This is the fourth of four chapters from "The Energetex Report".
This was a book written by four Scouts: Andrew, Alistair, David and Kenrick.
The training involved 3 practise hike before the final 3 day expedition.
This is the report for the final, assessed, expedition.
Snowdonia by Kenrick Turner
Day
1:
David
and I woke up at 0630, too early! We, the Energetex (David, Alastair, Andrew and
I), John and Mick went to the toilet block to start making breakfast. It was
here that we discovered that during the stormy Saturday night, in which John’s
tent had blown away, the door had slammed shut locking us out from all our
equipment. Andrew and Alastair still believe that some ‘Nosy Badgers’
slammed the door because they liked cooked eggs. They also claimed that you
could hear them if you listened carefully. Unfortunately, the first theory
doesn’t hold because there were no cooked eggs in the toilet block, only raw
ones but there are other theories about other fierce animals that only come out
on moonless nights…
Mick,
being a ‘champion’ lock-picker set to work. After commandeering John’s
credit card he slid it into the lock and after five to ten minutes expert
jiggling the door opened with the only damage being to John’s credit card that
was now minus a corner. This saved us another encounter with the irate (mad?),
Welsh warden.
Mick
and John then proceeded to boil water on their respective stoves: Mick using 3rd
Billericay Orion’s paraffin pressure stove and John using his Coleman’s
petrol stove. It is now considered to be an honoured traditional custom of
leaders attached to CSC teams to have races in boiling water.
For
breakfast we dined upon fried sausages with bacon rashers wrapped around them.
We also had a slice of fried bread cooked in the sausage and bacon fat (Low
cholesterol rate! Honest!). Recommended for other teams. We took our tents down
in the wind and managed to pack them without losing any components.
Finally,
at 1100 we got into the cars and drove off. Our destination? The start of the
Energetex expedition! Ulp…
We
arrived at the lay-by on the A 487(T) at 1115 (GR 757139). We piled out and were
almost blown off our feet by the wind. We held our ground and hastily donned
gloves and ‘Beenies’(note 1). We walked without any band playing ‘Land of
Hope and Glory’ or my preference ‘Orinocco Flow’, but still John did film
us!
We
started at 1121 BST and walked along the A 487(T) in comparative silence and
broke off onto the track that took us parallel with the road about 200m off it.
After about 2km we came back onto the ‘A’ road and went along it for 500m
before turning onto the B 4405 which took us in a South Westerly direction for
just under a kilometre. Here we branched off onto a path that followed a farm
track. A fallen tree blocked the gate so we scrambled over it with about as much
grace as a pregnant, three-legged hippo. Our next obstacle (this sounds like
‘Gladiators’ doesn’t it?), was a ford. Luckily for David, Andrew and I
there was a footbridge. Alastair decided to take the scenic route and waded
through the flooded, 2ft deep ford. His famous words were: “It wasn’t cold,
just a bit damp.” This is now considered to be the understatement of the year
by the rest of the Energetex.
To
let Alastair recover from his rather wet ordeal we decided to rest for 15
minutes. I ate two glucose tablets and washed them down with some water. Then we
skimmed stones and generally mucked about as mature, intelligent people do. We
pressed on and the path got better. It seemed as though it had been recently
resurfaced because it smelt strongly of tar, it appeared to be new, and there
was a steamroller that was parked on the track. The stream at this point looked
quite flooded. On the track leading to Pentre Farm we had to scramble over two
fallen trees. I still bear a grudge against the gate at Pentre Farm because it
wouldn’t shut. It left me 100m from the rest of the team by the time I had
closed it! The path now went down right next to the lake. We figured out that it
was flooded by two facts:
1. Some
of the grass was underwater by about 0.5m.
2. The
notice with ‘Danger! Deep Water!’ on it was under water.
The
path took us along the edge of the lake for 400m before going through another
farm, this time with a nice, oiled gate, and up into some woods. Here it was a
bit of a climb but we kept on going for 500m where the path joined our friend
again, the B 4405 at GR 706094. This was our lunch spot. Our E.T.A. for lunch
was 1255, our ATA was 1300, five minutes late. For lunch Andrew produced pita
breads and the traditional Somerfield Cheese slices. I had two of each before
being issued with my Mars bar for dessert. I had a quick drink of water before
moving on. I had to eat my Mars bar whilst walking because we were so exposed up
there that we were in danger of getting very cold so we carried on to get warm.
