Spring Equinox Tide - Loughor Estuary

Ed and George with the sun setting.

The water was calm and it was a beautiful sky and night.

I managed to take one with me in !

With the promise of a massive spring tide we knew the Loughor estuary would be flooding, so we decided to grab the opportunity and go for the paddle from Landimore to Penclawdd on the North Coast of Gower. We had to wait for our access to be flooded, but we found a small creek to paddle to access the estuary.

It was great to be on the estuary at night but we knew we had to get off before the tide turned. In the end we managed the 10km at an average speed of over 6km/h

14th - 18th Sept, British Army, Basic Training, Adventure Training

On Friday we came up with lots of different games to warm up revolving around a gladiator theme.

Thursday. An invasion force about to take over the Wye at Glasbury.

Wednesday. Learning how to canoe - proved difficult to keep the soldiers in the boat.

We did as much swimming as canoeing.

Tuesday. We tested the soldiers courage - we took a look at Ogof-y-Daren Cilau and Eglwys Faen. They proved up to the challenge.

Another week working with the soldiers under training (SUT's) in the British Army. I spent a day of expedition training on Monday, then a day of caving and then 3 days of paddling on the Wye, canoeing and kayaking. They proved up to anything I could throw at them. I'll make it more difficult next week...

10th - 13th Sept, Practice Gold D of E Expedition

A fantastic morning in the Black Mountains overlooking Llanthony Priory.

The group were already busy getting on with their day.

In the distance you can see one of the groups on a training session led by Sarah.

Working for A to Z Expeditions, HSM school from Ascot underwent their Gold D of E Expeditioon training in Spectacularly hot weather in the Brecon Beacons National Park. They were trained by myself and Sarah Deamer. They are now fully ready for their qualifying expedition with me in late October. That'll give their feet, knees, ankles and sun burn time to heal - ready for a possibly cold October snap...

6th Sept, BMC Gower Climb Festival

On Sunday the Gower Climb Festival still had lots of climbers about - including lots of visitors from North Wales - sometimes we actually have less rain than North Wales - but this summer it seems to be raining everywhere.

Today I was with Ed Abbley, knocking off some VS routes for his MIA. Above he can be seen in good form on the classic Osiris ***. Thankfully he climbed through the spots of rain and found a way round that massive roof ! An awesome route - only one of many we have on Gower obviously :)

31st Aug - 5th Sept, Gold D of E Practice Expedition

During the training the bothy bags were invaluable because we had such terrible weather. In this session, both groups chose to get in their bags. Apparently space was limited and one girl couldn't fit both arms inside..

At this point both groups were in their bothy bags and the dog was in his (no dogs were harmed in the making of this photo).

At last one of the groups realised it wasn't raining any more..

Here's the same group of girls in poor visibility but looking confident approaching the top of the hill.

The week started with some navigation practice.

This was a week for an Open Gold D of E Practice Expedition. 15 candidates attended. The weather was particularly terrible this week, with rain followed by rain and Thursday was very testing with strong strong wind. The groups all made fantastic decisions in testing situations, at least one group had to use an escape option on Thursday to escape the wind. 1 candidate pulled out on the third day, but all the others managed to get to the end of the expedition in Abergavenney. Huge congratulations to them all, and best wishes for your assesments..

24th - 29th Aug, Gold D of E Assessed Expedition

A group just passing me, with Pen Y Fan and Corn Du in the distance. A couple of groups will be going over there tomorrow.

I'm left wondering whether the group will get caught in another massive downpour - oh, and me too, hood up..

A better day today looking over the reservoir at Pen Y Fan again.

I had a chance to lay down (groups never turn up when you expect them to) - this is the way a sheep would see Pen Y Fan, if it were bothered to look around.

The group arrived at the wild camp, and asked where they could camp, the dead sheep put them off the best spot. The group were happy enough with this flat spot, running water and fresh air.

This week was an Open Gold D of E Assessed Expedition with A to Z Expeditions. All the candidates arrived on the Monday afternoon, when Andy and I met them. We had to quickly get them all acquainted and working in teams - they were future best friends but didn't know it yet.

Eventually after 2 days of final training and preparations they were ready for the actual assessed expedition. Unfortunately the weather was going to be a massive test - RAIN RAIN HAIL and WIND :(

After day 1 with constant unrelenting wind and rain, the strain was showing on them all, especially those arriving at their wild camp - no luxuries there. Everybody got personal showing blisters and war wounds. Unknown to them all - by the morning 1 would drop out.

In the morning, I met them at 7am (I'd come from the luxury of a campsite with 'taps'), and yes the strain of the day before and the mess of blistered feet became to much for 1 candidate.

Day 3 saw the final moments of another candidate, hip pains, exhaustion and sore feet becoming too much to bare. The others pushed on and finally in the final day, when we all experienced 'SUN'. they arrived at the fabled End of Expedition.

The assessors passed them all - congratulations to them all.

21st Aug, Sennybridge

I took the group of soldiers canoeing today. Another great day on the Wye. They all learnt the skills fast, and progressed down the river, deciding when and how often to capsize. Smiles all round. We reviewed the 6 army core values and went for a cup of tea, great...