October 3 2016

Today is our adventure day. Departing at 7:30 AM from the castle, we find it takes much longer to get from point a to point b in the mountains of Wales than Google says it will. So we just make it to our

first destination, the Snowdon Mountain Railway. We occupied two full compartments and two seats of a third. The process up the mountain was slow and noisy but fun. Along the way "walkers" would waive at us and take pictures of the train as they proceeded to hike up the mountain. I have not idea how long that would take, but it had to be exhausting! After about 45 minutes we reached the summit and were told we would have about 40 minutes until the train departed for the base again. Going through the visitor's center and out the back we walked up some stone stairs to reach the very windy peak and get some great views of the surrounding area. The

visibility was perfect. Another 45 minute ride down and we were back at the railway's parking lot.

Just a short 5 minute walk and we were at the Electric Mountain, a huge hydro-electric plant buried in the mountain itself. This is no ordinary power generation plant. It is designed to provide quick reaction surge generating capability based on demand. During periods of low electrical demand, excess power is used to pump water from a low reservoir up and into a lake at a much higher elevation. When a surge in electrical demand occurs fast acting valves open allowing the water in the lake to flow through huge penstocks (pipes) into turbines which turn generators producing the required electricity. The concept is pretty simple. What really impresses is the engineering behind constructing all of this within the mountain.The tour of the cavernous facility and the associated gigantic equipment was truly fascinating.

Next we were off for the great adventure of the day! Ziplining! While the others go off to the Woolen Mills, the Supper Super Six Pack, consisting of Badass Becky, Leapin' Leslie, Daring Dorlene (aka Zippy), Jumpin' Jim Day, Jittery Jim Van Wormer, and Fearless Frank, will embark upon a death defying flight along Europe's longest and the world's fastest zipline. All while 500 feet in the air above the jagged, incredibly nasty shards of a Welsh slate quarry! In order to call attention to this fantastic feat, all six super heroes have worn their super capes leaving the locals in utter amazement, and a few giggles!

But, impervious to pointing and staring, the team foraged ahead and accomplished this amazing feat. Just to give you a hint of how stupid stupendous we were here is a video of Badass and Zippy on their practice run on "Little Zipper"  

Coming soon is a video from the "Big Zipper". Stand by until I edit out all the screaming and crying!I
So, here it is. It's a spherical video so you can scroll around and see where I've been and where I am going. The camera is in my right hand behind my back so you can't see down very well.

The rest of the group went to the woolen mills.... ho humm.... They came back to get us just in time to have Badass and Zippy fly right over the coach as they arrived.  A fitting tribute!

Returning to Ruthin we all disembarked in town and foraged for food. Great food was found at "Top of the Hill" and "Wetherspoon".