We
walked along the ‘B’ road for roughly 2km before turning onto another small
road. Just before we reached the junction we saw a rather familiar red, Peugeot
306 come out of the road we were going to turn onto. It suddenly reversed along
the B 4405 in an unusual manner and backed into our road. By then we realised it
was, the one and only R.B.N.A.S.I.G.T.C.B.A.A.S.L.(note
2).,
John, with legendary sidekick, Mick (ASL). They told us that we were officially
booked in at our campsites (Before we were ‘unofficially’ booked in. That
means no one had been bothered to book us in but we thought we would be allowed
to camp there)
(note
3).
Here we were one hour ahead of schedule but David changed that with his superb
map folding skills: He folded his map again and took the world record breaking
time of 25 minutes! Doh!
After
the slightly extended break we carried along our road for about 2.3km. We had
another break at this point because we were tired which we considered to be as
good a reason as any! We pressed on. Our route now took us through a mini-valley
that connected two valleys together. The river that was a stream was now flooded
on either side. It was amazing that a small stream that we had seen at its
source (note
4).
and its tributaries could have grown to be so large. After going through this
so-called mini-valley on a little used road for 2km we came to a crossroads (GR
663079) we turned left or on a bearing of 264º true.
The
campsite was only 1.5km away now but it seemed like 15km! We eventually saw our
first glimpse of what was to become our home for that night. What we saw was a
field with a few caravans in it but no tents. I now appreciate why the man in
Billericay camping shop thought that we were mad to go to Snowdonia at this time
of year: It is windy and cold! We reached the campsite, run by a Mrs. E.
Williams, at 1500. Andrew rang the doorbell of the farmhouse after a five-minute
break. A large, old man with a strong Welsh accent opened the door. Andrew
explained who we were and the man instructed us where the toilets were and when
to pay. We pitched camp near the toilet block with relative ease apart from the
stony ground where I bent virtually all of my tent’s pegs on the stones! David
and Andrew went to the phone box a short distance away. Unfortunately, on the
return journey they got caught in a rather heavy downpour of rain and hail. Not
a nice cocktail (shaken, not stirred) even at the best of times, but especially
so in a cold Wales. Still, they phoned John and I think (hope?!), I got a good
slide picture of the rainbow that ended in the field next to ours (I didn’t
get to the pot of gold at the end of it in time!).
After
laying out our sleeping gear, roll mats and sleeping bags etc., we went over to
the toilet block where we cooked our evening meal of ‘Sainsbury’s Instant
Rice’ with ‘Bachelor’s Mexican Chili Beanfeast’. For dessert we ate the
traditional ‘MacVities Jamaican Ginger Cake’. I brought custard but nobody
else wanted it so it was pointless cooking it just for me. All that weight for
nothing! We washed up and went to bed. I wrote up the day’s events before
turning in out of Hurricane ‘Angry Snowdon’ The time? 1900!
Day
2:
We
woke up at 0600 but we were too tired to get up until 0630! We cooked breakfast
in the porch of the toilet block. For breakfast we had five frankfurters each
which we boiled in mess tins over the hexamine stove. Also we had four bacon
rashers that we fried in a billy lid over the ‘hexi’ stoves. The
frankfurters were quite edible, surprisingly so (or it might have been that we
were so hungry that we didn’t notice what they tasted like?!). There was an
embarrassing incident concerning the bacon rashers. Whilst I was cooking my
bacon and David’s over the hexi stove I asked him to take down the inner tent
of our Eurohike Backpacker TS 2 (available in Millets stores for £69.99) and
fold it away. He also took down the outer so when I had finished cooking the
bacon he was still in the process of folding the tent in the strong winds. I
took my bacon in my mess tin to eat so it wouldn’t get cold, whilst I told him
that his was ready too. After five to ten minutes folding the tent away, which
he insisted in doing, I returned with David to the cooking area. When I looked
at the frying pan there was no bacon! I immediately thought the culprit was
Andrew who was sitting next to the stove. After asking him in a rather loud way
where hell the bacon was he replied that he didn’t know. He then drew my
attention to the farm dog that was sitting contentedly next to the stream on the
opposite side of the bridge. The dog is still suspected.
After
apologising to Andrew and to David about the loss of his bacon we packed up,
consoling David by offering him the remainder of the bread. We donned waterproof
trousers because it looked like rain (note
5)..
