'Flat Kaylen's first visit to Cwm Idwal in North Wales 01/02/09

This is 'Flat Kaylen' who lives in Houston in Texas, she was posted in January to come and pay us a visit to learn about a different part of the world. Her class at the Oak Forest Elementary School have been reading a book written by Jeff Brown called 'Flat Stanley' . His story is about Stanley who was just about your average little boy until a bulletin board fell on him and flattened him. At first he is very sad. However, he soon finds all sorts of things he is able to do as a flat person. When he wants to go on a trip, his parents fold him up and mail him to his destination in an envelope.

In the story Stanley seems to have so much fun, that the class of teacher Shannon McLaughlin's thought they would make flat versions of themselves to send to family and friends so that they could too could learn about the different places that their flat selves went.

Below is 'Flat Kaylan' who has was sent to North Wales to stay with Hefina and Bryn. Today she has been to Snowdonia to 'Cwm Idwal' to see the 'Devils Kitchen' . She is pictured here very tired next to my rucksack and below with a rock on her to prevent the wind blowing her away!!

This is a view looking up towards the steep path out of the Cwm with the Devils Kitchen out of sight on the right.

It was a very cold day with winds of 45 miles per hour in parts . There was ice on the paths and the stream was difficult to cross owing to the ice on the edges and rocks. We had to make a detour to get across safely.

People were climbing on the Idwal Slabs, Rhiwiau Caws is the Welsh name.

(Caws means Cheese in the Welsh language)

In 1952 a team of climbers scaled the slabs as preparation for their climb up Everest as this side of the Cwm is similar to many of the rock faces on Everest.

This is Llyn Idwal and the white stuff "yes its ice"

This very attractive gate, you pass through to enter Cwm Idwal .

Some background for you on Cwm Idwal is;

Legend

The legend of Idwal tells of a Prince who died on the banks of the lake.

Some Facts, Geology and Botany of the Cwm

Cwm Idwal is a hanging valley in the Glyderau range of mountains in northern Snowdonia,the national park in the mountainous region of North Wales. Its main interest is to hill walkers and rock climbers, but it is also of interest to geologists and naturalists, given its combination of altitude (relatively high in UK terms), aspect (north-facing) and terrain (mountainous and rocky). It is also the home of the Snowdon Lily a plant only to be found on Snowdon (Y Wyddfa in Welsh) and its surroundings. The Snowdonia Hawkweed is only known to occur in Cwm Idwal.

Well I hope that you have enjoyed the walk in Cwm Idwal and that 'Flat Kayley will take back this information and more back to Huston, Texas and shares it with her family and class mates. Lets hope she may visit herself in time (not flat of course)

lv for now Hefina