VULCAN XM603 & CLIMBING SNOWDON

VULCAN XM603

On Friday I drove to Blaenau Ffestiniog in Wales, while sitting in the pub that evening my boyfriend suddenly recalled that I had recently mentioned that there was a white Vulcan in the Manchester area, which is (by my standards) within a reasonable driving distance from North Wales. We dug around on Google and found that the Vulcan I had been talking about was XM603 and is on display at the Avro Heritage Museum in Woodford, Stockport. 

The Avro Heritage Museum opened to the public on November 13th therefore is a very new establishment, the museum has a large collection of Avro artefacts including prototypes, instrument panels and photographs. Around the edge of the museum is a timeline showing the duration of service of each aircraft, the museum was structured around the timeline from oldest to newest or vice versa depending on which way you walk around the room. I was also impressed with how friendly and knowledgeable the staff were. 

XM603 is on display outside and was naturally my first port of call, I was as happy as Larry out there with my camera despite the bitterly cold winds! Compared to XL426, XM603 has a lot of wear and tear and is in need of some TLC, however she seems to be in the best hands and I have no doubt that a repaint is on the agenda. 

I can now tick seeing a white Vulcan off the bucket list and I have another point of interest to add to my Final Major Project research map!

Rare shot of me and the Vulcan!

CLIMBING SNOWDON

On Sunday I trekked up Snowdon. Mountain walking is not something to be taken lightly and even with my relatively good level of fitness I did not want to take chances as it has been a fair few years since I last trekked up a mountain, I also had to take my boyfriends flat footedness into account! I chose the Snowdon Ranger path as this seemed quite moderate yet slightly more challenging than the touristy Llanberis path which is the easiest of them all. 

It was a steep walk which turned into more of a climb at various points, there aren't many hills around where I live so it was a shock to the calve muscles to begin with, I hit a wall very early however I persevered and found it quite easy after my legs were over the initial trauma.

Another reason I chose the Ranger path was that I had read that the views are spectacular, they were not wrong there!

It was an amazing feeling to sit just under the cloud near the summit of Snowdon and take in the views knowing that I had achieved what I had set out to do, the trouble is that this has got the adrenaline pumping and I am now itching to find a new adventure! 

CAERNARFON

On our way home I drove to Caernarfon to catch one last glimpse of the Irish Sea and Yr Eifl which is another mountain on my "to do" list.

I am planning to go back in the spring to trek back up Snowdon to hopefully get a clearer view from the summit.

(Originally posted as just XM603 before Snowdon and Caerfarfon were bolted on which will explain the confusing post date.)