Villages, Rocky Mountains, sheep and fighter jets

With the weather not being so crash hot (or for that matter even remotely warm) we decided to hold off on doing any walks today (my knees were rejoicing I can tell you!) and instead take a bit of a drive around the villages and sights that make up Snowdonia National Park. It was gorgeous I can tell you!! We randomly began driving the roads and in doing this came across an amazing rocky valley surrounded by high hills and mountains. The roads here are very narrow but we were able to find a small pull over where we could stop and take some photos of this amazing landscape. The mountain to the right of us had a small waterfall trickling down the side and as there was no fence or references as to not being able to climb this section we took a nice stroll up this rather steep incline. Chris being slightly, oh alright I’ll be honest, FAR more adventurous than I ran up this hill to almost the top and perched up there on a rock waving at me. I’m a typical woman, I had visions of him falling or slipping and then rolling down the mountain and was waving for him to come down, it was very wet, soggy and slippery, I couldn’t handle the thought of him taking a steep tumble! He was making me very nervous being so high up. He eventually made his way down, stopping to talk to a sheep on the way and made it back to me in one piece, telling me it wasn’t slippery, but then promptly slid a little in the mud… my point was proved, women do know best.

We drove on and discovered more of the place and the little villages around us, I’m not sure of all of their names as they were all written in Welsh and just a tad difficult to pronounce. We came across a slate mine and a random old castle, a lovely little river where we stopped for lunch and of course, we came across a Tesco. You can’t go anywhere in the UK without seeing a Tesco, it’s mad.

It was a lovely day full of little surprises and discoveries and it was really nice to just be able to do all this at our own leisure. We stopped in Betws-y-coed (the only Welsh village I remember how to spell and pronounce!!) and brought a few groceries for the next few days of cooking. While here a very amusing incident happened (again for me and not for Chris) Poor guy, it would seem I’m always laughing at him and not with him… Anyhow, I have to share it as it was rather hilarious and even now as I remember it I giggle to myself and can’t wipe the smile off my face. We had just picked up our groceries and were attempting to cross the road of this little village, they love there tiny little roads here with there blind crests and hills and it makes both driving and crossing the road very difficult at times. We were crossing at the best and safest spot we could find, but it was still a little dodgy. Anyhow, we began to cross the road when there was this god almighty noise like rushing wind and like it was travelling incredibly fast, a noise like you’ve never heard before. Anyhow, it also caused a lot of confusion for us as we didn’t know where this noise was coming from or what it was. Chris who had half crossed the road suddenly took off running across the rest of the road and when he got to the other side, ducked, slightly covering his head and looked up. I on the other hand had not yet crossed the road, admittedly, became quite confused but realized the noise was coming from above and was not an incredibly fast on coming, out of control truck like I had first imagined. We looked up and were shocked to see, flying incredibly low and just over the tops of the shops and homes surrounding us, two fighter jets. They were incredibly fast, incredibly loud, and I have to say, rather awesome to see in action. Chris’ reaction made me laugh until I cried though, the way he just took off, leaving me wondering what the hell was going on, him ducking, covering his head. It was all very very funny. It did make me question him though, as he didn’t even look back for me, such bravery. The noise that these jets create though is enormous and as we hadn’t heard them before, or even knew that these jets existed in this area, it was all very confusing and I admit, overwhelming. I’m just glad Chris didn’t drop the groceries he was carrying at the time, he had the eggs and the jars of tomatoe sauce, at least he made sure they were okay! 

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Chris and Emily on May 6, 2009 from Llanberis, United Kingdom

from the travel blog: Europe 2009

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