Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Fot the last two days I have been working for Outer Limits Explore in Essex where I have been assessing candidates for the Basic Expedition Leader Award (BELA) on a two day expedition in the Epping Forest in Essex. As I had never been there before it was nice to go somewhere new and it was very flat so gave my knees a rest. We ended up camping at Gilwell Park which is the National Scout Campsite. Each day was around 12km and gave the candidates the oportunity to demonstrate their navigational and leadership skills.

Today I was finally able to get out of the support vehicle and jumped on a bike to lead the group for 50km through some fantastic French countryside from Beauvais, through Meru and into Pontoise. My 2 hr reprieve over, I swapped back with Richard and jumped back into the van for the final stretch into Paris. Not sure I particulary enjoyed driving round the Arc de Triomph and then failing to find a parking space anywhere near the Eifel Tower. Well done to all 7 particpants who sucessfully completed the 400+ km ride in four days.

More amazing roads Today the team was doing a shorter ride of about 100km through some lovely French countryside and on into the large town of Beauvais. As I was again stuck driving the support vehicle the highlight of my day was waiting for 50 minuites for the bakery to open and then getting the biggest bit of custard tart ever.

Quiet French Roads Stunning Coastline One of many hills The Blue Elephant Carwas Over the last two days I have been working for Adventure Cafe  and am driving the support vehicle as a team of 8 cyclists started at The Greenwich observatory and headed down through Rochester to Dover. We jumped on the ferry before a ver short 2km cycle to the hotel in Calais. Today I have been driving down the west coast of France as the team rode around 145km through some outstanding scenary to Aberville and the hotel there. The weather has been excepotioanlly hot and although I would like to be cycling it is vbery pleasant in the air conditioned van. Photos to follow shortly

Tomorrow I will be working for Adventure Cafe on a London to Paris Cycle Ride . I will be taking turns at cycling and driving the support vehicle. The plan is to cover 280 miles over the next 4 days and arrive in Paris on Sunday pm for a lovely meal and wander round the city.  Tonight I am in a F1 hotel in Barking and I am wondering if a Tent would be bigger!

Boat 1 Rolling Boat 2 Today I had a nice day out testing Sea Kayaks from AS Watersports at Meadfoot Beach in Torbay. I had narrowed the selection down to two models from the same manufacturer. I took them both out, paddled in the waves and rolled the boats repeatedly as well as testing their general paddling ability. Sounds great doesn't it! Well, the first one was too slow when turning and was heavier to roll (though it was the cheaper of the two) and the second one was fantastic in all aspects but was too small for me. I have gone back to the drawing board and am investigating the availability of a larger version of boat two. I may have to have another day testing boats next week. Hope the weather is as good then as it was today.

Capsize Drills Today was a quiet day at home with only a quick BCU Two Star Assessment to conduct down at The Bridgwater YMCA. Well when I say a quiet day I have been researching what Sea Kayak to buy.

Entering  a narrow cave Brilliant Cliffs A Sea Stack and a Grey Seal Another quality lunch spot Kayaking or Caving? With the winds picking up and not wanting to paddle against a 24mph breeze we headed to the relatively sheltered bay of windwick on the East coast of South Ronaldsay where we spent a few hours exploring the stacks and caves. We saw a large colony of Grey Seals sunbathing on a rock who  immediatley hit the water and I was lucky enough to have one swim under my kayak. I was not quick enough with the camera though. This was also the first day we managed to get off the water before 6pm. The continuous daylight all week has really messed up my body clock and I am hoping for it to return to normal soon as I travel home tomorrow.

Some Fulmar Nests Looking down on the lunch spot Me relaxing Today we went East to avoid the wind and large swell and found an amazing collection of Caves and Geos. Whilst we only paddled around 13km it took us over 6 hours as we explored every inch of the coastline. The Birdlife was amazing even though the smell of bird poo was over powering in some of the caves. We saw Guillimots, Razorbills (literally thousands) as well as Kittiwakes, Artic Turns and a couple of Grey Seals.

