Weather is a state of mind

View from Porthmadog Harbour

Maybe it's because I don't have kids that I find some of the things kids do so funny.  I recently read a post on Facebook about the things kids have tantrums over and one parent described an occasion when his young son had a meltdown because he didn't want his gloves to be blue.  He'd apparently worn them many times before, without incident, but on this particular day he wanted his green gloves to be blue.  And they weren't.  So he threw a world class tantrum.  Judging by the comments, even those people with kids thought this was amusing, so I wasn't alone in my sniggering.

The thing is I can see the exact same logic, or lack of it, when it comes to ranting, railing and moaning about the weather.  The weather on a given day is not going to change just because we hate it anymore than that kids gloves are going to miraculously change from green to blue.  The weather is what it is so we may as well just get on with it.  Yes, it's been miserable this year but so what?  Stick on your thermals and your waterproof and get out there anyway.

We're just back from a week in Wales and for the five full days we were there the weather was rain, sun, rain, sun, rain - in that order.  No messing around with a bit of grey skies and drizzle - nope, we either had full on sun or full on rain.  I kid you not, these are 5 photos, one from each day:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5 (Steve was pulling that face on purpose!)  😁

Plus, is it just me, or are the folks that moan most about the weather the ones that are least likely to venture outdoors anyway?  So, basically, the problem with the weather for them is that it's a bit wet when they're getting from their car to whichever building they're visiting.

In an effort to buck the "whinging about the weather" trend, here are my five fab reasons to be happy when it's cold and wet.

1.  It's a perfect excuse to visit museums, art galleries and interesting old homes.  Yes, I know they're open when it's sunny too but they're perfect for soggy wet days.  They usually have great cakes too.  Porth y Swnt at Aberdaron on the end of the Llyn Peninsula is utterly fascinating and a brilliant combination of art gallery and museum.  It tells of the history of the region as well as celebrating its wildlife and there is plenty there for kids to do too.

Porth y Swnt at Aberdaron

2.  Because the sound of the rain, either on trees or drumming on the roof of the campervan is so relaxing.  You can buy relaxation albums which contain the sound of rainfall - but why spend your money on that when you can hear it for free?  Plus it makes great patterns on the windows.

3.  Because the beaches, and any other outdoors attractions, are way quieter - in fact you can usually have them all to yourself while everyone else hides away indoors.

Lloyd George's Grave - not a soul around

Miles of empty beach - perfect solitude

4.  Because when it's stormy the sea looks AMAZING!  I couldn't do it justice with my camera phone but the waves crashing onto the rocks were spectacular.  You don't get that in the middle of a heatwave!

Aberdaron

5.  Because when you've been out and about getting soggy, cold and wet, there's nothing nice than a hot drink and a slice of well earned cake - or curling up under the duvet with your favourite people.

FAVE cake of the week from The Withes Brew in Pwllheli

You could even use the time to teach yourself some new and highly valuable skills. 

Of course we made the most of the sunshine too - the only thing I wasn't impressed with during the entire week was the £12 per person entry fee for Portmeirion.  We checked their website but couldn't see mention of much other than hotels, accommodation, shops and cafe's so we gave it a miss and had a fabulous adventure on Black Rock Sands instead.

Here's the rest of our trip in a nutshell:

Beach walk near Llanystumdwy

Criccieth Castle

Pwllheli Beach

Quick paddle!

Morfa Nefyn

Morfa Nefyn

Morfa Nefyn - excellent beach walk!

Criccieth

Porthmadog

Borth-y-Gest

Black Rock Sands

Black Rock Sands

A dirty bike is a happy bike!

Aberdaron

Abersoch

For those who are interested we stayed at the Camping and Caravanning Club Site at Llanystumdwy - it's small but perfectly placed for exploring the region.  The bus will pick up and drop off at the campsite gates.  

Wild in Wales Part 2 - Zippy & Bungle

We are no strangers to zipwire/ high ropes adventures.  We've scared ourselves witless at Calvert Trust in Kielder on their high ropes course, we've tackled the 7 huge zipwires of Go Ape in Grizedale and we've zoomed high across the Eden Project in Cornwall - so I'll admit I was a little blase about scrambling through a few caverns and whizzing across a the zipwires that Zipworld had to offer at their Cavern Adventure in Blaenau Ffestiniog.  That'll teach me.  I can honestly say I haven't had such a brilliantly fun and, at the same time, utterly terrifying adventure for a long time.  "Do something that scares you at least once each day" they say - well I'm good for a week or more now.  (For the record, based on today's performance, Steve's Zippy and I'm most definitely Bungle...)

Criccieth Beach & Castle

We're still camped at the lovely Camping and Caravanning Club Site at Llanystumdwy - it's a small site alongside the A497 near Criccieth with excellent facilities and is the perfect base for exploring the Lleyn Peninsula and Snowdonia.

Zipworld have a number of adventures to choose from, there's the terrifying Velocity zipwire in Bethesda - the longest zipwire in Europe & the fastest in the world (suitable for adrenaline junkies) and the Treetop Nets adventure (suitable for all the family) amongst many others.  Given that the weather was somewhat changeable we opted for the Caverns Adventure - an all weather adventure deep below the ground - what could possibly go wrong?

As instructed we arrived 30 mins before our launch time to sign the obligatory disclaimer and get fitted out with the usual harness etc.  I first became concerned when they said there was a 1 hour training session before we were allowed out on the course - 1 hour?  How scary is this exactly?  I soon found out....

The photo above is of the cavern where the adventure begins.  No photos would do it justice.  Once your comprehensive training is done you're let loose on the course which involves creeping across walls 50 feet plus above the floor of the cavern, zooming along zipwires that zig zag along the length of the cavern, wobbling over rope bridges that would make Indiana Jones think twice and slithering your way over nets suspended hidden so high in the roof of the caverns that I didn't dare look down so can't actually tell you how high they really were.

Oh - and there's crawling through narrow tunnels too - did I mention that?

This is HUGE compared to the tunnels
we crawled through

We've only splashed out on one "tourist experience" during our hols and I'm so glad it was this - it was a superb adventure and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to recommend it.  My only criticism is that at the "rest spot" half way around the course there were no G&Ts on offer - and I could really have used a little Dutch Courage.  (Trust me - take a look at their website and give them a go!)

Once we were done with all the scary stuff we headed back to the site, the sun was out, the skies were blue and the cafe in Criccieth was serving the most amazing hot cherry pancakes.  I'm pretty sure that pure terror burns a lot of calories so I reckon the treat was calorie free, plus the cherries are being counted as one of my "five-a-day".

Tomorrow we're off up Snowdon - a walk in the park after today's adventure surely? (Famous last words!)