So now my next round of traveling is through Wales, Essex, and Scotland, this time more scenic. I'm going to try to vlog/blog about this trip more properly.
Brecon, Wales
5/24 - on a train from London to Newport, some people threw rocks at the train and a nearby(?) car, and broke (a) train window(s) and injured the driver of the car, other details unknown. anyways, had to get off at didcot and switch trains. Awkward delay. On the new train, we ended up getting to switch onto Newport, the only difference is a table and a charger. There was also a group of college frat boys/jocks (presumably) that were making a lot of racket and being assholes in general. When I finally made it into Abergavenny, I was totally lost and contemplated hitchhiking for a good half hour before finally finding the bus stop that'd take me to Brecon.
Sugarloaf, Monmouthshire, Wales
Climbed Sugarloaf, a very small mountain quite a distance from Brecon. Our entire trek was about 10km.
-Grabbed a fallen tree branch for a makeshift walking stick and kept slowing everyone down/falling behind.
Relaxing hike to Pen Y Crug Hillfort
Went on a muddy trek through some farm fields to a city, then saw a cathedral (fancy!), and then the hillfort itself. Weird Iron Age stories and hypothesizes.
5-27-13: Taxi-ed to the Dan-Yr-Ogof showcaves *see map*. pretty damned awesome- writers inspiration. met swheb. drive thru some waterfalls, tash almost fell.
5-28-13: The past 4 days had been exhausting but exhilarating, mostly becuz im one big ball of fail when it comes to hiking. planned to loop around these waterfalls. rooster-peacock calls. trevor dog. waterfalls. scrambling/rock climbing-ish. detours. sheep serenading. more waterfalls and scrambling and detours and getting lost. lunch waterfall- tash day b4 almost fell off, high cliff. turned out the path we took was 'dangerous'. main road yay! awesome nice information guy. walking like 4-5km back to village. *show hostel hallway *
Some typical sensations of climbing: thorns, sloshy, moss, rocks and tree trunks as footholds, swerving around trying to find paths.
Also- awesome, thriller-movie type hostel/bunk barn thing we stayed in.
5-29-13 to 5-31-13: Recovery from Wales for Scotland, ha.
5-31-13: Overnight drive to Scotland woo-woo-woo! Stopped by Glasgow for a dawn castle view. We stayed at this random hut at Langangarbh in the middle of nowhere mountains.
June 1: Beautiful, mini-Indiana Jones-style canal walk/hike! Enjoyed this- I crossed a log bridge, tunnel-climbed (lol), climbed castle ruins, skipped stones, cool shit.
June 2: Bit of a painful day hiking 15km. This is where I realized and lived out a metaphor for life- if you fall down you get the fuck back up. I cannot count the number of times that I was like- ok, you can collapse and take a nap if you reach that tree, etc. That was all that was preoccupying my mind- it was painful- painful! But that's how life is and you gotta get back up and move on. One mega-cool highlight- running on top (literally) a Chamber of Secrets-sized pipe along the sides of a mountain!
June 3: Later that night at a pub with some other members, met a Canadian and then a man with a dog and did all sorts of interesting talking. My first time publicly showing people my attempt at a British accent. #Embarrassment.
June 4: Kayaking with Margaret and some other people. Cue ~rocking the boat~ jokes.
June 7: Returning home to USA
Some videos: Penderyn in Brecon Beacons , Skipping stones in Scotland, Gandalf on Sugarloaf Mountain, Last morning in Scotland
To be continued...
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