Gang aft agley

As some readers know I plan to spend my sixty-second birthday on the back of an elephant hunting tiger with the camera following completion of the Annapurna Sanctuary Trek at the end of March with daughter. We added in the option of a game park day at the end to cover my birthday. It is going to be frantic as I land from South Africa the morning of the day I depart for Delphi and I have to get to New York for the day after I return. But I have never been to the Himalaya and I think I am fit enough. As part of the preparation I rented a holiday cottage near Capel Curig for this week. I have meetings at Bangor University but they were organised for the evening to allow for longish walks under winter conditions during the day.

It was a good plan, but the storm swept in on Sunday as we were driving up. Monday we managed a brief walk over Bwlch Tryfan before the wind drove us down. That walk may cost me the best part of a thousand nicker as both iPhone and Camera got soaked, but I have hopes. Sony depressingly will no longer maintain or repair a RX100 which is a disgrace, but it is only refusing to charge so a few days may result in recovery. The iPhone may represent different problem so duty free on the way to Kuwait this Sunday may be the only option.

Today the storm was so bad that any idea of a walk was out of the question. For the first time in my life I didn’t see any cars parked along Llyn Ogwen when we drive into to buy food in the afternoon. The lane on which are cottage is situated was in danger of being flooded as some 70mm of train fell today. The picture was taken from the car window earlier today. Desperate for some exercise we drove out to Cable Bay on Anglesea, site of many a memory from both my childhood and that of daughter. The storm was whipping up the sea and the wind was so strong it was physically impossible to get to the cliff top. Pictures of both days here. I normally argue that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad equipment, but this week is an exception to that rule.

Tomorrow we might get 4 hours between bad weather, Thursday looks OK but Friday and Saturday have more storms forecast. Well it was a good plan …..