Author Topic: Walking  (Read 822278 times)

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Offline Hugo

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1110 on: August 02, 2013, 12:55:49 pm »
Snowdon walk

Offline Merddin Emrys

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1111 on: August 02, 2013, 04:13:19 pm »
Looks great, I like the steam loco, must have a ride up again some time! Some amazing colours on the buildings!
A pigeon is for life not just Christmas


Offline Hugo

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1112 on: August 02, 2013, 06:21:00 pm »
You wouldn't have liked this one ME even if you could see it.  It's a diesel one.

Offline Gwynant

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1113 on: August 03, 2013, 08:06:39 am »
                What a difference a day makes Hugo! We were up in Llanberis yesterday and it was a beautiful day as the photos will show, although the train was only going up to the halfway point because of the wind.
          We took the Valley train to Betws and then got the Sherpa S2 over to Pen-y-Gwryd and down to Llanberis. We then followed the "Woodland Trail" from the Padarn leaflet and went up behind the old Quarry Hospital, round the back of the quarry where the divers practice and came out of the woods (where we bumped into some feral goats), halfway up the big quarry workings.
        We then went out to the "Viewpoint", took a few photos of the surrounding area, and then took the trail back past the old "Anglesey Barracks" back down to the town where we had a coffee in Pete's Eats and caught the bus down to Caernarfon and home. The only problem was I left my stick on the bus on the transfer in Caernarfon, but the next bus the driver told me that he would arrive in Bangor before him, (as he went a more direct route on the Yfelinheli bypass and I was able to meet the original bus at the Cloc in Bangor and retrieve my stick from the back seat, much to the amazement of the driver, who couldn't understand how I got to Bangor before him! All in all a good day out and all it cost was a coffee in Pete's.

Offline Gwynant

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1114 on: August 03, 2013, 08:14:31 am »
                 More photos from the  Llanberis Quarries yesterday.

Offline Bri Roberts

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1115 on: August 03, 2013, 09:55:09 am »
Gwynant, I am beginning to learn how useful this Concessionary Travel Pass is in conjunction with the Cerdyn Card.

We recently travelled by train from Llandudno to Blaenau Ffestiniog and caught the Ffestiniog Railway over to Portmadog.

After an hour in Port, we caught the Welsh Highland Railway up to Caernarfon where we hopped onto an Arriva Bus number 5 back to Llandudno.

Total cost £10.90 each for a full day out.  D)

Offline Hugo

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1116 on: August 03, 2013, 10:08:07 am »
That's a bargain and a wonderful day out Bri.      $good$

Offline Hugo

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1117 on: August 03, 2013, 10:15:59 am »
Sounds like you had a full day's adventure there Gwynant and a lovely walk as well.   The photos were good and the walk is quite demanding in places with those pulls up the railway incline.  We hope to do a similar walk when we are in Llanberis next.
Our walk was scheduled for Wednesday but cancelled because of the weather forecast, thank goodness.  It's a different world up at the summit and you can't always tell what it's going to be like until you get there.

Offline hollins

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1118 on: August 03, 2013, 10:27:45 am »
Sorry you didn't get the view Hugo but I did like your photo of the train in the fog.
Thanks to you and Gwynant for describing your days out, both sound great.

Offline Gwynant

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1119 on: August 03, 2013, 11:45:19 am »
Gwynant, I am beginning to learn how useful this Concessionary Travel Pass is in conjunction with the Cerdyn Card.

We recently travelled by train from Llandudno to Blaenau Ffestiniog and caught the Ffestiniog Railway over to Portmadog.

After an hour in Port, we caught the Welsh Highland Railway up to Caernarfon where we hopped onto an Arriva Bus number 5 back to Llandudno.

Total cost £10.90 each for a full day out.  D)

    Bri, we have done that journey a few times but always in the opposite direction to you , spending a couple of hours in Portmadog for a bite to eat and drink etc. The true cost on the W.H.R. and the Ff.R. without the Cerdyn concessions etc is round about £33.00, and the Cerdyn lasts for 5 years, but even if you purchase it on the day of travel you save around around £7.00 on the day, and about £23.00 every time you use it for the next 5 years! It's a pity the Railway companies haven't got some similar arrangement. I know there's the Family railcard but the percentage savings are nowhere near as good.

