Snowdonia

5 August 2001

On Sunday morning, we went horse riding, in woods near Ty Coch, south of Betws-y-Coed, 1000ft above sea level, with glorious views westwards to Snowdon. Here Lucy waits the arrival of our horses.

Lucy on Paddy

Stephen on Domino and Lucy on Paddy. Domino proved to be reluctant to move after about half an hour, no doubt partly due to Stephen's inexperience. However, once on a lead-rein, he had to be held back for the rest of our walk. Paddy was much more enthusiastic, though mostly so that he could get closer to food!

On Sunday afternoon, we went to Llanberis, where we visited the "Electric Mountain", the Dinorwig power station.

Stephen generating electricity to power the lights, at the visitor centre.

Dinorwig power station is a pumped storage station, the largest in Europe. Cheap surplus electricity is used to pump water from the lower Llyn Peris reservoir to the upper Marchlyn Mawr. At times of peak demand, the water flows back down, generating electricity. The entire power station is buried inside the Elidir mountain, including Europe's largest man-made cavern (180 metres long, 23 metres wide, and 51 metres high) with 16 kilometres of road tunnels.

Unfortunately, taking photographs was not permitted.

Stephen in a hard hat, returning on the bus from underground.