The day that I decided to take a trip to Wales, that day Snowdon Mountain landed top priority on my things-to-do list. Snowdonia is one of the eleven National Parks of England and Wales and covers 823 square miles of the most beautiful and unspoilt countryside in northwest Wales.

There is just something about mountains and valleys that a backpacker like myself do not seem to find in the woods, or grasslands, although these have a beauty of their own. May be it has something to do with the almost overwhelming task at first and the unmatched thrill of peeping over every consecutive giant boulder on the way to the top. And then, to stand there, knowing that “I’ve done it”, a feeling that cannot be bought or experienced any other way than climbing it physically, step by step. I opted for the physical challenge of reaching the summit on foot, but fortunately there is a cog railway train to the summit departing from Llanberis.

At one time this little nifty piece of technology came rumbling past me puffing my own way up the peak, and for a split second I wished I had been in there for a no-sweat ride myself. Well, you cannot have your bread buttered both ways, I suppose, so I decided instead to walk on the cliff and peek over the edges – something that those lucky bastards can only dream of. It is precisely here where I saw these lovely woolly Wales sheep, darting their way over the rocks, as if they were playing hop, skip and jump.

At first I thought that I started hallucinating because of the heights, because these otherwise docile creatures were brightly coated in either white and green, or white and red. I managed to get to the top, where a beer or two and some chats with the staff ensured me that those sheep have been colour-marked by their owners! What an interesting surprise. I think I would use a baby-lamb pinkish colour were they mine! Well, you can imagine that that night, as I was drifting away in one of the comfortable hostel beds in the village of Betws-y-coed, I was counting sheep and sorting them by colour!