Gorging Ourselves

Saturday was KG's stag day and the main event was an afternoon of "gorge scrambling" courtesy of Adventures in Kenfig, near Porthcawl. I have to admit to a measure of trepidation (as did many of the other guys), but went along, paid my money and was duly issued with a wetsuit, buoyancy aid and helmet.

Half an hour or so of driving around South Wales brought us to Pontneddfechan, towards the western end of the Brecons, we got our kit on and set off with two instructors and three people who had arrived as a separate group. Shortly afterwards we were floating down a stretch of river before beginning the scramble up a tributary.

Despite initial misgivings, this was fun. Over the next three hours we traversed rocks and walls, climbed waterfalls, swam pools, crawled through caves, yelled encouragement to each other and finally rounded things off with leaps from a couple of waterfalls, all in beautiful surroundings. All tiring (and 4 days later I'm still acheing) but enjoyable and rewarding. Plus, it's entirely possible we might do it again sometime -- even <3 and some of the other non-attendees sound like they might be up for joining us.

As the evening shadows fall

On Tuesday, <3 and I returned from a week in Ireland with the inlaws, during which we were taken for a few days among the mountains and coastlines of County Donegal. I was definitely bitten by the breathtaking beauty of the area (not to mention the midges) and hope to return and spend a more leisurely time smelling the proverbial coffee.

One day's excursion, however, took us across the border to Northern Ireland, where we visited the Giant's Causeway (a spectacular place to simply sit and watch the sea) and the Bushmills distillery (with its fine guided tours and whiskey sampling). On the way back, the F-in-L took us for a walk around the city of (London)Derry.

According to F-in-L, the city is historically more correctly simply Derry, but the county could be correctly referred to as Londonderry, but he believes this is less of a sectarian issue than I had assumed. Our walk around the city included the still-intact walls, still containing watch towers left over from the euphemistically named "troubles". Just outside the walls lies the Fountain, a run-down loyalist area decorated with union flags and red, white and blue painted curbstones. Visible from the walls was a well-painted graffito, reading "LONDONDERRY WEST BANK LOYALISTS STILL UNDER SIEGE NO SURRENDER".

On the other side of the city centre lies the republican Bogside, where the gable end of a bombed out building has been tidied up and painted with the slogan, "YOU ARE NOW ENTERING FREE DERRY". This is the area where the Bloody Sunday shootings took place in 1972 and many of the beautifully painted murals on the houses in the area commemorate this and other incidents from the conflict through the 70's and 80's.

It is clear that there is still a lot of anger and hate remaining in Derry, a city sorely in need of reconciliation. But there is hope. One of the houses in Bogside is decorated with a mural showing a rainbow coloured chequer pattern, across which is flying a stylised white dove. That, above all else that I saw, makes me think that perhaps peace is on its way.

Twoiversary

Two years ago today I married <3. Life is good.