It is a busy few weeks coming up & we hope that you will be able to support these events in Capel Curig. First up is our Reach Out for Nepal Day on 23rd June, a wide variety of events & sales are taking place at the cafe throughout the day starting with Paul’s annual charity run at 5:00 am & rounding off with Mike Lee’s charity Quiz Night which gets underway at 8:00 pm. For full details simply click on our Nepal or Events pages. We hope you can take part on the day, if you want to sponsor

Just a quick note to confirm that we will be keeping our doors open later than normal this coming Sunday to help you maximise your time Outdoors in what might still promise to be great weather. To help you plan your days below are our full opening hours this coming weekend but please note last hot food orders are 30 minutes before we close i.e. 5:30 pm or 7:30 pm respectively. Friday – 7:30 am to 6:00 pm. Saturday – 7:30 am to 8:00 pm. Sunday – 7:30 am to 8:00 pm. Monday 7:30 am to 6:00pm.

Following the double co-incidence of bumping into Julie for the first time last week (read my latest blog if you want to know more) we are delighted to announce that we have 15 Signed copies of her excellent book about her motivations & insights into her Fell Running & the challenges she has faced. There is an excellent review of the book in the latest copy of ‘Fellrunner’ magazine but for those of you unlucky enough to not have it on subscription here goes a brief review by me for whatever that’s worth. I bought & read Julie’s book despite

I have to face facts, I have slowed down, the reasons could be varied, too much recently?, too much slow stuff?, age?, wine?………….. the list goes on but despite this I am enjoying myself & this was proved once again last week which saw two races in 3 days. First up (Sunday before last) was the 2 Lakes race around Llyn Brenig & Llyn Alwyn under glorious skies & quite a lot of heat. Placed O.K. but was 7 minutes down on last year but what a lovely route this is when the sun shines, worth a walk or a

Just a quick reminder that we will be keeping our doors open longer than normal this Sunday, hopefully that’ll allow you more time to enjoy Snowdonia in what looks like being good weather before needing to return to re-fuel. Below are our opening times for this weekend, please note that last orders for hot food are half an hour before we close. Friday – 7:30 to 18:00 Saturday – 7:30 to 20:00 Sunday – 7:30 to 20:00 Monday – 7:30 to 18:00 Hope you have great plans & that we see you at some point.

Once again I have to thank Dorina who pointed out half an hour before I set off for the Moel y Guest race that I would be somewhat early because it is next Tuesday & not tonight so please accept my deep embarrassment at getting references to it in my blog earlier today wrong. Do I fancy still planning to run in the Joe Brown series tonight, frankly no as it’s half an hour further from home & would delay our evening meal to past 9:00 pm, hardly fair on the workers who are getting up at 6:00 tomorrow morning,

It’s been a while since I’ve wittered on about my running but with my planning to turn up & run in my first Joe Brown Tuesday evening run tonight it would seem to be a suitable time to make amends, so here goes. With a descent Manchester Marathon well behind me the following week saw me get out for a couple of ten milers feeling strong & more importantly more upbeat about my recent foot pains. During a mini break in Keswick to catch up with Doug Scott & gear shopping I got out two evenings back to back to

I am pleased to announce that things are now well in hand for our 4th Reach Out for Nepal Day with another wide variety of Events taking place in or around the Cafe, something for everyone. But rather than cover them specifically in this update I’ll list them on the Events page but please note that the list is likely to become extended in the coming weeks so click into the Events page periodically to get the most up to date information. I met up with Doug Scott CBE a week or so ago & he and Anne were most

Easter has come & gone & from a Cafe point of view went well but it ended for us in tragedy as we returned home on Bank Holiday Monday to discover our beloved cat, Pemba, had been hit by a car. A magnificently strong cat had somehow made it home to say goodbye but his internal injuries were un-survivable & I buried him under beautiful blue skies on Thursday morning, Dorina & I were devastated & lost. Seeing & feeling our grief Gaby decided to hold the fort & dispatched us on a busy Sunday so that I could run

With an early Easter fast approaching it’s time to make your plans so if you are in Snowdonia over the Easter period here’s whats happening at the Cafe to help you decide what to take advantage of:- Saturday 31st March – Open MIC Night, with extended Drinks license until 11:00 pm – See Events page for more details. Easter Sunday 1st April – Extended evening opening to 20:00 with last hot food orders at 7:30 pm. Friday 6th April – Rachel Bolton & Rob Johnson of Filmuphigh present ‘playing on the Pinn’ followed by Music & Poems with last hot