Andrew and Alastair paid at the farmhouse whilst David and I finished packing.
This done, we set off at a fairly lively pace up the farm track and onto the
little-used road. We proceeded along this road for approximately 200m before
branching off to the south, taking a steep, puddy (note
6).,
little used path up a hill. The path then split into two joining up again about
500m further on forming a rather squiggly loop. We decided to take the less
steep path (we’re so intelligent/lazy!). This path led us back into the valley
that we started in on day one. Later, we came back into the other valley in an
elegant U-shape to make up distance. You’ll find that out later though.
Unfortunately, for us, the path sort of faded away or, more exactly, stopped.
This caused a navigational crisis. We had no path to follow. Before we let
common sense take over, we decided to see if we could get through to the other
path that we thought was down our hill. After galloping down like a herd of
joyous, BSE infected cattle we realised two things:
1. We
couldn’t get through to the other path because our intended route was too
overgrown.
2. Our
route took us into some previously uncharted bog and we were sinking! (fast.)
Common
sense regained a beachhead and we scrambled up out of the bog onto our hill like
a herd of muddy (and puddy), defeated, MSD (note
7).
infected sheep. We had a break of five minutes whilst we ate some food and found
out where we were and, more importantly, how to get ourselves back on our route.
We took a compass bearing (finally!) and walked along it with fingers crossed
that no mad, Welsh farmer with a twelve-bore shotgun would come racing out of
his hovel and shoot us for trespassing. Luckily, no farmer did come racing out,
and we found the track with some inspired leadership and navigational skills by
Andrew. Actually, we just accepted his decision and hoped.
Back
on route we followed the track down to another farm 1km on called Rhiwerfa. Here
we took a track following a Southerly direction and a steep slope through some
woods. After we exited the woods a stream joined up with our path and so made
life very slippery, muddy and dangerous. Andrew was the first to have the
inevitable happen: slipping over. Walking down a steep slope with a 15kg Bergen
is hard enough at the best of times but in these conditions treacherous. He
rolled on to his side and narrowly missed a close encounter of the third kind,
with a barbed wire fence! I was the next and the last to go. I put one foot
tentatively in front of the other and smlurrrch! I went down on my rear-end
coating my waterproof trousers and the back of my rucksack with smelly mud: Path
– 2, Scouts – Nil. We carried onwards and soon joined up with the B 4405
(yet again!) at GR 658056. We proceeded along this road for 1.5km in a SW
direction before coming into the small village of Dolgoch.
Here
we rested in the local hotel car park until the phone box became available (OK,
not the most intelligent thing to do). We are still wondering if anybody in
Wales has or uses their own phone because there was always a queue for the phone
boxes we saw. Whilst David waited to phone John, Andrew, Alastair and I went up
to Dolgoch Hotel that still displayed a ‘closed’ sign on the door and
without a second thought rang the door bell. A Welsh man opened the door and
asked rather politely what he could do for us, we, even more politely asked
would it be too much trouble for our water bottles to be filled because we had
now emptied them. The man disappeared with our bottles and a few minutes later
he returned with them full up. We said thank you and walked back to David.
The
phone box finally became vacant so David and Andrew dashed inside before another
phoneless Welsh person could use it and phoned John. They got his answering
machine so left a message. David exited the phone box a bit disgruntled because
it had swallowed a whole pound for a 10p phone call. The moral of this story is
don’t use Welsh phone boxes. We then carried along the road for another 500m
before our turning off appeared. A debate ensued: Proposal: Should we take a
shortcut and cut about 5km off our route and trick John? Conclusion: Err… No.
What if he spots us?
Now
that our consciences had got the better of us we turned on to our very steep,
little road and into and back into the other valley. (See
a long way above).
The Welsh weather, feeling its normal sadistic self, decided to give us an
example of Welsh hail. We, stout English Scouts (?), marched on with heads held
high. (Please note: Figure of speech only otherwise the hail would go down the
back of our necks. Not nice.) We descended into a wood after 2km of walking
along the road with a picturesque waterfall that everybody photographed for no
apparent reason. We emerged from the woodland into a rather flooded valley of
Dyfryn Dysynni. The river is called Afon Dysynni and since we are not fluent in
Welsh we can’t tell you what it means. Sorry. We took a break for five minutes
at GR 631058 where I took two slides and Alastair attempted a panoramic
photograph. From here we figured it was only 3km to Bryncrug (Hooray!
