FROM the mountains to the coast and even
a bus ride into a vast underground cavern, Kyrle Probus Club, Ross,
enjoyed a memorable few days in Snowdonia on the club’s annual
holiday, last month.
The trip ‘took off’ with a visit to the
impressive RAF Museum at Cosford, on the way north to the party’s
hotel in Llanberis. Using three massive hangers, the Museum houses
one of the largest aircraft collections in the United Kingdom,
spanning close on 100 years of aviation history.
The first
full day in Snowdonia, saw the party take an excursion to Llandudno
on the coast, via the scenic beauty of Bettws-y-Coed and Conwy
Valley. No visit to Llandudno would be complete without a walk along
the broad promenade overlooked by the elegant Victorian buiildings
and a tramway ride to the top of the Great Orme. The coach-ride back
to Llanberis took the party via Caernarfon where they were able to
admire Edward 1’s majestic castle.dominating the walled town.
The following day, the group travelled to the
Centre for Alternative technology, Europe’s leading eco-centre, near
Machynlleth. The alternative technology began with the visitors
being taken up on the water-balanced cliff railway to arrive at the
seven-acre centre filled with gardens, exhibitions and displays.
Here you could learn about the environment, how to save energy and
money in your home, or just enjoy the gardens
After lunch at
the vegetarian restaurant at the centre, the Probus group travelled
on to Tywyn for a ride on the famous Tall-y-llyn narrow gauge
railway. Founded in 1865 to carry slate from the quarry at Bryn
Eglyws to Tywyn for shipment to the mainline coast railway, it also
carried passengers along its seven mile route.
It served the
area and the quarry for the best part of a century until the demand
for slate dwindled with the introduction of roofing tiles and the
quarry closed in 1947. In 1950, a group of individuals formed a
society to save and operate the railway and the Tallyllyn became the
world’s first preserved railway.
One wouldn’t think that something as simple as
going to put the kettle on after watching a televised sporting
event, such as a World Cup match or an F1 race, could cause a
problem. However, when millions of people go to put the pot on at
the same time, the electricity National Grid comes under pressure to
cope.
But deep inside a mountain in Snowdonia, help is
immediately at hand. That is when the Dinorwig Power Station comes
into its own. As well as providing electricity to the Grid on a
daily basis, it provides back-up for periods of heavy demand. The
station, through its pumped storage hydro-electric system, offers
probably the fastest response time of any power facility in the
world – 1,728MW from standstill in just 90 seconds.
After
watching a film in the visitor centre on Dinorwig’s supply of
electricity to the National Grid, the Probus party was taken by bus
inside the Elidir Mountain to experience close up, the massive
turbines at work. The vast machine hall that houses six turbines and
generators is Europe’s largest man-made cavern and when excavated
was large enough to contain St Paul’s Cathedral.
On the last
night of their stay at the Royal Victoria Hotel, the Kyrle Probus
party was royally entertained by two choirs – a mixed choir from
Morbegna in northern Italy and a local choir made up of young
singers from around Llanberis, which is twinned with Morbegna.