Steve, Graeme and Alan paddling off without me :-( Seals Steve, Graeme and Alan in the full force of the tidal flow Common Seals Unfortunately I developed a sore throat and general illness during the paddles yesterday so I was confined to dry land today and took the opportunity to have a wander round and spotted some seals as well as grabbing pictures of the rest of the guys out paddling. I hope to be back on the water tomorrow.

Lunch Time We paddled out from Orkeny Mainland round the small island of Gairsay. The tide was running at about 2knts so gave us a good workout on the paddle back. In the last few hundred metres of the day we were joined by a large number of seals who were very interested in what we were doing. Today we saw Geese, Fulmars, Oyster Catchers, Kttiwakes, Eider Ducks and both Grey Seals and Common Seals,

A Small Sea Stack Today we caught the ferry over from Gill's Bay and arrived on Orkney where we promptly headed off to meet the final member of the team. After coffe and cake we headed to the West side of Orkney Mainland, got the kayaks off the roof and headed into the sea. It was fairly rough in places but calmed down enough after a while to allow us in closer to the cliffs. Today I saw Fulmars, Guilimots, Black Guilimots, Kittiwakes, Eider Ducks, Oyster Catchers and the day ended on a high with a seal following me around and popping up to have a good stare at me. We are now camped at at very nice site in Stromness looking over to Hoy.

 Camping at John O Groats This morning I left the group in Nick's capable hands and headed to Bristol to catch a flight to Inverness where I met up with Graeme and Steve and headed a further two hours north to John O Groats. Here we pitched tents for the night looking North to Orkney. Tomorrow morning we will be on the first ferry over. It is 11:30pm and not dark yet!

The Cycle Team getting ready A very safe and friendly Adder Nick on Dunkery Beacon Some steep and rough terrain Yesterday whilst the groups were out on their expedition, Nick and I headed off on our bikes to meet up with them but also to have a good ride ourselves. 15 minutes into the day we spotted an Adder so decided to get some photos. Unlike last time however it was dead so somewhat safer. We did about 25km cycling during the with a mixture of on and off road. The award for most crashes goes to Nick for 3 times over the handlebars whereas I only manged it a measly once. Both groups I was looking after were in on time (even early at times) and showed real skill in navigation and camp craft.

 Sparkhayes Campsite The last week has been a mixture of college marking and family committments and I haven't had the chance to get out. However, I am now back out and this weekend I am down on Exmoor with Haygrove School assessing two groups for their Bronze D of E Award. One of the groups is a walking group and the other is a cycling group which means that I can get out and about on my bike and enjoy some of the bridleways and cycle paths whilst checking on them.

Swan Family This morning I was conducting 1 and 2 Star Paddlesport Assessments for Bridgwater YMCA . The candidates have been taughtby Anneka over the last week and it was time for them to demonstrate their newly acquired skills. Of the 4 candidates, 2 passed the 1 Star Award and 2 reached the standard for the 2 Star. During the test, we were followed by a family of swans. The parents and their 10 cygnets seem to be doing well but I am led to believe there were 12 last week so 2 have unfortunately died for some reason.

 Wednesday's low level walk around Moel Hebog Yesterday the groups were on some lower level ground around the Beddgelert Area so I didn't get a chance to go up high but Cath and Gordon headed up Moel Hebog whilst I stayed low to meet up with and check on the group.  Looking up to Moel Elio  Looking up to Snowdon from near Llanberis Today as the group headed up and over Moel Elio towards Llanberis, Gordon and I took the opportunity to ascend from the other direction and met the group on Foel Gron just down from the summit before looping round and heading to Pete's Eats for coffee and grub. I am pleased to report all 5 group members finished their expedition so a big Well Done to Abby, Rebecca, Tom, Tim and Seb.

Tryfan North Face The Cannon on Tryfan  Gordon on Bristly Ridge Me in a wet gully on Bristly Ridge Whilst the group took a longer less steep way up onto The Glyders from Gwern Gof Isaf, Gordon and I headed up the North Ridge of Tryfan in somewhat misty and damp conditions and then continued up Bristly Ridge onto Glyder Fach. Having received word from the group that thay had turned off due to poor visibility (a good decision by them) we headed down and took the Miner's Path to the Pen Y Guryd Hotal and the bottom of Pen y Pass before continuing down to the campsite an Llyn Gwynant.