Bala, Bread and Baking in Bethesda

In a world where it's strictly forbidden to even think about meeting up with people you've met on the Internet, getting into a car and driving to Bethesda, a remote village in northern Wales, to do just that might seem just a little bit silly.

But that didn't stop me and a number of other intrepid people from doing just that, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that we all had a fantastic time baking bread, having fun and exploring a truly beautiful area of the country at event dubbed Bethesdabakin'.



The history of the event and how it was set up is quite long, so I'll spare you all the details, but it came about through an Internet forum and was the idea of a Bethesda local, Mick. The idea gathered steam and unusually for things like this, actually took place last weekend with 17 people descending from all walks of life and all sorts of places. People came from Denmark, Switzerland, France and even Australia and America as well as places closer to home to make friends and bake bread. And that's exactly what happened. The event was organised via the forums on a baker called Dan Lepard's website, and he himself came along to join in and give some invaluable advice and encouragement.


Highlights had to be the building of a wood fired brick oven on the patio outside the rugby club kitchen where the event was held which, courtesy of its 500C plus heat managed to turn out pizzas in around four minutes, Otto, Alex and Kathy's dog who quickly became our mascot, and the innumerable trips to the local Tesco to shop for the five-thousand.




Unfortunately I wasn't up to the standard of the others and had to take a more backseat role for the weekend, although one of my contributions, a barley flour soda bread, turned out to be the one disaster of the weekend, burning on the top, not cooking in the middle and sticking to the pan on the bottom. But what can you do? I even burned my elbow taking it out raising the number of cooking related scars I currently sport to four.

But despite the bread-related theme, there was more to the weekend than dough and flour. I was quite taken aback by how ignorant I was about the whole area. Not only did I fail to appreciate how widely Welsh was spoken by everyone from the people in the Rugby Club to the teenagers working in the Londis store, but I never realised just how beautiful Snowdonia was, nor indeed that places like it even existed in this country. Welsh is quite unlike any language I've heard this year, not even that similar to the little bits of Cornish I know, and it's no wonder that the Welsh parts of the bi-lingual road signs seem unpronounceable to English speakers. But the odd thing is that this wasn't so even 50 years ago when Welsh wasn't that widely spoken, even my great-grandfather who was Welsh born-and-bred didn't speak the language, so to hear little children conversing in it with their parents was really ear-opening and really did make me feel like a stranger in my own land. But I thought it was great, so why stop at Welsh? It stands to reason that people in Scotland, Ireland and even Cornwall should be able to speak the 'local' language, especially when people note how beneficial it is for people to be able to speak a second language.

The Youth Hostel where I stayed has to be located in one of the most scenic places I've ever stayed in. Located at the top of the valley with a lake on one side it was a truly stunning location to wake up and in and retire to, so much so that I'd love to go back and explore the area properly.




It's odd that when you're in the mountains the only thing you have to judge scale to are the other mountains, so it doesn't matter if they're all 1000m or 3000m high, they all look equally impressive, so for a time it really felt like being back in the Alps, and that's something I didn't realise this country could offer. Even seeing things on TV doesn't quite bring it home, and it's made me wonder just what the Scottish Highlights are like in the flesh.

So here's saying a huge thankyou to Mick and Sue, and to everyone else who came along and made the weekend the huge success that it was. Here's looking forward to next year.