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Day 13 - The rained had eased as we headed out of Prestatyn for a run along the coast to Conyn. We left the coast behind and headed south towards a region called Snowdonia. Our fine start to the day soon changed again when we got into the hills. Our next stop was a farm shop at Bodnant. This was a centre that specialised in Welsh local food. Tried the local juice and a fresh roll from their bakery. We had a very wet drive to Llanberis, about an hour's run from Bodnant. We hopped on a tour which took us by bus to Europe's largest underground hydro-electric power station. The Dinorig P/S is built hundreds of metres inside the Eldin Mountains. They advertise it in the brochures as "Electric Mountain" (Google it. It's worth a look). We had to leave all electronic eqpt in lockers before we boarded the bus. So with our hard hats on, we went underground. There are 10 miles of tunnels, 5 for roads and 5 for pipes. 12 million cubic metres of slate excavated to accommodate the 6 massive water driven turbines that drive the generators. This main cavern is 180 metres high and operates over 9 levels. The water is stored in a huge man made reservoir (named Machyn Mawr.) The level of this reservoir drops 34 metres daily as they generate power. From midnight to 6am, the 6 generators become electric pumps to drive the turbines in reverse and pump the water back up from the lower reservoir (named Lyn Peris) to fill up the high reservoir. And so the cycle goes on. The station is designed to go from zero generation to full power developing 1320 megawatts in 12 seconds. There is one other in Virginia (USA) that is bigger, but not quicker. In the hour we spent underground, we never saw any employees. It cost half a billion to build, took 10 years and paid for itself in 4 years. An engineering masterpiece and an interesting afternoon. As it was getting late in the day we didn't travel much further and stopped at a very comfy B&B in Betws-y-Coed. We had a great top floor view from our large bay window overlooking the town and the Conwy Valley. Some of the clouds down the valley were as high as we were. We decided to leave the car at the B&B and walk between the sheep paddocks, over the pedestrian suspension bridge, through the railway station to the local pub. On the menu was a Welsh stew. It was delicious, washed down with a local dry white (for Carmel) and a pint of the local ale for me.
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