Group News

There is a saying that if you spend the night up Cadair Idris and live you will come down the next morning “Mad, blind or a poet.” (This is a genuine quote mentioned by the tourist board)

One can imagine the walker who fell asleep on Cadair and woke up in the dark with the full moon overhead. He or she then walked down the mountain towards Dolgellau and came into a thickly wooded valley. After a while stumbling in the dark he came across a clearing in the woods. There was a bonfire with various figures gathered around it. Then a formally dressed man with druidic looking white hair approached something on a table and drew out a knife. Thinking this was some ancient Celtic sacrificial ritual the walker rushed off into the woods in utter panic and was not found till morning………

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The Prelude

This trip kept changing before it began. It began in the Clarendon pub, after Alan helped me deliver three budgies to their Christmas retreat. Sans birds and a few pints later, we had sketched the plan – three days in the Hebrides. Were we budgie-brained? We changed the timescale to a week, then longer to take in the last May bank holiday. That week wouldn’t work because the ferry timetables are very respectful of specific dates. So we changed it to a week including two weekends, or eight Sundays, which is what it all began to feel like in the timeless spray freedom of the Outer Hebrides.

We changed everything except our minds; we would go there in one or two cars, as four or five persons, in meteorological suspense. Elusive and beautiful the trip was to be.

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Well Dave you asked for it – here goes! A different perspective on the Tanners experience. Seven intrepid explorers left Leicester in two cars – but this time one car (ours) left about 3pm and the other Chris, Sonia, Judith and Alice left considerably later, well after 5pm. Funny thing is – we still managed to meet up at the usual pub for dinner in Dorking. We were just leaving – their meals were just arriving. We debated the benefits and losses of our early start!

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Eleven of us went in 3 cars and Dave Anne and I went the cross country route from Droitwich via Leominster which is to be much recommended as an alternative to the M5/50 route. There was little traffic and the countryside was beautiful. We stopped in a US style diner on the edge of Leominster, expecting James Dean to come leaping out of the skirting but he didn’t appear (The staff’s Herefordshire accent rather spoiled the illusion.)

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Flicking through the pages of the shiny new YHA Accommodation Guide, Clyffe Pypard YH looked like a place that would appeal to our group. A 14-bed bunkhouse, interesting part of the country, attached to a pub! Three months later it was time to see if it would meet those expectations.

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Oh well, so you’ve missed another one. But, that doesn’t mean that I am going to stop putting these events on the Group Programme! It is not only because Chris and I enjoy playing our part in these gatherings, there are other reasons why Leicester Group should do its best to support this fading facet of YHA’s traditions. Read the rest of this entry »

A very few stalwart group members supported the first weekend in 2007. This time of year the weather can be cold and frosty, wet and windy with snow flurries, grey skies overhead, and early darkness. Bearing this in mind the January weekend is usually a city break. This year Bristol YH was the destination.

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Grin Low cottage is two former quarry worker’s cottages merged into one large cottage, now owned by Derbyshire County Council. The original Grin Low quarry is now a caravan park, though at this time of year the site is absent of caravans. So it was on a rain soaked windy afternoon we arrived on what was our 5th visit to Grin Low in 7 years and our 4th as a new year weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

The YHA have redesigned their website, giving it a clean new look with plenty of good photographs to brighten it up. Go and take a look for yourself.

[Added - There's a full review of the site on the YHA Groups' website]

That’s the question the committee are wrestling with at the moment. Normally affiliating to the YHA each year is a matter of routine, but the name change fiasco and certain changes to the rules are making us hesitate this year.

All group members are requested to read up about the issues we face, and let the committee know what you think. After all, it’s the future of your group we’re talking about!