Having not blogged for a while I can only blame an awful lot of running around (mostly in cars) interspersed with a great first trip to the Pyrenees which saw my off-piste skiing go from extremely poor to extremely poor but my piste skiing move from extremely moderate to moderate. For this ‘improvement’ I have my ski instructor, aka Judy, to thank for her ‘friendly’ shout ‘Paul, you need to plant your poles at each turn’, was there a hint of frustration in her, certainly looked like it but what do I know about women? That brings me on to

We were delighted to host Eryri Harriers Presentation Night on Saturday so congratulations to all those who won awards (Paul’s still trying to figure out how he got a medal too?) & especially to Bronwin Jenkinson who had such a spectacular year with surely many more to come. Hot on it’s heals are two more Events at the Cafe to make a note for your diaries:- First up on Saturday 17th March we host the Snowdonia Society’s Quiz Night, no booking needed but might be prudent to reserve a table in advance. Friday 6th April sees friends of ours (Rachel

This Saturday evening sees us hosting the Eryri Harriers Presentation Evening which we are delighted to do. As such the Cafe will be closing earlier than normal at 6:00 pm with last Hot Food orders at 5:30pm, hopefully that will still give you plenty of time to re-fuel after a day enjoying the snowy mountains & trails. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

It was on the cards but as ever when you learn of the loss of a friend that doesn’t make it any easier to accept. I am not in the habit of putting pen to paper in my blogs when someone close to us passes away, yes I briefly posted about the loss of Ian already the best part of 4 years ago but have restricted it to that, however in Bob Postings case I am going to make an exception. This is partly due to the way that Bob thrust himself upon our cafe in our early days &

We are pleased to announce that this Sunday saw the completion of the installation of the Defibrillator outside our Cafe so a big thank you once again to everyone who donated to the cause & to Tomos Hughes who completed the installation & has guided us throughout the campaign. The Defib. is located immediately outside our main entrance doors & will be accessible to all but please note the important date of Friday 9th March when (between approximately 15:00 & 19:00) Tomos will be helping to provide free training to members of our staff as well as anyone else who

Have you noticed the changes to our Weekend Specials? Gaby has teamed up with the excellent & renowned Mermaid Fishmongers of Llandudno to allow us to offer a wide variety of Fish options every weekend. With their expert guidance we hope to provide you with a wide variety of Fishy options throughout the year some of these will be based on their recommendations of what’s in season, so if like me & you love fish there is everything to look forward to as 2018 progresses. These changes have already begun with Dover Sole, Cod, Haddock, Salmon & Scampi already making

Just a reminder that Bandabacana are playing at the Cafe this Saturday so come along & keep warm by dancing the night away to their Sweet Grooves & Hypnotic Harmonies, free entry, for full details see our Events page, hope to see you!

Monday morning found me in a very gloomy mood, the day before I had been subjected to a vicious verbal attack from a woman who chose to react badly to my request to keep her dog under control. I won’t go into details but it left me traumatised, her later attempts to falsify the events on facebook & no doubt in the days ahead on tripadvisor are of no surprise but even my logic cannot fully help me to realise the futility of being hurt by such abominable behaviour. As Monday afternoon wore on & my morale still side-swiped by

Well at least it is if you are visiting the cafe today. At midday yesterday our phone lines went down & this disabled our card machine. We have been onto BT repeatedly to get it fixed but it doesn’t look like a solution will be in place until sometime on Friday 19th January presumably they are a little busy after last night’s storm. Just to be on the safe side you might like to pack some cash if you are planning to visit us this weekend, sorry for any inconvenience caused but Mother Nature reminds us that she can be in

Our thanks to Alex Kendal, creator & author of this new route & Cicerone guide, who gave an excellent & informative presentation about the route & it’s creation at the cafe on Saturday night. Ticket sales raised £272.00 & will be split equally towards the BMC’s campaign to improve a notorious footpath on Cader Idris & our own campaign for a Defibrillator to be housed outside the Cafe, so thanks too to all those who attended. Alex went down well selling 19 copies of the guide book on the night but then called in again on Sunday & signed a