Offline Fester

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1120 on: August 03, 2013, 11:49:55 pm »
Gwynant, I am beginning to learn how useful this Concessionary Travel Pass is in conjunction with the Cerdyn Card.

We recently travelled by train from Llandudno to Blaenau Ffestiniog and caught the Ffestiniog Railway over to Portmadog.

After an hour in Port, we caught the Welsh Highland Railway up to Caernarfon where we hopped onto an Arriva Bus number 5 back to Llandudno.

Total cost £10.90 each for a full day out.  D)

Better enjoy it whilst it lasts, because it is entirely unsustainable in the time to come.
This is a common conversation I have with my retired neighbours.
They think it is entirely acceptable to pay nothing (in their case) for unlimited bus travel every day, whilst young folk are paying over £8.00 per day to get to a job which pays only £6.18 per hour.
Can anyone see the problem with this?
Fester...
- Semper in Excretum, Sole Profundum Variat -

Offline Merddin Emrys

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1121 on: August 04, 2013, 07:27:39 am »
I have been predicting for some time that just before I reach 60 (in two and a half years time! ) that the free pass will be scrapped! At the moment it seems that a minority pay very high bus fares, I don't know what the fair answer to this is, any ideas?
A pigeon is for life not just Christmas

Offline SDQ

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1122 on: August 04, 2013, 07:45:00 am »
I have been predicting for some time that just before I reach 60 (in two and a half years time! ) that the free pass will be scrapped! At the moment it seems that a minority pay very high bus fares, I don't know what the fair answer to this is, any ideas?


You could start with re-nationalisation of public transport so instead of it being there to make a profit from fewer more lucrative routes it might actually be there to provide a service, especially to people in more rural areas.
Valar Morghulis

Offline Bri Roberts

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1123 on: August 04, 2013, 08:30:46 am »
Better enjoy it whilst it lasts, because it is entirely unsustainable in the time to come.

You now have me thinking, Fester.

Whilst my 'Cerdyn' expires in 2018, I do not remember seeing an expiry date on my 'Concessionary Travel Pass' provided by CCBC.

Doesn’t that mean it lasts a lifetime and cannot be withdrawn?

Offline Ian

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Re: Walking
« Reply #1124 on: August 04, 2013, 08:36:41 am »
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Better enjoy it whilst it lasts, because it is entirely unsustainable in the time to come. My retired neighbours...think it is entirely acceptable to pay nothing (in their case) for unlimited bus use

Your neighbours could argue (with some justification) that they have been paying tax for many years and are only now - in their twilight years - starting to see some immediate benefits, since transport - particularly rural transport - is heavily subsidised through the RSG.

An outstanding example of this process is the Conwy Valley railway.  Speaking to one of the conductors on that, recently, he told me he rarely has anyone that actually pays on the train. Yet for the denizens of BF, for example, it's something of a lifeline.  I've long wondered why the various operators don't do two things: firstly, devise an integrated ticketing system that would allow people to travel the circuit for a single price, starting and ending in Llandudno - or anywhere else on the circuit, for that matter. 

The second thing is in Arriva's court: they could introduce special carriages for the season. Viewing carriages, dining carriages and so on, and link that with 'packages', possibly 2-day tours, star-watching tours (the air's remarkably clear near BF, for example), Victoriana tours and more.  It does require some imagination, and it requires the existing companies to start working together and realising that there's money to be made if the thing's properly organised and managed.

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You could start with re-nationalisation of public transport so instead of it being there to make a profit from fewer more lucrative routes it might actually be there to provide a service, especially to people in more rural areas.

Modern nationalisation might be workable, but that would have to be within the framework of an integrated transport system, and that's widely regarded in Whitehall as the poisoned chalice of politics.

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.