J),
7km to lunch (Nicht so gut K)
and 13km to the campsite (Depressing feeling L).
We walked on… …For a long way.
Whilst
we were walking into Bryncrug, David, Andrew, and Alastair procured ‘walking
sticks’ from the hedge clippings that were liberally scattered over the road.
I, seeing no point to them, didn’t pick one up and just carried on as before.
About 800m out of the village we stopped for a break to consume a Mars bar each
and have a drink. We rounded a bend and the small village was in sight. As we
walked the remaining stretch into the village a car came up our road and turned
left before hastily doing a 180° turn and going back the way it had came. We
realised that this must be John who we weren’t meant to meet until 2km on.
John parked by the bus shelter so we could sit down. He asked us if we were all
well and the normal questions that a ‘responsible’ leader would ask. After
five minutes of rest we decided to carry on, considering it was only 6km to 7km
to the campsite. We started going again only to stop 2 minutes later next to a
small corner shop into which we piled and set about buying a lot of sweets and
chocolate bars etc. After a brief respite we carried on munching upon various
items of confectionery. I myself bought the following: a Cadbury’s Marble bar,
a packet of Skittles, a packet of Trebor Softfruits, and a Yorkie bar. Our route
took us through the village and down a small road/track for 2km. During this
route it rained (how rare!) on us. We reached the station in good time (at 1320
when we were meant to arrive at 1350!) and sat down in the waiting area that was
covered by a roof so we could escape the rain. It was lunchtime. I had the
following: a Yorkie bar (from corner shop), two pita breads, two slices of
cheese, a Mars bar, and a Kellogg’s Apple Nutragrain bar. We waited until a
rain cloud had passed overhead scattering its usual form of precipitation. Just
as we started out of the station a train pulled up named ‘Peter Sam’. The
guard asked us if we were travelling and it was very tempting to say ‘yes’
and cut 2km off but we replied a polite ‘no thank you’ and walked off before
we changed our minds. Our path was just the other side of the hedge that
separated the railway track from the field we were walking in. The fields here
were not the best of quality. Being muddy (yes, and puddy), wet, and a virtual
bog is not good walking terrain. We eventually arrived at our point where we
crossed the railway by using a bridge after sinking a lot in the fields and
travelling about 2km. The small hamlet (small group of dwellings) was called
Hen-dy at GR 598013. We then were meant to take a small road in a southerly
direction back over the railway and I was convinced we were going in the wrong
direction. Unusually (?), I was wrong. We did indeed pass over the railway and a
compass bearing confirmed this. We walked along this road for about 1.5km before
stopping to have a break just before where the road joined up with the A 493 a
little way outside the coastal town of Tywyn. We walked south along this road
for another 1.2km before going up a rather neat track (coated wit tarmac) which
lead to Caethle Farm, our campsite (GR 601991). David was ‘volunteered’ by
us (very democratic) to ring the doorbell and say who we were. John had already
paid for us and booked us in. An elderly lady opened the door and she was very
kind except that she seemed to think that we had come from Lake Bala (where on
earth is that?). We were instructed to go up a track and take the right hand
track when the main track forked, go past the second shower/toilet block and
carry on to the ‘Tents Only’ sign. There we could camp anywhere we liked.
There was just one minor technical glitch with these directions: there were
about five forks in the track. Eventually, by luck, we found ourselves in the
right area. After having a five-minute rest we debated where we should pitch our
tents. Andrew wanted to pitch them up by a rocky outcrop, which he claimed would
shield us from the wind. We went up there and found that it was actually very
exposed. I wanted to camp behind a clump of gorse-bushes that once behind you
could not feel the tiniest breath of wind. The others for some reason didn’t
want to camp there so we decided on where we had sat down for our break. Andrew
and Alastair one side of the stream, David and I, the other. There were no other
tents pitched at this campsite like the last one. Maybe the Welsh aren’t so
mad or perhaps they just don’t like tents.
John
and Mick turned up and talked to us about what had and had not gone well during
the day. John filmed me putting up the inner tent on his video camera and then
he filmed me trying to light a stove with supposedly ‘windproof’ matches.
The fact is that in strong winds they go down to a glowing ember and are no use
at all. Mick, saviour of the day (?), then, rescuing me from further humiliation (note
8).,
used his lighter to light our stove. After three attempts it lit (note
9)..
We (David, who had returned, and I) could now start cooking our evening meal of
‘spag-bol (note
10).’
