There were a lot of days like this - hot and
rather hazy. Difficult for photography but ideal
for the geological fieldwork I was doing! This is
looking down the Bwlch y Groes - one of the
highest mountain passes in Wales, it connects
Llanuwchllyn near Bala to Dinas Mawddwy.
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These are the Rhinogau from the A470 near
Trawsfynydd. A band of frontal cloud is moving in
from the west and low cloud is spilling over the
ridge....
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This was taken near Llanbedrog on the Lleyn
Peninsula, looking towards the Rivals, the
Snowdon massif and Tremadog Bay - 4 slides
stitched together!
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Sunset over the marshes near the mouth of Afon
Glaslyn - from the Cob at Porthmadog.....
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....and a little later, zoomed-in!
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August saw a TORRO meeting in Devon and I decided
to continue on to Boscastle to see how things
were nearly a year after the disasterous
flash-flooding. Remember the incredible scenes
from last year?? Well this is now.
The place is making an excellent recovery, and is
thronged with day-trippers, although locals told
me that the overnight trade is still down on
usual. Having spent a weekend there I can say in
all honesty go on down and stay there - utterly
beautiful and incredibly friendly, it's somewhere
I will definately be returning to in future!
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Scars
still abound from the floods up the wooded
Valency valley. Local Nick Holmes kindly showed
me around the catchments affected by the
tremendous series of storm-cells which over a few
hours dumped up to 200mm of rainfall in the area.
Here, Nick and my friend Jo in the foreground are
standing/sitting by the Valency in its normal
state, while to the R a debris-wrap is visible
from the flood: another can be seen downstream
just to the left of Nick and Jo.....
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....while here is the Valency early one morning
alongside the Riverside Hotel - back to being a
clear, babbling brook.
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This is a
screen-capture from a video clip I have. It's
taken from the excellent B&B Myrtle Cottage,
where we stayed, looking uphill at about 1615 BST
on the day of the great flood. The video's
frightening - the speed of the water is
unbelievable!
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This is
looking down the street (or downstream!). The car
was swept away shortly afterwards. Thanks to Dave
"College" Fletcher for letting me have
the clip!
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We also visited the Eden
Project during our stay and were both highly
impressed. I loved the tropical biome although
very high humidity made my camera steam up! This
is from the ground: walkways lead up into the
canopy but the camera was unusable up there! I
think this captures the atmosphere to an extent
though!
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One of many attractively-planted beds outside....
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This is a travelling exhibit. It is made from the
electrical goods that the average UK citizen
consumes in an average lifetime. Food for thought
there!
Boscastle and the Eden Project made an excellent
long weekend away and as a combination they work
well. We visited the Eden Project on a Monday and
although peak season and very busy, the place is
so well-organised that this is not a problem - it
runs like clockwork! |
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More recently, I took a party of UK Weatherworld
and TORRO members to revisit another flood - the
July 3 2001 one on the Mawddach - see here
for the full account of the storms. As you can
see, 4 years on, the debris-wraps are still there
in their full glory, albeit vegetating over a
bit. Photo by Andy Mayhew.
Now let's home for some impressive (but hopefully
not damaging) weather over Mid-Wales this Autumn!
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