views!)

We smiled and nodded in the right places and then carried on with our fun day out.

Bils on the Public Toilet Falls

After the Mawddach we dashed over to the Aberglaslyn Gorge for a nice blast down it;

Bils actually nailing a line on the Aberglaslyn Gorge.

Bils fluffing it on the Breaker

Me having just cleaned the Breaker (cough).

Me on a dodgy line: Bils said "down the next pour-over, then head left, you want to be as close to the pointy up rock as you can" - idiot, luckily for him I pulled it back.

And off they head into the gloom.

Following that we headed back to Bewtsy, and bagged a last minute run down the Llugwy (Pont-y falls - Forestry Falls). Managed to get off just before it went dark before heading back to a very warm cottage for a very large dinner!! Made another trip up to the pub, this time with a snow ball fight on the way (well actually it wasnt snow but large hail stones so a hail ball would probably be a more accurate description!).

And that was that: Day 2 coming up.

New Year.

Another 400 mile trip brought us back to Sheffield in time for New Years eve.

And a party.

Ex SUCC members Andy and Suzanne, who are now officially Canadian immigrants, came back especially for this party - that's how big this was.

The theme for the fancy dress was the letter F - I'm not quite sure why?

Here's samples of classic Sheffield ingenuity;

F for Feather, Farmer and Fatima Whitbread!

F for Friesian - Nice udders Dave!

F for Ferret - (it made more sense after a few beers)

F for Fuse - Brilliant

Brilliant night, slightly marred by the mystery illness that caused multiple cases of D&V (ask a medic) in the morning.

Thanks to all those who helped organise and clear up.

More pictures can be found here.

Pre-Christmas Sun.

The week before Christmas I used up my left-over holidays and we jetted off to Portugal.
The aim was for sun, warmth and surfing.


We got the sun.


Unfortunately Easyjet forgot to book the warmth and surf so we made alternative plans by following our noses and driving around.

Luckily leaving a frost coated Newcastle airport we were wearing warm clothes, arriving in Faro we found out that Portugese winters can be flipping freezing (Note Rab jackets!).

We went to the highest point in the Algarve (Nice views)

We did lots of walking round cool cliffs, and found some excellent passage ways and caves to explore.

We also had an entertaining night out in Lagos which ended up in an English themed bar playing darts with two genuine Eskimos. Brilliant.
Unfortunately I then slept for most of the following day wearing off the hang-over!
Let it be known that Eskimo's can handle their drink.

Other highlights of the trip were:

• Eating lots of fresh fish.
• Eating out everynight.
• Visiting the most South-Westerly point of Europe.
• Watching the Portugese authorities faff on a grand scale for 4 hours only to end up back where they started (Ask us about the Stealth boat story).
• Pursuading a nice old couple to let us stay in there house for the night as it was too cold for camping.

Nice to be back in Portugal, we'll be back soon - if only to finally see Paul's wife in the flesh.

More photo's can be found here.