A belated post as having left the campsite and moved to a hotel in Llanberis I couldn't upload on either mobile data or the hotel WiFi. Although I stayed in Wales this was the last day in the campervan so this is the final blog post of the trip.
I'd part packed up on the Thursday night as I wanted a reasonably early start to get over to Llanberis. I was able to park in the hotel car park (I did check it was OK) which saved me about £7! I'd booked for the steam train up Snowdon, good timing as it was their 120th anniversary weekend. Originally the train was at 9:30 but they'd changed it to 10:30 which gave me a bit more time in hand. One advantage of being early is I end up talking to people, in particular I had a chat with the hog-roast man. Around 50 years ago he was there selling bunches of heather to the tourists for tuppence ha'penny, now he sells them pig sandwiches for £5 (and very good they are too, I sampled them later).
For me the steam train was definitely worth the extra over the diesel. Our loco for the day was Enid, the only survivor from the opening day in 1896 (literally, loco No. 1 crashed that day, the only significant accident they've ever had).
The heritage coaches have been rebuilt recently on original chassis, they're very well done though. It's not so much the visual impact of the steam, it's the sound. I mentioned this earlier in the week but there really is no better sound than an engine under load, and of course they're really working up the mountain.
The summit itself was in the clouds, and it was windy (although not as bad as the Saturday) but I did make the effort to climb the last bit to the trig point.
You don't get very long at the summit, around 30 minutes, as you have to return on the same train, I found the downhill run a bit nerve racking, although in truth it's quite safe. The loco and coach are not coupled, if the loco runs away an emergency brake will stop the coach.
After lunch and a couple of pints I walked round to the National Slate Museum. It's worth the entrance fee (there's no charge) and was interesting enough.
On the way back to the hotel I took a couple of photos of the Llanberis Lake Railway (I'll go back for a ride another day) and visited Dolbadarn, a fortified tower, just to complete the mix of castles and trains for the week.
The rest of the weekend was spent with friends old and new as we attacked the mountain to raise money for charity. Unfortunately Saturday's weather didn't match Friday and in the end the summit was beyond most of the walkers. We achieved our main aim though of remembering our late friend Carol and, as at the time of writing, raising nearly £3,000 for Children in Need and MacMillan.
The journey home was mostly along the A5 and was uneventful apart from a Volkswagen nearly taking me out on a roundabout. The campervan behaved impeccably throughout the week with no problems.
The only issue really proved to be storage again. Having to have kit for both the camping and the hotel, plus doing a bit of shopping, left me with kit stuffed into every available space, but I coped. It's something I'll be thinking about over the winter although at the moment unless I find a perfect unit I'm keeping Dai until the end of next season at least.
I'd part packed up on the Thursday night as I wanted a reasonably early start to get over to Llanberis. I was able to park in the hotel car park (I did check it was OK) which saved me about £7! I'd booked for the steam train up Snowdon, good timing as it was their 120th anniversary weekend. Originally the train was at 9:30 but they'd changed it to 10:30 which gave me a bit more time in hand. One advantage of being early is I end up talking to people, in particular I had a chat with the hog-roast man. Around 50 years ago he was there selling bunches of heather to the tourists for tuppence ha'penny, now he sells them pig sandwiches for £5 (and very good they are too, I sampled them later).
For me the steam train was definitely worth the extra over the diesel. Our loco for the day was Enid, the only survivor from the opening day in 1896 (literally, loco No. 1 crashed that day, the only significant accident they've ever had).
The heritage coaches have been rebuilt recently on original chassis, they're very well done though. It's not so much the visual impact of the steam, it's the sound. I mentioned this earlier in the week but there really is no better sound than an engine under load, and of course they're really working up the mountain.
The summit itself was in the clouds, and it was windy (although not as bad as the Saturday) but I did make the effort to climb the last bit to the trig point.
You don't get very long at the summit, around 30 minutes, as you have to return on the same train, I found the downhill run a bit nerve racking, although in truth it's quite safe. The loco and coach are not coupled, if the loco runs away an emergency brake will stop the coach.
After lunch and a couple of pints I walked round to the National Slate Museum. It's worth the entrance fee (there's no charge) and was interesting enough.
On the way back to the hotel I took a couple of photos of the Llanberis Lake Railway (I'll go back for a ride another day) and visited Dolbadarn, a fortified tower, just to complete the mix of castles and trains for the week.
The rest of the weekend was spent with friends old and new as we attacked the mountain to raise money for charity. Unfortunately Saturday's weather didn't match Friday and in the end the summit was beyond most of the walkers. We achieved our main aim though of remembering our late friend Carol and, as at the time of writing, raising nearly £3,000 for Children in Need and MacMillan.
The journey home was mostly along the A5 and was uneventful apart from a Volkswagen nearly taking me out on a roundabout. The campervan behaved impeccably throughout the week with no problems.
The only issue really proved to be storage again. Having to have kit for both the camping and the hotel, plus doing a bit of shopping, left me with kit stuffed into every available space, but I coped. It's something I'll be thinking about over the winter although at the moment unless I find a perfect unit I'm keeping Dai until the end of next season at least.
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