Day 1

In keeping with the JMT’s aims of conservation of the wild, minimising our carbon footprint from our journey seemed essential. So, we set off, walking with full packs (and wondering what on earth we were taking on) to the train station. A few hours later we stepped onto the platform at Machynlleth, and then the train was gone, and we were alone in Wales, with only our feet to carry us.

Actually, this wasn’t strictly true, as we decided that since the train had been a bit delayed and we were pressed for time to reach the Centre for Alternative Technology and the handover of the journey sticks, it would be ok to hitch a lift. A man in a green van kindly delivered us to the CAT, and we met Daniel and Nick who had already taken guardianship of the baton. But, not to worry they told us, as there’s another stick! This we hadn’t been expecting, and having seen the size of their staff we were slightly concerned. We set off to find Sophie, the coordinator and our soon to become indispensible supporter for this leg of our journey. We took a ride in the water powered funicular railway, up to the CAT main area, and easily found Sophie - she holding the baton, us staggering under our rucksacks, we really couldn’t miss each other.

The CAT was a superb site, and I could have spent far longer than our short hour or two exploring there. It rekindled dreams of building an eco-house, and refreshed my commitment to the environment. However, we were not yet underway on our journey, so reluctantly we had to leave.

We talked to Sophie about the route to Cadair, along an unpleasant stretch of road, and she recommended the bus or hitching. Finding the bus timetable remarkably compliant with our own, we had a short ride to XXXXX, below the rising ridges of Cadair. We decided on dinner with all the team at Daniel and Nick’s B&B, and headed off to walk around the lake as a warm up, body stretch, kit settling exercise. It was a pleasant stroll, though the length of our journey - still not really underway - was prominent in my mind.




	Gardens at the CAT

In our efforts to minimize our pack size and weight, we had discovered a fantastic range of folding eating wares. It was time to test the cups, so a brew-up on the lake shore was called for. The ingenious design gave a spill free drink, and then folded flat again - perfect for licking clean and sliding back into the rucksacks!

We made it back to the B&B only to be greeted by the press! A writer and photographer from the local paper had arrived to talk to us about the JMT and the journey, and after ordering our dinner we had to get our boots back on and tramp down to the woods for their photographs. It was all a bit of a farce, but eventually we got back to our dinner!

After all this we were finally able to get underway at about 9pm - far later than intended, and guided by Sophie made our way up the steeply stepped path of Cadair Idris. The ancient woodland and rocky waterfalls were beautiful, but too dark by that time for photographs. We made it up to near the lake in the Cwm, and pitched our tents in the rapidly descending darkness. We were finally on our very own journey for the wild.


	Testing the folding cups - they’re superb!



	The baton holds our candle lantern at camp 1




	Our little tents, below Cadair in the early morning mist


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