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July 2009

Be more involved in your group!

At the SURG AGM in October we will be electing a new committee and amongst some other roles we are especially looking for a Membership Secretary which is a key role on the committee. Are you able to use Excel, have some free time and want to be more involved in the running of SURG? If so, then this may be the role for you!

Being on the committee is not all hard work, it's fun too and you get to know other people in SURG better by being more involved. If you'd like to find out more about this or other committee roles, please take a look at the details of different committee roles in the 'Contact Us' section, email the Chair, or speak to any SURG committee member on a walk. Go on, take the plunge!

SURG trip to the Cambrian Mountains

Over the early May Bank Holiday weekend, 26 SURG members descended on The Old Weather Station bunkhouse near the tiny hamlet of Staylittle near Llanidloes, Powys, for a weekend of walking, relaxing and drinking!

We had plenty of food, plenty of beer, a good base for the weekend in an idyllic location, plenty of great company, now all we needed was some sunshine. Sadly on Friday the sunshine only made a token effort to appear and was soon overpowered by the drizzle for the best part of the day, but this was Wales after all! We all did a 12 mile walk through the Havren (Severn) Forest passing the "Severn Breaks It's Neck" waterfalls and returning along the shore of the Llyn Clywedog reservoir back to the bunkhouse.

Once back and showered it was all hands on deck for the preparation of the evenings meals. The evening was spent at the bunkhouse drinking, eating, chatting and playing table tennis in the lounge.

Saturday turned out to be a pretty good day weatherwise, and the group split up to tackle two different walks. Orson led a walk exploring areas around Devil's Bridge, and the rest of the group set off on the big climb of Pumlumon, the highest point of the Cambrian Mountains.

The Pumlumon group split into two groups, one walking at a faster pace, although both teams reached the top at the same time due to some inventive short-cutting of the route by the slower group! With no hard feelings we continued our way down the mountain, following the stunning Severn Way for several miles back to the car park.

On Sunday Orson did another walk of about 16 miles and actually gained another person, whilst some others took a drive north and scaled the dizzy heights of Cadair Idris. Others took the opportunity for a more relaxed day and headed for Devil's Bridge to take a ride on the Vale of Rheidol narrow gauge steam railway.

Monday morning dawned with a few bleary heads but it wasn't long before we had cleared everything up and everyone was on their way home. Thanks to everyone for making it a great trip and for all mucking in with the chores. Here's looking forward to the next trip...

Paul Russell