Wales: Adventurrrrrreeee

Just returned from Wales - when they called it an adventure weekend they sure as hell weren't kidding. Friday, because of traffic it took us almost 9 hours to get to Wales, so we just checked into our hostel, ate dinner, and hung out inside before going to bed. Our hostel was in the middle of nowhere, and up a tiny hill, it's a small miracle that our giant bus made it there without doing too much damage to the surrounding area. The only thing we did was knock down a fence, that Chad nicely said was the mountain lion pen to scare everyone :) It was pitch black all around the hostel, so I wasn't about to venture out in the dark, even if it was an adventure weekend. Friday night, we all just played cards and had a few beers, then went to bed early in anticipation for Saturday.

Saturday morning, we woke up early and hit the trail. We went to an outdoors adventure company, and split into two groups. My group sea kayaked in the morning, and it was such an arm workout. The wind was blowing really hard, and it was freezing, so we wore wetsuits and windbreakers and paddled around, even stopping in a lagoon to play polo! Nearly everyone tipped over into the freezing water because the boats were so little and unstable, and we got out a few times to go on "fun runs" to keep ourselves warm. Needless to say, when we came in after 3 hours, we were ready for lunch. After lunch, we layered up and went rock climbing in an old slate quarry! It's heyday was in the 1860s when it produced nearly all of hte world's slate, and stopped operating in the 60s, but rock climbers still come all the time. We put on helmets, harnesses, and started climbing with our guides teaching us how to tie proper knots and feed rope to people climbing. We also went down into a huge hole made by so much dynamite blasting and explored down there for awhile. After a few hours of this, it was time to head back. We were all exhausted and hungry; we took showers and had spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner, then all just laid around for awhile and went to bed early. Today was the best part.

This morning, we got REALLY layered up. By this, I mean I was wearing: 3 pairs of socks under hiking boots, 5 shirts including a sweatshirt, my northface, a windbreaker, and 2 pairs of pants, sunglasses, a hat, and thermal gloves, all of which were taken off and re-applied at various times of the day. We set off at about 9:30 int he morning up the mountain; it was 7000 meters high, so as you can imagine it took us awhile to get to the top. It was one of hte most physically demanding things I've ever done. When we got to the top, there was a little bit of snow and ice, the wind was blowing about 40 mph, and it was freezing. We ate lunch in a little manmade shelter out of rocks, then set off again. The views wer INCREDIBLE; some of hte most beautiful I've ever seen. It was like the last scene in the Sound of Music; you could see for miles and miles, and it was such a clear and beautiful day. We made our way halfway back down, then up a smaller mountain, then slightly down again before heading all the way down a few more miles back to the camp. THe whole thing was 10 kilometers and took us about 6 hours. Talk about exhausted. And, there were sheep EVERYWHERE. They just graze free, then at sheering time the farmers just each round up their own based on the markings. Every muscle in my body hurts. On the way back (a 5 hours trip this time, luckily) we stopped at a rest stop and we all got KFC for dinner. I got to the end of my drink, thinking there was ice in the bottom, only to open the lid and find the NOZZLE of the diet pepsi dispenser int he bottom of the cup. I took it up to the counter, and the girl laughed and said "oh yea, I was wondering where that went. Do you want another one or something?" Lovely. Chad and I, to end the adventure weekend on a proper note, then played shoot-em-up arcade games for awhile, which I proved to be rubbish at. I killed the wrong people on numerous occasions. Now back at home, and about to head to bed - can't wait to get a good night's sleep, but have to get geared up for the week - Stephane is in the office all week, so it should be very itneresting - lots of stories to tell I'm sure. Love and miss you all!