Today I had booked in for a physiotherapy massage with a lady called Isi Booker. I’d found her by googling people in the North Wales area, as I wanted to get my shoulder looked at before any further travelling to Ireland and Scotland. I’d got a stiff neck from climbing and it had spread to my shoulder. It turned out Isi was based at Plas y Brenin, an big outdoor activity centre. When i arrived there was no parking available at all, so had to drive down the road to the nearest lay by and walk up. The outdoor centre is in a place called Capel Curig, and is on a road on the way out of the village. Its situated among the hills and next to a lake, so is very picturesque and obviously an ideal place for outdoor activities.
I explained my ailments to Isi and she gave me a 45 min massage focussing on my neck and shoulder, which was great, it really loosened me up. I have a feeling I will need to go again in the near future, but for now I will try to maintain some form of stretching and not get into bad habits.
It turned out that Isi studied music at Huddersfield, playing the flute, but didn’t want to pursue it as her career by the time she graduated. She’d taken up hiking and climbing at Uni so started to look down this path, starting off working in an outdoor shop, she soon moved into outdoor training at multiple centres around the country. At around 30 she decided to re train in Physiotherapy, which took her 4 years. This then led her to Plas y Brenin where she has her own room for treatments, and focuses on outdoor activity injuries.
While we were talking she gave me some advise on getting into the outdoor training environment, telling me about CA (Centre assistance) where you can become employed by a centre who put you through a certain amount of training then you work as an assistant and pick up more skills as you assist the main trainers. She also told me about She Climbs, an event around August time for all women (novice and intermediate) to progress with their climbing.
After my massage I decided to use the rest of my day to go on am amble around the forests by the centre. There was a short route on OS maps which seemed doable in the time I had. It was a beautiful afternoon, the sun was out, it was fairly still, although still a bit chilly, and everything looked so lush. Again there was abundant amounts of moss, which just looks so tasty lol. I also couldnt resist splashing my face in the nearby stream, lovely and refreshing. It was just a joy to strut along the path taking in the fresh air and views, very peaceful.
On returning to the van I went in search of a spot for the night. I had looked up a britstop, but again they wanted me to buy food in order to stop, so opted out of that . There were multiple stops near the centre, but I carried on and missed my chance for that area. I ended up driving down Llanberis pass and past Grib Goch, always awe-inspiring. Eventually I drove all round back to the bottom of Tryfan to park up. I’m glad I kept going, as it was a beautiful spot nestled in the mountains. It ended up being a very windy night, they had even forecast the possibility of snow! Luckily it didn’t!