Sainsbury’s 3 Minute Quick Cook Spaghetti’ with Sainsbury’s Bolognaise
style Soya Mince’. The food was very tasty and we forgot about pudding. John
and Mick had since gone back to base camp. We decided it was time for bed after
washing up. Once in our sleeping bags I wrote up the day’s events before going
to sleep (well, trying to) at 1900. It was very windy but it hadn’t rained
yet…
Day
3:
During
the night it rained. David and I woke up tired but alive at 0630 and got dressed
quickly in the freezing temperatures between a nice, warm four-season sleeping
bag and being fully clothed ready for walking. The in-between stage is a very
chilling experience. We then realised that it would be too windy to attempt to
cook breakfast because the high winds would blow our stoves away let alone allow
a stove to be lit. So when Andrew delivered us breakfast of bacon rashers,
frankfurters, bread and ‘Tescos Chocolate Chip Cookies’ we ate the
frankfurters (not cooked) wrapped up in bread (note
11)..
We packed the rest of the food into our Bergens before addressing the problem of
trying to take down the dry (the wind had dried the outer off after the rain)
tent in strong winds. We took the logical step of taking down the inner and
folding that away under the outer first. Then, with a method long practised by
Scouts (that I made up on the spur of the moment) we used the ‘Kenrick’
method of taking down the tents:
1. Un-peg
guy ropes and tie them up.
2. Unclip
the poles from the base of the tent so that it collapses whilst still pegged to
the ground.
3. Push
the poles out and fold them away.
4. Take
the pegs out of the ground whilst maintaining a strong
grip
on the tent if you want to see it ever again.
5. Finally,
fold away and pack in bag counting pegs and poles to check you have everything.
After
we had successfully taken down our tents we filled our water bottles before
setting off out of the maze of campsite. We started walking at 0815. Fifteen
minutes late. After reaching the A 493 we retraced our steps for about 500m
before turning East, away from the coast, down a little used road and into Happy
Valley. We concluded that Happy Valley was either very depressed or was a secret
member of the National Socialist Party. Anyway, Happy Valley was definitely not
happy. We walked along the road for 2.5km before reaching the point where we
were meant to take a path up towards a ridge and go the scenic route around a
hill. We thought that this was too dangerous because of the fact that we
couldn’t see the top of the ridge due to low cloud and that if it were windy
down here (which it was) it would be like a hurricane at the top. Not wishing to
die without due cause, we decided it would be sensible to stay down in the
valley.
We
pressed on for another 2.5km approximately before we reached Dyffryn-gwyn. This
was a small farm where our path came back down near the road before going up
onto the ridge again. We were considering whether it would be wise to go onto
the ridge at this stage to do at least some of our intended route plan but it
was not to be so. The cloud was still lower and at some points we could not see
even half way up the ridge. We took some slides and photos to prove our point in
case some sceptic didn’t believe us.
After
a short break (‘short’ is under 20 minutes) we carried on foot-slogging it
for another 1km until we reached a spot height of 99m (GR 641987) where we
decided to have another break. Now it was a long, winding road (Oops. Getting
carried away.) upwards to a spot height of 103m (GR 653994) where we had yet
another break just 300m on because we were tired. Here I refilled my water
bottle from a small, fast flowing stream not forgetting to put in a Puritab.
From now on the going got a bit easier. We climbed a short rise and from here it
was rather flat. We passed by a rocky outcrop without any name. We reached a
spot height of 148m. Here we had a short break where we took some photos of the
road dropping away steeply. During our whole trek on the third day we only saw
one vehicle in Happy Valley which was a BT van. No doubt it was going to
reconnect someone’s lines that had blown down in the stormy weather.
From
here it was just a downhill stroll (?!) of about 2km into Cwrt, a small hamlet.
We started on the downhill slope and soon broke into a painful trot. We stopped
after about 500m to stage a mock lunch and took some photos for the project.
Just as we reached the 1km mark the heavens opened and gave us a free shower. We
rushed on helter-skelter down the hill and suddenly we were in Cwrt! We didn’t
realise this until we were almost out on the other side. We backtracked until we
found the resident phonebox. Andrew phoned John and as usual got his answer
phone. He left a message and we hurried back to a convenient bus shelter where
we sought protection from the elements. The time of arrival was 1107 BST. We had
done it.
