Question – If I gave you the following words and told you they formed part of a larger sentence, how far up would your excitement dials be reaching?
Wales, Campervan, January, Rain, Wind, Cold…
Not very high? I wouldn’t blame you initially, but I would encourage you to seek out your inner adventurer (if you don’t have one then stop reading and leave) and embrace all aspects of what off-season UK travelling can have to offer. And let’s be honest – if it were summer then we’d all still be complaining about it being too hot. So what’s the difference with complaining it’s too cold?
The journey begins, ends, and doesn’t really venture very far from… Snowdonia, North Wales. Amazing place with loads to offer. Being January it was pretty cheap for 3 of us to go splits on hiring a VW California for 4 nights. The van sleeps 4 but that would have been extremely cramped for anyone wondering. I was banned from taking the wheel at Joe’s insistence of my “hazardous driving” (even though I’m not the one who tried to drive onto the motorway during my test…) so that was left to him and Ryan. I was banished to the back to not deal with the numerous issues that would arise – which was wonderful.
The first evening stop was just outside the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog near to Cwmorthin Quarry, which would be the site of our main activity for the weekend – GoBelow Extreme. Big thanks to these guys (Mark and Ian) for taking us round the old slate mines for the day and putting us through some “uncomfortable” challenges. If traversing over some slippery planks suspended 30m over a rocky cavern with little light sounds good to you, then you’ll love this trip.
There’s a few different “days” you can opt for with varying length, and of course I opted for the ultimate mega extreme (seriously that’s what it’s called) version which would take us underground for 7-8 hours. In that time we navigated around the mine doing traverses, abseils, ladders and ziplines… all while taking in an education of the old workings and how it operated back in the day. Fascinating stuff to learn!
And just as you re-approach the starting point – very much looking forward to being outside again – you have one last obstacle to overcome. A 75ft drop that can only be navigated via a machine-operated bungie cord (ok you can skip it if you really want to.. but don’t!). It’s a safe way down – you’ve just got to jump off the ledge and accept a few meters of genuine, uncontrolled freefall before the bungie cord kicks in.
The scariest thing I have ever done, but no doubt exhilarating. A great way to end before returning to the surface (where daylight had by this point long gone).
Back to the van with an excess of food from the local chippy in Blaenau, where the overuse of the heater lead to a dead battery in the morning. Fortunately the RAC service in the remote Welsh countryside was pretty good so our delay wasn’t even over an hour. Then again, we wouldn’t have been delayed for much anyway as the whole day was spent trying to find a campsite and satisfy Joe’s desperate need for a shower. As wasted as it seemed, it did lead to what is potentially the most amusing debate I have ever witnessed between 2 people so I’ll forgive it. If I can ever be bothered to extract the transcript between Joe and Ryan about whether to email the campsite owners after receiving conflicting responses to our request to stay for just a few hours (we only needed showers and a water supply) then I’ll be sure to post it on here. A number of deep ethical and philosophical concepts and questions were brought about from something so simple.
Anyway, we got our showers and water and headed to the Isle of Anglesey near Holyhead. Some very scenic Welsh coastline and walks for the next day before returning to Snowdonia. Once again we thank the Park4Night app for leading us to great overnight locations during our trip.
The van had a capacity for 4 people but I think this would have brought the experience into the territory of “uncomfortable”. You kind of want one floating space at any time to move around in, so 4 would have been very much a squeeze, although no doubt potentially amusing at the same time. Sat around the built-in table of an evening was spacious enough with a spare seat and all the worktop space for all your various bits. These definitely need to be cleared when driving though – or watch your belongings fly around at your own peril.
The boot is once again spacious, but not so easily accessible from the inside. There’s a few handy little cupboards built in for quick-access items but otherwise it’s often easier to go around the back and open the tailgate. But’s it’s a well-thought and practical design overall – although I have a few concerns about the “water-resistant” pop-up roof that gave me a wet bed for part of the trip. Perhaps that space is simply best used in the summer. Or maybe we just did something wrong, which is very likely.
A short but fun trip, and cheap! (Un)surprisingly campervans aren’t as sought out in the winter months, so take advantage of the fact! Do your research and you’ll find something to fill the time when the snow, cloud and rain is in full swing.