Railways and Walking - Full Steam ahead

One of the useful additions to the tourist infrastructure of North Wales this year has been the Welsh Highland Railway which now runs a full service from Caernarfon to Porthmadog taking in the best of the scenery around Beddgelert and the Aberglaslyn Gorge. Together with the Ffestiniog Railway which has been running as a steam narrow gauge railway for many years between Porthmadog and Blaenau Ffestiniog this makes this concentration of tourism railways the best in the world. You could use it to admire the scenery all the way from Caernarfon right round to Blaenau and then catch the Conwy Valley railway to Bangor. It is then an easy bus trip back to Caernarfon. But that is a long trip. It would take all day. Much better to use the railway for short trips as a means of accessing walks. Look out for future blogs on a series of these. These photos which I took yesterday will surely whet your appetite.

What is a Duathlon?

Duathlons are similar to Triathlons, but lack a swimming leg.

If you are up for a challenge, a mountain bike duathlon is held annually in the Llandegla Forest. You can see pictures from last February's event at www.uberfitevents.com/fearless.html.

Next Year's event will take place on Sunday 17th February 2013.

If you have any questions or would like more information on any of the events coming up in 2013, please send an email to info@uberfitevents.com

Uberfit Events

PO Box 494

Manchester

M16 6DD

Tel: 07871 268 289

Walking in the Conwy Valley?

Something new has appeared at Bodnant and if you are walking in the Conwy Valley this weekend I can recommend a visit. This is the Bodnant Welsh Food Centre in the Conwy Valley. It was opened by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall in early July and 33,000 people have already visited. 60 jobs have been created and it has a shop, tearoom, tourist accommodation, bakery, dairy, bee keeping centre and a cookery school.

You can find a BBC news story from prior to the opening here.

30 Years of learning Welsh!

What are you doing this weekend? If you are going to be in the area of Caernarfon / Nefyn then why not book a place to celebrate Nant Gwrtheyrn's 30 anniversary as a language centre. The celebrations will start at 1.30pm on Sunday the 30th of September. There will be a slide show to start, followed by a party attended by Dr Carl Clowes who founded the project 30 years ago.

Porth y Nant was once a thriving mining village, but was largely abandoned and fell into disrepair after the quarry closed following the second world war. The village was given a new lease of life in 1982 when a group of tutors and students gathered in one of the newly renovated houses to learn Welsh.

Nant is now on the route of the Wales Coast Path, and Caffi Meinir is a great place to stop for a cup of tea while passing through.

Please Email the office at Nant on post@nantgwrtheyrn.org,  or phone 01758 750 334 if you would like to attend.

Kayakers rescued off Porth Dinllaen

Two kayakers from Aberdovey have been rescued after getting into difficulties off the Llyn Peninsula last Sunday. The two men were more than a mile from the coast and were facing difficulties in a flood tide. They sent a radio distress call saying that they could not make any headway, but they were unable to provide details of their exact location.

HMS Tyne

A rescue operation was put into action after the pair issued a mayday using a UHF radio at 14:50 BST on Sunday.

Luckily, a coastguard team from Aberdaron spotted them just over a mile off shore as the new lifeboat from Porthdinllaen made its way to the scene. But the first to arrive was the Royal Naval Minehunter HMS Tyne and the fishing boat Ocean Bounty.

Holyhead coastguards say the kayakers had struggled to cope with the strong tides but did not need medical help.

Porth Dinllaen Lifeboat

Thinking of working in the Great Outdoors?

If you are thinking of setting up a business in or around Conwy then Conwy Business Week might be just the thing for you. It has just been announced that between the 15th and the 19th of October there are to be 4 conferences in different locations around Conwy.

15th October Glan Llyn, Y Bala

16th October Conwy Business Centre
18th October Glasdir Llanrwst
19th October Plas Menai Caernarfon
Cost – FREE
Lunch provided

The aim of the conference is to:
· Engage with businesses across Conwy and Gwynedd so as to understand the needs and issues that the Outdoor sector faces and in particular those that prevent growth in our local companies.
· Promote the Outdoor Tourism project and the available support that it can provide to local businesses, plus the available support from the Welsh Government Regional Centre Service (Business support service).
· Update businesses on the latest developments in the sector across Wales including the branding of Outdoor Tourism in North Wales.
· Meet and share good practise with businesses across the sector.

To do this the conference will:
· Raise awareness of outdoor tourism as a way of working and meeting outcomes
· Share good practice and promote on-going work
· Provide opportunities for business development and partnerships
· Provide an opportunity to register an interest in being involved in the Outdoor Tourism Project either as beneficiary or provider of services.

I will be going to the Conwy Business Centre on the 16th. See you there!

Wild Cycling in North Wales

Last Saturday saw the formal launch of a brilliant mountain biking trail book relating to North Wales. This took place at the Outdoor Partnership Festival at Plas y Brenin.

North Wales is rightfully well-known for it's fantastic purpose built mountain bike trails. At Coed y Brenin, Dafydd Davis pioneered the concept in the UK. Today we've also got trails such as the Marin and those at Penmachno and Llandegla to choose from.

But before these developments mountain bikers got their two-wheel fix and honed their skills on the area's trails and bridleways. The hills and mountains offer no shortage of memorable unsanitised adventures.

This new guidebook offers a carefully selected choice of 27 such routes using Ordnance Survey mapping. They range in difficulty from suitability for those new to the sport, through medium distance & black difficulty and on to some real challenging expeditions to test your fitness, skills, navigation and even sense of humour, like the epic 78km circuit of the Carneddau mountains.

There is a poignant story behind this book in that the author, Pete Bursnall, had just about finished writing the book before becoming too ill to carry on and sadly didn't live to see it published.

Matt Strickland, who has ensured that Pete's work wasn't wasted, said: "Pete researched, rode and wrote this book whilst dealing with what he always referred to as his 'cancer black dog'. He rode his bikes pretty much as if nothing was wrong with him and only in his final few months when lesser mortals would have long since stopped riding was Pete unable to ride."

He added: "This book was never intended to be a farewell from Pete, he never saw life like that, it's a book of great routes to be ridden and enjoyed just because you can."