So, i’m finally getting up to date with these entries! my goodness!
Last weekend i went on a trip organised by the school (for 50 people or so) to Wales. More specifically, to Snowdonia National Park. The purpose of the trip: to climb a mountain, and do other crazy outdoor activities.
Now, a little more background on this weekend: on wednesday before (2 days before we left)i woke up with the most painful sore throat i’ve ever had. i went to the doctor and got a prescription and that night i was all fevery and icky. So i started to panic about going. i decided to go anyway, and hope the medicine kicked in in time!
It was also Simon’s last trip. Simon’s our student activities coordinator, he planned the wales weekend, and the Cornwall one in November. He’s awesome and is super enthusiastic, but he decided to move to Canada, he left yesterday, just the day after the wales trip ended. So the weekend was really fun because we all knew that it was simon’s last hurrah at the ISC. (so i didn’t want to miss it, even with the crazy throat pain)
ANYWAYS, we left at 5 am on friday, luckily my fever had gone away, and i was trusting in the power of sugary tea to help the meds kick in.
We stopped at Windsor (because in the UK the bus drivers can only drive for 4 hours and then they need a 45 minute break) Windsor was cool, we saw the castle, but it was closed because it was only 9 am at this point. and we walked to the river to see the rowing boats for Emily, and continued walking to Eton College, i admit it, i wanted to see where the princes went to school! haha.
Windsor:
Emily, Megan and Me in front of Windsor Castle
Part of Eton College
following the tradition of the Cornwall trip – Cornish Pasties!
We drove for another 4 hours, got rerouted and slightly lost and finally made it to Chester, our dinner stop. It was really beautiful.
Bridge, Tom, Megan, Me and Emily
The littlest snowman
street in Chester
Now, the thing about the bus ride was that Simon got to choose all the movies. and since he likes climbing, and we were going to climb a mountain, they were ALL climbing movies. We watched ‘touching the void’ then ‘verticle limit’ then ‘K-2’. it was intense. and as a result we were a little more freaked out about the whole mountain thing than we had been before!!
We got into our Hostel at about 10:30 that night, and had to scramble out again for a fire drill, and there was much snow on the ground. MUCH SNOW!!! We went to bed and got up early to get ready to CLIMB A MOUNTAIN!!!!
Eva was still a little freaked out by the movies
Megan and i saw the Pick Axes and got excited
Our Group Climbed ‘Moel Eilio’ aka: My Mountain (which is what i’ve named it now :D)
It was tough going but super duper fun And GORGEOUS, did i mention GORGEOUS
I have a lot of really great shots of everyone else, as i was at the back…
Megan halfway up at our lunch break
Me halfway up
Eva takes a little pent up fake rage out on andrea, who is oblivious
Angela is super happy
Here’s a view of Snowdon, which we were going to climb, but a massive amount of fresh snow meant that we might not make it to the top, hence Moel Eilio
Megan was a little tired at one point.
We finally got to the top, and it was AMAZING!
Here’s Eva, Andrea and me
Megan, Allison and ME
As a result of the BEAUTIFUL day, i now have my summer face back – look at the freckles!!!!!!!!!
my ice pick at the top
View from the top
Allison watching the view
neighboring mountain
the lake we had to hike around when we got to the bottom of the mountain
The next day we got up even earlier and i did ‘sea level traversing’ which is basically clambering around rocks that are partly in the ocean. aka the IRISH SEA. that was fun, but since we were so close to the water i didn’t bring my camera
here’s after the traversing, waiting for the bus to be ready to go
Andrea, Pui Wing, Megan, Me and Emily
My freckles and a mountain
On the way back we definitely watched ‘conquest of everest’ and then jaws. simon is silly.
Wales = So. Much. Fun.
Tipsy pipsy, thank you ever so much for giving me a magnificent diversion from doing my philosophy studying. Looks like an amazing time!!!
PS when are you leaving the ISC?
we leave on the 14th of April, then i’ll be in The UK til the 28th i believe…aly still needs to get back to me on this.
*sigh of wistfulness* (this *is* in response to all of the posts) Wish I could be there. Lucky you. *sigh* Having fun though? You never did tell us if the throat got better before you had to be a mountaineer.
I’m having bunches of fun!
and yes, my throat did get somewhat better, the meds kicked in about halfway to wales so it wasn’t too bad!
What a beautiful snowy paradise.
:D, so unlike anything victoria has ever seen…except that one blizzard that one time.
that snow man is adorable!
it looks so beautiful up there. i love the picture posts!
the snow man was so incredibly cute, i had to take a picture!
Pick Axe?
Glad you never told me about the pick axe things BEFORE you went….. The throat thing would have been a great excuse for me to use parental persuasion! Did I see ropes too? No, don’t tell me.
Re: Pick Axe?
haha…yeah mummy, i definately left a couple of things out when i told you about the trip tee hee, but we didn’t really need the pick axes…or ropes, we weren’t doing any crazy verticle things!
also look closely at the picture on the sweatshirt – with the person falling off the cliff 100% survival rate, 3% margin of error…haha
Re: Pick Axe?
Oh pixk Axe.
So Trotsky.
….
Anyways.
Miss Pippa! I am flying into England on the 1oth of may. PHSHSHT. You should stay and await my presence. 😛
hahah We’ll almost be crossing in transit. 😛
Miss you!
My…. last exec meeting and leslie’s too Next weekend. *tear*