We
passed the time by counting different colour cars. I counted white ones, Andrew
red ones, Alastair blue ones and David green ones. I managed to get a grand
total of 27 cars. Our E.T.A. for Cwrt was 1515 so we hoped that John would get
our message soon. Andrew was the first one to spot John. He counted John’s
Peugeot 306 as just another red car and then we realised it was John. Mick
followed on just behind him. This is what Andrew said (I think):
“…
Twenty-three cars… JOHN!!!”
We
all started waving madly like sailors marooned on a desert island with their
only chance of rescue passing by. Luckily John saw us and pulled up. After a
brief conversation we put our Bergens into John’s and Mick’s cars and we
drove off back to base camp.
After
a warm drink we put up our tents (in the rain) and then showered before lunch.
Mick with co-conspirators Andrew, David and Alastair found a dead spider and put
it in a stale roll. I was outside talking with John about something when they
came out and offered me a roll. I, unsuspecting anything, said thank you and
took a bite out of the roll. Mick said to me that why didn’t I see what the
filling was first. I looked inside and saw a rather large spider. I had missed
biting into the spider by about 2-3mm! The others just cracked up whilst I
hurled the roll plus spider into the trees. This is an example of Scout
comradeship.
After
a lunch of ham and cheese rolls (spider free this time) we drove over to the
Centre for Alternative Technology (C.A.T.). We all called it the ‘alternative
energy centre’ though. At CAT we saw many different forms of environmentally
friendly energy sources. We saw a hydroelectric generator, various wind turbines
and a roof made out of solar panels. What I found the most ingenious was the
water powered lift/railway thing. It was a vehicle that ran up and down a steep
incline on railway tracks to take visitors from the reception area to the main
centre up a slate cliff. It worked by one car being heavier than the other. They
made this so by each car having a water tank that was filled at the top from a
natural reservoir that made one car heavier than the other. To control the
descent the car with the full water tank lets some water leak out as it descends
so it stops just as it reaches the platform. The other car rises up. A brake
holds them in place whilst the top car is refilled. The lower car’s remaining
water is jettisoned. Good idea or what?!
The
Journeys
The
journey up was rather eventful. David and I were travelling in John’s car
whilst Alastair and Andrew were in Mick’s. On the M 54 John wanted to pull in
at a service station and since we were the lead car we indicated in advance to
let Mick now. Unfortunately Mick didn’t notice and carried straight on whilst
we hurtled through the service station at a very high velocity. The second
incident was at the Fort shopping complex in Birmingham. We had parked in the
top car park. When we stopped we couldn’t see Mick and we thought “Oh no! He
has done it again!” We phoned him up on the mobile phone and we asked where he
was. He replied that he was about 10m below us in the underground car park. The
third and final incident was at the infamous Spaghetti Junction. We followed a
diversion sign and came up travelling along quite happily. We realised after
about 2km that there was no Mick behind us. We asked where he was over the
mobile phone again and he replied that he was going towards Wales, where were we
going? We suddenly saw a sign saying London was straight ahead! A quick U-turn
later and we were back on the right track about 10km behind Mick.
The
return journey was non-eventful or I think it was because I slept for most of it
in the back of Mick’s Vauxhall Astra. We finally arrived home at 1200 GMT.
Tired
but successful!
______________________________
1
Technical term used by teenagers to describe woollen hats, minus bobble, with
some emblem or motif on them.
2
‘R.B.N.A.S.I.G.T.C.B.A.A.S.L.’ is a new position standing for Resigned But
Not Accepted So Is Going to Continue Being An Assistant Scout Leader.
3
This
is known as ‘Scout’ organisation.
4
Thought
to be a dripping tap in a Welsh farm.
5
I have to say that it looked like some form of precipitation throughout our stay
in Wales. It rained heartily on us as soon as we drove over the Welsh border.
6
‘Pud’ is a newly invented term to describe the mixture of Welsh mud (35.6%)
and excrement from various Welsh animals (64.4%) found in much abundance in the
Welsh countryside.
7
MSD stands for Mad Sheep Disease.
8
David had tactically exited the scene not wishing to be associated with me, a
cripple who couldn’t light a stove in a Gale Force 9 wind!
9
I am claiming 50% of the money that John gets from sending the video into
‘Beadle’s About’.
10
Abbreviation used within Scouts for Spaghetti Bolognaise.
11
This may seem very unhygienic but if you had been there, you would have eaten
them too. They were surprisingly edible.