Wales - continued

 

 

As mentioned in the last blog – there is a lot to see and do in Wales! It may be a small country but it packs a big punch and tells a great story. We really enjoyed the 10 days we spent there.

On our last day in Brecon, the weather cleared enough for us to walk Allt y Esgair, an 8 km walk very close to our B&B. This walk follows a ridge above the River Usk (seen meandering through the middle of the photo below) where there are clear signs of an Iron Age fort, albeit over-grown and now the subject of a plan to clear the hill of bracken, blackberry and other nasties to make it more accessible. Magnificent views of the green valleys in all directions.

 

After Brecon, we drove westwards, via Llandovery to Black Mountain high in the western Brecon Beacons, along incredibly narrow windy roads where the average speed is about 25 km/hr because you have to expect a car or, worse, tractor/truck, coming the other way around every blind corner! The road dropped us down to mighty Carreg Cennen Castle, one of the foremost castle ruins in Wales, dating from the 1100’s. It’s perched atop a sheer cliff on one side (see photo) and incorporates natural caves underneath as part of it’s defences.

 

Next stop was Pembrokeshire, for three days, via the National Botanic Gardens of Wales which is absolutely brilliant and a must-include for those with a bent towards plants and landscaping. It has this amazing sunken glasshouse in which plants from six Mediterranean environments around the world are growing very happily and putting on quite a show, all superbly labelled and explained.

 

 

Big highlights of Pembrokeshire were:

-         Tenby, a delightful but busy seaside resort, with less of the usual UK seaside resort trappings like piers with games arcades and all the rest

 

-         walking several stretches of the fabulous coastal walk. The photo below was taken near Solva, with St David’s head in the far distance – on a section safely away from the precipitous cliffs where much of the walk runs giving spectacular ocean views!

 

-         St David’s cathedral – absolutely stunning, from the first glimpse you get of the building tucked down in a hollow rather than standing grandly above the surrounding area as per usual. It is a beautiful building.

 

-         going to an evening performance of the South Wales Male choir in said cathedral – a 50-strong men’s choir with a guest soprano and a guest male tenor: wonderful (no photos or recordings allowed, sorry!)

-         the old harbour at Fishguard, oozing working lives from a previous era when fishing was the lifeblood of the town and complete with impossibly narrow streets which means pubs like the Ship (where we enjoyed a pint) discharge punters straight onto the double yellow lines!

 

 

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-          the walk to the summit of Carn Llidi, at St. David’s Head, with views in all directions including of Ramsay Island just to the south.

 

 

Exhilarating as this was, there was more to come in North Wales. The drive from near St. David’s to the village of Tremeirchion, near Conwy, was only about 140 miles but took nearly 8 hours – admittedly with a couple of stops along the way, including in the town of Trefeglwys, near Llanidloes in central-west Wales – of historical significance to all the Chapman cousins on this blog because this is where Evan Chapman, our great-grandfather, was born and raised.

 

It’s a quietish small village with church and pub (right across the road from each other), but quite a lot of new houses which was unexpected and interesting. North and Central-west Wales are very close to Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and many other big Midlands cities, and has for a long tome been the place for rich-listers from those places to buy second home etc etc, much like in the Cotswolds. So even small villages like Trefeglwys seem to be seeing the impacts.

At Tremeirchion, our B&B was a self-catering hut in a field behind on the owners mini-farm, surrounded by sheep, alpacas, chooks and pigs (oh, and the ginger tomcat Mickey!) – so peaceful and tranquil after busy roads and towns!

 

North Wales is simply spectacular. Too hard to put into only a few words and pictures. One day we did the trifecta of:

-          Conwy town and it’s famous castle

-          Bodnant Gardens – equally world famous; and

-          Llandudlo, another beach resort, a bit tacky in parts but very grand with magnificent views from Great Orme, the headland behind the town, including up to the mountains of Snowdonia (unfortunately shrouded in cloud the day we visited).

We slept well that night!

Conwy

Bodnant

Llandudno

Well, that’s enough for this blog!

The next one will feature two fascinating Roman cities: Chester and York. We’re near York now, having spent 2 great days in and around Chester. We have three days here – really looking forward to it, but this is Bank holiday weekend in Britain, so there’ll be people and traffic galore, even more than usual. Walking the towns requires constant vigilance for prams/pushers, mobility scooters, kids (damn ‘em) plus traffic whizzing by, while navigating the narrow paths and dodging everyone/thing else coming at ya! No wonder we’re sleeping well at night.