I suppose I should’ve written this yesterday, but I was so tired after actually finishing the expedition all I wanted to do was to have a shower and fall asleep. Now I’ve done that, here’s what happened while I was gone. 
We went from the Cripps car park at school at 11 to stay in a charming little village called Dolgellau for the night in a rented out house which seemed to have rooms everywhere. We had takeaways and prepared food for the next day – the first actual day of the expedition – for an early start. Tesco Value cheese pizza isn’t very nice, especially when grilled when the oven didn’t work…
But anyway. The first day went quite well until about 4 hours in. Our group as it stood (James, Wendy, Jack and myself) went up the original route to the summit of Cadair Idris, a supposed minor hill, while the other two groups went the easier way – the Pony Path – which most tourists take to the summit, but they went around it.
We climb all the way up to about a kilometre (from above, anyway) to the summit and stop for a break up near Llyn Cau, a lake where we took a MySpace shot of our backdrop. It’s a shame we didn’t face the other way, though, as we would’ve seen the route we were about to take as one you really shouldn’t. In about 400 metres, we climed 300-odd feet, which is quite a lot for a footpath.
Me and Jack got up the path eventually in about an hour and a half, with James and Wendy stuck about a third of the way up struggling with their short, aching legs and their bags. While Jack went to go rescue James’ bag (He’d already taken Wendy’s up before), I stayed and waited in case Mrs O’Neill came to come look over James and Wendy to see if they’re fit to do the rest or not. Rather Jack than me going down that loose rock slope again. We all got to the top though, an hour and a half later on. We sat, ate pizza, went down the pony path to meet O’Neill and Burns who took pity on us and gave us a lift to the campsite since it was dark and it’s only a practice…
After camping on a muddy hill in what seemed to be a part-time cow field and RAF training course, we got a lift to our starting point with our new groups. James and Wendy had joined with Ben and Helen from another group to form a slower group, while me and Jack joined Jake, Jordan and Richy B’s group to form a more keen bean group. Fun.
This was a lot more fun. Maybe because we weren’t constantly stopping and waiting for James and Wendy to stop chatting each other up and get walking on their injured bodies. We also had a couple of cool obstacles to avoid, and who doesn’t love using their initiative once in a while?
We were so good, we got into camp earlier than O’Neill had. We just started setting up camp, looking at the camp ducks around us and talked until the other groups eventually made their way in. We were so early finishing, that I got bored and just went into the tent to listen to the radio for a couple of hours. It was either be a gooseberry with James and Wendy, or go smell of smoke and meths from a smouldering bonfire. Zane Lowe interviewing AC/DC with some cola bottles was enough for me.
Third day, easy day. The only tough bit, really, was going up the downhill slope we came up on the end of day two. Richy B was struggling and, to be honest, I was getting tired at bits I shouldn’t have been too. We didn’t stop for lunch, but by the looks of the pasta we had, I’m glad we didn’t.
We finished first and sat inside the meeting point – the pub – where we were going to eat and then leave. But because of the other groups taking so long, we got thrown out for not ordering (our money was on the minibus) and made to wait in the cold wind and rain until the minibus came, which was then another three hours until the slow group made it in.
We stopped off for chips in Dolgellau once more before heading straight back home. Getting served chips by a reverend was a different experience. They’re all so nice in that village that I wouldn’t mind going to visit again. 
Cozy Fish & Chips in Dolgellau can’t be beaten, guarenteed.
I’ll have some pictures up eventually, but for now, that’s about it. Keep an eye on MySpace. I usually scan them in and upload them there.
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