A final reminder that this years charity fund raiser for Nepal is nearly upon us, it would be great if you are able to come along, enjoy the variety of events going on at the café & help us raise funds which this year will help build an entirely new school in the remote Himalayan village of Prok. For full details of what’s going on simply click on our Events page to see what suits you. As to the runners among you it’d be great to have your support at some point during the day. Paul Jones, Tim Watson &

A weekend of no racing allowed me to get out on Saturday evening for my Betws Bridge circuit, arguably too much tarmac on this 10 miler but the A.5 hill back up from Betws has some kind of hold on me, very odd. This was followed on Sunday afternoon as I finally got out for my long overdue recce for my ROFN charity run, basically how do I get from the dam at Llyn Cowlyn to Tal y Fan? Well after a little over 5 hours later I could finally say ‘well now I know, simple really’ but it’s a

Jogging back down the Pyg track after completing this classic race with a feeling of increasing pride little did I know of the trouble I was in for back at the Café, so lets start with getting myself out of the s… with some ‘sincere’ apologies:- Sorry Angel for not giving you a kiss after you re-fuelled me at the Pen y Pass check point. Sorry Rebecca Roberts for not acknowledging your encouraging ‘Paul’ at the Carnedd Dafydd check point, I was taken aback by your subsequent greeting later in the café ‘oh, so you’re speaking to me now then,

As I watched highlights of the Diamond League meeting last night (unusual for me to put a book down & watch the box but an inner sense must have made me do it) my two main train of thoughts were a) life is un-fair, b) need to go back to Stockholm! In truth the life is un-fair bit was only temperature related & upon reflection miss-placed. Nearly a year to the day I had run the Stockholm marathon in blistering 28 degree heat with only cold showers along the route, frequent stops at the drink stations & a fair bit

Of course when you are running you do not always have time to take in the views you are passing but moving at a sedate jog or fast walk I was able to take in enough to form an opinion so here goes:- The most praise I can give it is that I now plan to walk Dorina around it, hopefully this year, it is more than worth a more leisurely look. I had been told of it’s gorgeous bays, undulating nature & historic sites & these it has in abundance. In parts it reminded me of Cornwall, Devon &

Moving on:- Day 3 – Thursday 16th May – Beaumaris to Aberffraw I first awoke at 3:30, the toilet beckoned, the head feels light, the teeth were cleaned, the head feels light, ‘hit the deck Paul’, I did with a semi-controlled thump. ‘Are you O.K. darling?’ ‘probably let me lie here a while’, came my hesitant reply. I know what a pending feint feels like & had just avoided one skillfully. At breakfast we were asked if we wanted toast, it came, no breakfast order was taken, I had a fear & told Dorina, I looked at our table setting,

Having celebrated the incredible achievements of others in yesterday’s blog it’s time to put finger to keyboard to cover my journey around Anglesey last week. Day 1 – Tuesday 14th May – Holyhead to Amlwch Tuesday saw an early rise allowing Dorina & I to reach the cafe by 6:45 am. By 7:00 I got stuck into 3 Poached Eggs, two pieces of toast & a ladle full of baked beans, proper breakfast fueling is key but alas not everyone understands that as we will see! Team J & M arrived at 7:30 as planned & despite the shambles of

This is a great opportunity not to be missed, for members of the Alpine Club tickets will be free, for non-members they are an absolute bargain of just £5. To reserve your tickets simply contact the cafe either through our web-site all by calling us on 01690 720429. For full details visit our Events Page.

With this weekend also seeing our regular Open MIC Night (full details on our events page) it’s time to confirm our opening hours for the Bank Holiday weekend, so here goes:- Friday 24th – 07:30 to 20:00 (Last hot food orders by 19:30) Saturday 25th – 07:30 to 23:00 (Open MIC Night, last hot food orders 19:30) Sunday 26th – 07:30 to 20:00 (Last hot food orders by 19:30) Bank Holiday Monday – 07:30 to 18:00 (Last hot food orders 17:30) The sun is shining gloriously in Capel Curig today, fingers crossed it does likewise for the weekend, we hope

Before I get to this blog a very important that you to John, Marion & Johnathan who together posted updates on my run last week & of course this thank you extends to all those who followed my progress too. It felt great to know people were interested in what I was up to, now to more important things:- As I made my way around Anglesey last week, news began to seep in from the mainland putting my little jog into perspective, it was to be an exceptional week for Fell running in Snowdonia. First news came via team J

