Apologies from all of us for the long delay in journal entries. I promise you that we are not doing this on purpose. We have been traveling without phone or internet access for quite some time now. We have spent much time searching for internet cafes, but now we have decided to quit, and just wait for an opportunity.

It would be impossible to relay everything that we have been doing. Of course, we try to keep as busy as possible, and the days sometimes seem to run into each other. I will do my best to bring you up to date.

After trekking along Hadrian's wall and marching across Northern England, we drove across the country to North Wales. We drove through narrow lanes and past English castles designed to keep the Welsh on their side of the border, and eventually we reached our hostel in Capel Curig. North Wales speaks Welsh as their first language, a language full of consonants and mutating verbs, and the inhabitants are very proud of their Celtic heritage. I speak from the heart as I have Welsh blood in my veins!

We spent two amazing days climbing in the Snowdonia Park, a Welsh mountain range. On the first day we hiked up the Pyg track towards the Snowdon summit, and then on to Crib Goch and towards the peak. At this point, we were meant to climb along a narrow ridge to summit the main mountain. However, by now the snow had really started to fall and the tops of the mountains were covered in dense fog and cloud. The area can be dangerous and there are accidents every year, so we made a tactical decision to head back.

Even though I had intended to reach the summit, I soon got over my frustration at our reverse. It wasn't hard, when you consider the spectacular views we saw all around us on the way down.

The following day we wanted to take a shorter hike, but this turned out to be just as long and arduous as our trek of the previous day. Oops. We went first up to the Devil's Kitchen, a big cwm high on the side of a  mountain. From there, we intended to walk along the mountain ridge to some other amazing height we could see up up there.

As the weather socked in, we were told a few times that we should head back. I don't think we looked very experienced. I am not sure why, but it may have been Diana's plastic purple pants, or Amy' s white running shoes, or my pre-school backpack. However, we soldiered on, and we were soon well rewarded with vistas. I think Park Rangers, and the like, are obliged by the authorities to tell people like us, without real equipment and maps of the area, that they should not go too high. This is just to be cautious, in case something does happen. This range of mountains is notorious for how quickly the cloud and snow comes down, and how icy the trail can become, and these make it dangerous.

Our courageous climb was soon put in perspective, when a group of what looked like 9 year old boys and girls, joined us on one of the summits. We soon recovered from any feeling that we did not belong up there.

 From North Wales, through the Llanberis pass, we headed to South Wales, where we stayed for a few days with my amazing aunt Molly. She has spoiled the three of us rotten, so that we three women, who have been traveling on pub food and cheese sandwiches have been sorely tempted. We have been utterly spoiled by her. We are all having to take a great deal of care to stay in shape, because from the day we arrived, we have been plied with roasts of meat, vegetables, cakes and crumbles at every meal. It is a wonderful way of eating and one I could easily get used to it.

I enjoyed taking Amy and D around my old haunts in Y Bont-Faen (Cowbridge in English). I lived here with my family for a while in 1990 and 1991, and even went to school here, played soccer at school and learned some Welsh. My mother's family is from this area so I even know people. This not only means that we are enjoying meals and being spoiled, but it is good to have a rest from being on the road. We have stayed in some fantastic houses, with our own rooms, and it's good to have some privacy after sharing hostel rooms for so long.

However, we are now back on the road, and we have been staying in Hook Norton, near Oxford. We are staying with a Welsh cousin, and you probably already know that Welsh families have widespread family trees. This is another beautiful area of the country and I am looking forward to getting to know it better tomorrow.

On our journey here, we took time to visit Stonehenge, the circle of stone steles associated with pagan rites in early England. Amy and D went in to look at the rocks close up ... I looked at them through the fence. I can't imagine stones being any more interesting close up than they are from 100 yards away. Onwards we go.

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