Solo trip to Wales Diary
I planned a week long trip to Wales combing a work shoot with professional climber and mindset coach Hazel Findlay in North Wales and a lot of solo travel afterward for fun. I had only ever been to Wales once prior when I was living in Bristol and it was only about 24 hours! I wanted to make the most of the journey down and I think I overachieved at hitting so many beautiful spots.
The week started near Llanberis where I set up a basecamp for two nights. Instantly I was drawn to the landscape as the mountains reminded me of a very specific area back home in Southern Alberta. If lockdown has taught me anything, it’s how much I crave being surrounded by mountains and hills. My heart was singing and the weather was outstandingly hot for September in the UK.
After spending a morning driving and exploring the areas primarily around Llanberis and Capel Curig I met Hazel on a very hot afternoon in a shady mossy forest. We spent about half an hour chatting while Hazel climbed a boulder problem and then had a wee chat recorded on video for a project I’m working on. It was so incredibly cool getting to meet Hazel as she has been a huge influence on my own climbing journey over the years and still feels a bit surreal.
After our shoot I found myself eager to find a lake or body of water to cool off in and wash away the sweat from the incredibly hot day running around. I found a lake with convienent road side parking and raced to the edge of the shore. While swimming I watched climbers in the distance deep water soloing on the other end of the lake, people laughing while paddle boarding, and occasionally floating on my back to stare up at the darkening sky.
still from phone video recording
I packed up my tent quite early the next day. I didn’t have a plan but I knew I wanted to try and find a nice beach because the weather was 27C and I just couldn’t let it go to waste. After some incredibly windy roads through Snowdonia I was spat out along the Pembrokeshire coast and continued driving until I ended up at a place called Whitesands. Handily enough there was a first come first serve campsite 2 minutes walk from the beach so I happily decided to set up shop there for the night and ran off to the beach.
still from phone video recording
Having grown up incredibly land locked I find the sea quite frightening but it’s something I’ve been working on the last few summers. I had never swam in the sea alone before and as I was solo travelling I either had to face my fear and go in or just sit on the side of the shore. It was so hot that I didn’t spend too long deciding and entered the sea close to others who were out swimming. I made friends with a group of elderly ladies bobbing in the waves and I was absolutely elated to be out in the sea with the sun warming my face. I swam for about two hours before I started getting cold and decided I should probably head back to my campsite to eat something as it was getting on in the day. I didn’t stay at the site long before rushing back to the beach to have a beer, read my book, and watch the sunset.
The great thing about having made our corsa into a microcamper is it is often a great conversation starter, I ended up chatting away with my neighbours in the evening and the next morning the family across from me invited me over for a cup of tea. I chatted to them for an hour or so all while playing with their two sweet dogs before heading back to the beach for another photoshoot with a lovely local woman Sarah.
I made sure to squeeze in another swim in the sea myself before I had to carry on towards Cardiff. I’d never been to the city before but I have a dear friend who lives there and wanted to take advantage of “being in the area”. We had a lovely day out wandering the city centre, grabbing lunch, and even visiting an art gallery.
Another of my Welsh friends Sophie agreed to having a birthday photoshoot in West Wales. The weather on the drive over was horrendous but just to our luck it managed to hold out long enough for us to spend a few hours at the beach and a calm lunch at a nearby National Trust cafe.
The next few days I was back up to Llanberis in Snowdonia. I spent a few nights camping out in the car amongst other van dwellers and one lovely night amongst the mountains in my tent. This was another very climbing focussed weekend, I had a wee reunion with my instructor from the Womens Trad Festival so we could go out and do some recaps of how to safely place anchors and so I could also have a go at learning how to trad climb for photography. I familiarised myself with some new equipment which was exciting and even bought some of my very own equipment the next day to start building my trad rack. I still often have “pinch me” moments when out on the rock as this is something I never imagined I would ever do.
The remaining time spent in North Wales was primarily exploring around Capel Curig and Bets-y-Coed for swimming spots though I did have a detour out to Holyhead to practice a bit more trad on the sea cliffs out there. It was a pretty mad week when I think of everything I did and who I all met. I can’t wait to go back again and hopefully I can spend a bit more time exploring at a slower pace, but I would recommend to anyone to go and check out this amazing country.