With good friends John, Andy Julian having begun walking this route back in late winter on a one day a fortnight basis & my thoughts turning away from Cho Oyu to other must do’s such as running Scotland’s Great Glen in a day or two clarity began to un-fold. ‘Why go to the logistical problems of Scotland many miles away, you don’t know Anglesey as well as you should, penny firmly dropped’ There were mutterings to John but I kept it relatively under the radar until in the middle of last week with some pleasing long runs & high weekly

A quick blog to say that I’ve just updated our Events page for this years fund raising day due to the likes of Charlotte, Sara & Mike confirming their involvement again this year. In addition I have now been able to put the meat on the bones of the evening events at the café with line-up & approximate timings, it might be prudent to reserve your ‘free’ seats. Finally it includes an update on both our fund raising & who is joining me on the charity run & others willing to support us on it. It would be great to

With this ever popular event soon to be upon us & our very own Nick helping lead one of the walks on the Saturday, we’ve just received news that Nicola & Dave from Plas y Brenin are running one of their brilliant navigation walks as part of it this year. It’ll be on Sunday, May 19th, meet at Peniel Chapel, Trefriw & lasts all day. The festival is listed on our Events page but for full details simply google trefriwwalkingfestival.co.uk.

With another dry weekend in the forecast we have again extended opening hours allowing you to stay a little longer out on the hills before coming down for a refuel. Also on Saturday we have our Open MIC Night with extended drinks licence until 10:30 pm, so come along & feel free to join in. To do so simply tap our host, Alan Mannouch, on the shoulder. Opening Times are:- Saturday 4th – 07:30 to 23:00 (Last hot food orders at 7:30 pm). Sunday 5th – 07:30 to 20:00 (Last hot food orders at 7:30 pm). Bank Holiday Monday –

Well there’s no rest for a busy café……. but before what’s coming up next let me go back to the Easter weekend. It was not just our busiest Easter ever, Sunday was our busiest day ever, Saturday was our third busiest on record & Friday & Monday also kept us on our toes although on each of these two days I did at least slip out for a run. If you want to get or stay fit just apply within for a job here, Sunday 25,000 steps carrying an assortment of trays, plates & pots – I lost weight hands

Before I go any further a quick reminder that this Saturday sees the Fron Four fell race taking place near Caernarfon so good luck to race organiser, Mike Blake, & all those taking part, carrying fluids might be prudent. Now back to Manchester & that Why? Well it certainly wasn’t due to a lack of breakfast as my pre-race stopover at Kean & Sandra’s for the night saw me being fed a breakfast fit for a King, or runner at least so why had I lost so much energy so quickly? The main reason related to parking & no race

Well that was to be the title (but with an exclamation mark) of my previous blog but with hindsight I am glad I changed that blog & it’s contents because it has allowed me to indeed clear my head & believe it was a self induced blip. This more positive reflection was helped by a half decent performance in last weekend’s Goldrush in my own backyard. O.K. so my time for the Goldrush of 1:14:07 was a little outside my pb’s of 2016 & 17 (yes that was when I ran the same time two years running) but it was

We will be extending our Opening Hours again this year so with a great weather forecast in the offing there is no need for you to rush off the hills to secure that favourite piece of cake or dine on one of our specials with a glass of wine or refreshing beer. So here are those opening hours:- Good Friday, Saturday & Easter Sunday: 07:30 to 20:00 Easter Monday: 07:30 to 18:00 Just remember that last hot food orders are half an hour before we close. In addition to several of our regular Specials being available Gaby is cooking Slow

The weekend before last saw me up in The Lakes for another road race, the Coniston 14 which is what it says, a 14 mile road race around Lake Coniston starting & finishing in Coniston where a good friend, Rob, whom I met in Nepal in 2012 lives. Having run the route at leisure in 2016 the day after Rob had helped me complete the Wainwright’s I had some idea of what I was letting myself in for but the size of the event (1,300 runners) took me a little by surprise. The quality of the runners (it being The

Thank you Nick, I think (as in Livesey). Having come up with my route for this years charity run in aid of Reach Out for Nepal & loosely calculating it’s stats from the Harvey’s Snowdonia North Map, Nick kindly offered to plot the route on his computerised mapping system (aka something I’m not really sure what it’s called) so get some more accurate stats. He’s recently e-mailed his findings:- Paul’s Guess: 41.9 Miles. Nick’s findings 46.2 Miles. Paul’s Guess: 11105 feet of height gain. Nick’s findings 13,674 feet. Paul’s Target time: 13 Hours. Nick’s findings 57 Hours, I can only