An excellent few days of activity, socialising, music, climbing and surf! Monday started off a bit murky, so we spent the morning expedition planning before getting some exercise at Indy Climbing Wall.

It brightened up a little in the late afternoon for a quick stroll around our old haunts by the straits…

Tuesday was a different day entirely. After a fine night of music at the Open Mic Night in Felinheli, we got up early and over to the beach while the waves arrived and the wind had dropped. It’s still pretty cold in the sea, but worth it for the rides!

Afterwards, we got ourselves warmed up in our usual corner outside the cafe, where some friends joined us for an extended brunch. No one had anything pressing to get to, so it was great to kick back and relax after an awesome surf.

This was followed by a walk around the coast as the tide was out and waves had dropped off. (Luckily, as I didn’t fancy getting into a wet wetsuit if they’d been good still!).

We had a hot lunch back at The Cottage, then after washing the wetsuits and hanging them out to dry, we decided we’d still got a little energy left. The sun was out, so we went to try an afternoon rock climb. Tryfan Bach is still in the shade of Tryfan at this time of year, so on discovering this, we changed plans and backtracked to Milestone Buttress on Tryfan.

Plenty of afternoon warm sun here still!

As we were about to set off, a cloud blocked the sun, making it suddenly cold again, but luckily, it didn’t last long.

We blasted up the three pitch route, enjoying the climbing and the views. I wasn’t quick enough with the camera, but a massive RAF Hercules plane flew underneath (behind) Clare as she was sat on the belay!

We got back to the bags, just as the sun hit the horizon.

And it was still bright at The Cottage, when we arrived back – by now feeling like we’d perhaps packed a bit too much into the day! Ha ha…. Good times though…

Milestone Buttress Climb:

• Rowan Route, Diff*