I have recently been accused of being both a liar and cheat, and I must hold my hands up and confess to both counts.

On a wet Saturday morning I made my way to Glan-y-Gors Karting.The aim was to get in some sneaky practice on my own, prior to a series of races against 35 other people (including Dad and Gareth) which I knew was coming up the following weekend. I had heard many stories of how brutal the twin-engined 65mph karts were, and how they had a tendency to spin at the slightest provocation. Heading out on the short circuit to start, I managed to keep with the 15 year old girl and her dad who were the only other people out there. I soon discovered that it was crazy amounts of fun on the sodden track, so by the time I graduated to the long track for my second session I was getting rather sideways as the rain lashed down.

Anyway, with confidence levels raised I knew I could approach the following weekend with a bit more gusto. And there was no way I was going to confess to Dad and Gareth that I’d been up there for some practice! I initially held out in the face of their questioning, but crumbled on the day and admitted my deceit (blog post to follow).

After that, I continued on to Pen y Gwryd, where I parked the car and ran down Nant Gwynant, past Llyn Dinas, over Cwm Bychan and then on to the caravan. Running down the valley at the start, below Snowdon and opposite the road that winds towards Beddgelert, if struck me that I was in the heart of filming territory, including…

… the pipeline used in the The World is Not Enough:
http://youtu.be/dIUb4aMEGTo?t=44s

…the bridge used in the motorbike scene in Tomb Raider 2:

…a windmill used in The First Knight, albeit with a computer-generated Camelot in the background:
http://youtu.be/3fM0UOoHyCI?t=5m33s

Anyway, it was nice to stay low for once, out of the wind and rain, and to maintain a steady pace for a while instead of slogging slowly up something steep.  A blast up Aberglaslyn along the Fisherman’s Path soon found me back at the caravan, where I met Gareth and Jono for a pleasant evening playing cards and going to the pub.