The weekend before last, we had FUN !

I turned 40 round about this time last year, give or take a week.  I know, you can’t believe it right? I don’t look a day over 50.  Aaaanyway, my Other Half invested in a Red Letter Day for me, white water rafting.  With this, I was very very happy 🙂

Last weekend was the day I chose to enjoy my experience.  The two of us packed up a bag each, a bike each and left our troubles at home on Saturday morning.  We drove to Bala, to find our B&B, Cwmtylo, about 3 miles outside Bala and within striking distance of the rafting centre.  Cwmtylo is a 400 year-old farmhouse and family home to Dylan and Craig.  I’ll be honest, it’s not the easiest place in the world to find, even by Welsh standards.  But it’s worth the drive and it’s only 10 minutes from the main A-road that passes Bala Lake – unless you take a wrong turn, in which case you’re way into murderer country (in your mind).  Cwmtylo is still a working farm.  In fact, Dylan only made the place into a B&B in response to the local tourist board’s appeal in 2009 for more B&B beds.

The Water Cycle

After leaving our bags at the B&B and enjoying Dylan’s cuppa with a nice cherry bakewell, we drove down to Bala Leisure Centre and parked the car for a few hours.  Unhooking the bikes, we got ourselves wrapped up against the Welsh wetness, which was drizzling slowly from the grey skies.  But, as Clive says, there’s no such thing as bad weather – just the wrong clothes.  We had the right clothes.

Eleven or so miles and some fantastic views later, we’d circumnavigated Bala Lake and we’d loved the undulations along the eastern bank.  From that side, away from the A-road which skirts the west side of the lake, the views of Snowdonia are simply stunning.  If you ever find yourself in Wales with an hour or two to kill, I recommend you try it.  It’s not a hard ride by any means, and if your legs aren’t up to a few little hills, they’re easily short enough to trudge up and roll down!

Dr Dre’s Place

Nobody was looking, so we got changed in the Leisure Centre car park.  A quick scoot into town and we found Plas-Y-Dre restaurant, which translates as Dr Dre’s Place. Coool!  We had a steak each and I treated myself to a cake of cheese for dessert, along with a nice pint of Brains.

Dr Dre didn’t put in an appearance, but I bet you never see Ramsay when you go to his restaurants either.

White Water Rafting

We slept like logs.  We got up when the alarm went off.  Dylan made us breakfast.  It was delicious. 🙂

Half an hour later, I was signing in at Canolfan Tryweryn, the UK’s first rafting centre.  The other red-letter-dayers and I stood out like buddhist monks at a beard & ponytail contest.  We congregated together for safety and to avoid being drawn into white water conversations we couldn’t hope to add value to.

Once the embarrassment of being the funny-looking normos out of our comfort zones wore off, the secondary embarrassment of borrowed wetsuits was foisted upon us.  But, then the fun started 🙂 !

To put it briefly, for your experience you get 4 runs down the white water in the space of 2 hours, interspersed with mini-bus trips back to the head of the run which is just down from a massive sluice gate from the local reservior.  The instructors are massively helpful – and I’m sure the ladies would find them massively handsome too.  You know, fit.

If you ever get the chance to do the rafting thing, just do it.  Don’t think about it.  The cycling was brilliant, too.  Happy days.

Tell ’em Phill sent you! 🙂