We were in Wales for the October half term. One of Nicky's friends has a cottage in Penmachno in the upper Machno valley, about 4 miles south of Betws-y-Coed, and that was our base for the week. We stayed here last year too. It's lovely: two bedrooms, a log burner downstairs, and a Londis over the road that sells everything you've forgotten, plus spares for mountain bikes.
We booked Zip World for Wednesday. This post is about that, so less general chat and more Zip World. It's about 45 minutes from the cottage to Zip World. It was late October when we were there, so the drive from the cottage to Zip World was even more scenic than usual: a sea of orange, red, yellow and green, with the odd smattering of blue skies. The final part of the drive along the A5 through the Nant Ffrancon valley is breathtaking.
I drifted again there. The site is right next door to a working quarry. We were booked in at 1320, arrived at about 1245 and got checked in. The site is big, with a few activities on site. There's obviously the zip line, but there are also quarry carts, gravity-powered three-wheelers on a crushed slate track, a quarry tour in a truck, Quarry Flyer, a mini zip line, and Aero Explorer, a zip coaster.
Once you've checked in, there is a safety briefing and then it is time to don your flight suit. If you know me, you'll know I look good in everything. As you can see, I even make a flight suit look sexy.
Once you've been checked and double checked, and had your wrist band signed by the double checker, you make your way to the small zip line for your taster flight before the main event. It's a short walk in your sexy suit, then up a few stairs into the launch cabin. You lie on a pneumatic bed, they click you onto the whizzy-down-the-wire thing, then they lower the bed and you're hanging on the wire in your suit waiting.
The taster line takes about 30 seconds to get down and you get a teeny bit of over-the-water flight. The safety brief says you get up to about 30mph. Three, two, one, go. When you finish the line, the brakes kick pretty hard. The stop area is small, so they need to. The briefing lets you know that this knock is normal and that the big zip is much smoother. The line is actually four lines, so you get to ride with your group.
When you get off, it is straight onto the quarry truck for the 15 minute drive up to "big top". The truck is an ex-army troop carrier, with 24 bench seats and a fairly meaty roll cage over the back. Mesh windows provide some epic views on the way up.
We stopped about two thirds of the way up because the group before us was a bit behind schedule. Our driver let us off at a spot with an awesome view of the Nant Ffrancon valley one way and Anglesey the other, to let the group before us get down.
When you get to the top, you get a splendid view of the site below. The four lines are about a mile long, around 1,555m, and it takes about a minute to get from the top to the bottom. It takes about 10 seconds to go from stopped to 60mph, and depending on wind you reach about 100mph.
The process on the big line is very similar to the taster line, only this time you have a camera strapped to your helmet. You lie on the bed, they click you on, safeties off: three, two, one, go.
The site at Penrhyn Quarry is great: very well organised and very tidy. When the ride was over we shared some loaded fries and mozzarella sticks, which were great. The loos are clean and fresh, and the team on site are all very friendly and welcoming. It comes highly recommended from all of us. 10 out of 10.
Bonus video of my youngest. He's 8 and is scared of nothing. I've left this one unedited, so you can hear his singing at the end of the wire.
