Gadget Corner

If you want a quick brew while out camping, the mKettle is just the job. Burn twigs or leaves in the bottom, and it will boil a pint of water in as little as six minutes. The price is £45 from www.thegorgeoutdoors.co.uk.

Time travelling to the Bronze Age

Budding archaeologists, or even the armchair variety, should make a note in their diaries for the Gwyl Bryngaer / Hilfort Festival taking place between the 11th and 13th of July at Felin Uchaf on the Llyn Peninsula.

Bangor University's Archaeology Department have been excavating the Meillionydd hill top settlement which dates back to the late Bronze Age on the slopes of Mynydd Rhiw, and they are running a special series of events to show their findings including guided tours of the excavations, and "experimental archaeology" at the Felin Uchaf centre, including demonstrations of Iron Age cooking, and story-telling in the reconstructed Iron Age round houses.

Photograph of Meillionydd, taken from the higher slopes of Mynydd Rhiw in 2011 (photo: Dafydd-Davies Hughes).

Mass Skinny-dip in Wales

Is there a future for naturist tourism in North Wales? Oxwich Bay on the Gower saw 100 people as naked as the day they were born indulge in a mass skinny dip in broad daylight at low tide on June the 2nd. This was a charity fundraiser, but it begs the question of whether there is a trend towards naturism, and whether there are suitable beaches in North Wales. What would this mean for the coast path? After the jailing of the naked rambler, would this mean a reprieve? Comments please.

Heart of Adventure

Here's a phrase that you are going to hear a lot more of in the future. Heart of Adventure is the new branding for the North Wales Outdoor Sector.

Why? In 2012 Tourism Partnership North Wales (TPNW) commissioned Pearlfisher to create a brand identity that firmly establishes North Wales as the destination for outdoor activity in the UK.
Pearlfisher’s task was to define a unique, compelling and ownable brand positioning for the north Wales outdoor sector and the numerous businesses within it. The final report can be found here: Heart of Adventure Final Report.
Pearlfisher arrived at: The Heart of Adventure and concluded that:
“This statement celebrates your excellence in the outdoor sector, while pulling together your three brand differentiators; demonstrating your compact environment, your central  location And the emotional importance of your cultural heritage.”

Sounds good to us!

Google tells it like it's going to be!

Ed Parsons from Google

Internet giant Google will be digitally mapping tourist hotspots in North Wales with the same advanced technology they used in the iconic Grand Canyon. The news was revealed at the third annual Outdoor North Wales Forum organised by Tourism Partnership North Wales to highlight new developments in the outdoor sector, including a major new marketing campaign. Google will deploy their rapid-shooting cameras to capture the mountains of Snowdonia, large stretches of the Wales Coast Path from Chester down to Barmouth along with other parts of North Wales. The state of the art cameras will not be mounted on the company’s usual airplane or a car - instead they’ll be pointed from the backpacks of a team of operatives working their way through the area on foot.
Details of the next ambitious stage of Google Earth, the virtual globe, map and geographical information program which enables computer users to zoom in on areas from space down to street level, were revealed during at the Forum.

Left to right: Chris Wright (Snowdonia Active), Rory Fegan (Pearlfisher), Peter Hewlett (Walking North Wales), Ed Parsons (Google), Dewi Davies (Tourism Partnership North Wales)

Mr Parsons said his Silicon Valley-based corporation was planning to capture images for Google Earth of the mountains of North Wales. The exercise would use exactly the same technology which the company had devised to intricately map the vast and mostly inaccessible Grand Canyon in Arizona – cameras fitted to the backpacks of operators known as “trekkers” who were able to walk along filming dizzlingly high pathways and tracks which Google’s planes and cars had no chance of reaching. Mr Parsons said: “The specially designed cameras, controlled by a mobile phone app, are carried by the trekkers are in 20 kilogram packs strapped to their backs and they automatically take pictures every two-and-a-half seconds.
“We are really excited about bringing this level of technology to the UK.” Mr Parsons explained Google was looking at places popular with walkers in the region, from the Dee Valley around Llangollen to the Wales Coast Path, which includes miles of stunning countryside including the Dee Estuary, Flintshire, Denbighshire, Conwy and Gwynedd.

Journalism works

Snowdon lives up to its name.

Peter spends a lot of time showing journalists from the UK and overseas around his favourite haunts in North Wales. He does this because editorial in newspapers and magazines is a powerful motivator for people when they look for holidays. It is far more cost effective than paid advertisements and it gives a much better image of Wales to consumers. An article has just been posted on the National Parks Traveller website, and more are promised. All of them are the result of three days of hard work put in by Peter after he met the journalist, Randy Johnson, at Manchester Airport on April the 25th. One of the things he did was to guide him on his way up Snowdon, where he took these wonderful photographs. It was one of those days of transition between winter and summer. The sun was shining, but there was snow on the ground.

Looking towards the Llyn Peninsula, where it looks as if it's about to snow.

An easy section of the Llanberis path, except for the black ice.

Randy takes some video shots looking south east.

Peter takes to the airwaves.

Llinos Jones from the BBC, who interviewed Peter

Peter has been involved with selling day tours (including walking tours) to Cruise Passengers calling at Holyhead for a year or two now. www.cruiseexcursionswales.com was launched in March, and the BBC have now highlighted the great question of exactly how best to use the opportunity that cruise ships present to enhance the local economy. If you are interested in hearing Peter's point of view then click on http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01bc0wt to hear a short audio clip, which was broadcast on the Jason Mohammad show on BBC Radio Wales on the 13th of June.