To say the camping spot was remote was no joke as it involved a 5 min walk down a muddy hill with savage (if you're Steffi) horses and then further into the woods at the bottom of this hill, along a track to a beautiful glade near a 'lake' surrounded by rhododendrons. Perfect. Except for the long walk up to the loos! Phil got lost for the best part of a day trying to locate it...
Friday night was spent arriving, digging lots of hardcore if you'd grounded your car down the muddy hill, like Daryl and Linzee, ferrying camping equipment in a wheelbarrow, lighting fires, catching up and drinking a bit too much!
Saturday dawned and we waited for the safe hour of 10 before becoming active. Then it was the start of the meat fest, as cooked brekkies were fried and preparations for Three Cliffs Bay were swung into action. The sun was shining and the beach was as empty as ever, but it wasn't long before we were making it dangerous with gusty kite 'flying' and general tom foolery! The sensible, mature ones amongst us went climbing with all the knowledge of a brief stolen glance at someone else's' guide book - steering us away from the 'nice line' E4 6a route that we could have taken!
We climbed two routes, the first a Vdif and the second a longer and more sustained VS route (possibly S) - both excellent. All the while, below us, some mysterious and ambitious sand sculptury was taking place. Quite impressive, as the picture shows. Small boys were employed in judging and a ceremonial naming of 'Ben', the winning boat/shark combo was declared! It looked amazing from our climb viewpoint.
Sat Night was spent cooking amazing amounts of BBQ food, fire assembling, Guitar playing, tarp building (60ft sq trap over the whole camp social area, should keep sundays's rain out!) and not drinking in prep for some of the boys to ride at Afan in the morning. The games also came out in force! Someone needs to keep Sayers away from the E-numbers and Panda Cola!
After a quite seriously offensive hour long debrief on why Daryl thought the front linkage affair on Anthony's borrowed bike was rubbish, its not surprising that Anthony used his head and stayed in bed, missing the absolute soaking that Chris Daryl and I got on The Wall. Superb hack including Chris disappearing off one of the steep trail side bits and going about 25ft! Ticket!! Seriously, though, thats an 1hr30-3hr trail and we did it in 1hr 40 and had to walk up a few of the climbs as my back is so knackered I was finding it too painful to grind - must be getting better at going down! ;P
Our 7:30 am start, so we weren't too missed by the girls was wasted as on finishing our ride (to a cold shower!!!), we were informed that they'd only just got to the water park where they terrorised the local children! Never mind, a relaxed and BBQ fueled evening unfolded, whilst Rich, Lys Anna and Rich took the more civilized route to the local pub... All round enjoyment and more game fueled Gem!
Monday was pack up and dodge the rain day. A fierce storm blew in and we were glad we'd been out of the wind in the trees at the bottom of the hill. As the final wheelbarrow of kit went up the hill, the heavens opened and we left soaked and smiling!
Steffi and I headed to Bath and enjoyed visiting Sam's listed gaff and seeing all the work hes done there (LOTS) and then went into town for a relaxed evening meal and day together in the spa! Amazing!
Thanks everyone, we had an amazing weekend!!!!
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