Our group would rendezvous at the train station in Chester this morning, and by the time our guide arrived we'd self-assembled and were happily chatting. I'd figured that it wouldn't be difficult to spot the others: backpack-wearing, luggage-toting folks loitering in the seating area. What I didn't expect was an all-woman group!
Cycling through Wales, eight years ago, I was introduced to a place I'd wished I could explore more. I just might have to come back here, I'd thought.
Then a message landed in my inbox last August:
Explore the Myths and Mountains of Eryri (Snowdonia). [Sign. Me. Up.]
Our first “walk” (
translation: hike) was the
Precipice Walk. Now you can begin to see why I'd hoped to see more of
Snowdonia ...
The tour's itinerary described this hike as “mellow;” evidently choosing to omit the trail's name (lest we be intimidated).
A native thistle offered a welcome pop of color on a gloomy day, while sheep hunkered down not far from a crumbling circle of stones that might once have provided shelter for shepherds.
In the distance, late-afternoon light reflected off the channel leading to the Irish Sea. Along the trail, gorse blooms spread a little sunshine.
Our group was getting on well: one Canadian, six Americans (including three sisters!), and our English guide. Our pace was comfortable over our
3.5-mile loop, but the remaining walks promise to be more challenging.
We're the inaugural group(!) for this tour—a fact I'd overlooked in that email message last year. All I'd needed to see, then, was “Snowdonia.” As the date for the trip grew closer and I studied the actual itinerary, I began to worry that I might be in over my head ...
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment