Beaches and Countryside in Wales

This weekend we explored the beaches and countryside of south and west Wales. It had promised to be a sunny (but chilly) weekend and with daylight saving finishing next weekend we decided to make the most of the daylight left. We picked Anne up and drove to Swansea and Mumbles. We had been there before but the weather had been mistyand this time we could actually see the beach, harbour and hills rather than look longingly at the them in postcards and the newspaper. We introduced Anne to our picnic lunches (the standard bacon buttie) and then wandered along the pier. Wales is well known for its steel mines as well as coal and the beautiful iron work everywhere is testament to this. So, is the piles of slag and quarried hills which scar the hillsides but we won’t go into that! There are some lovely beaches down in the Gower, some little and some much bigger, all covered with a pinkish reddish sand and no mud!!!! Were we impressed. There were the very brave children out swimming (beginning of mid term break), surfers sitting hopefully waiting for a wave which didn’t seem to appear, and the walkers (like us decked out in warm clothes enjoying the gentle breeze and cold salt air). We explored a little 6 century church of St Illtard overlooking the long Oxwich beach and wandered around the cemetery looking for those deceased that just might be related to our family'se (there isn’t much hope of people buried there with our surnames but those more distant rellies with English sounding names is a possibility though it would appear remote if ‘to date’ is an indication). Anyway, it doesn’t seem a depressing thing to do but quite natural visiting a little church on the hillside!! Most of the old gravestones have either fallen over or you can’t read the writing. The church on the hill over looking the beach was fairly typical of little country churches - access is on a windy and hilly path - must have been difficult for the disabled many years ago. Although the life spans of many of the people is quite short and it is quite noticeable that the parishioner lived shorter lives than the priests and clergy.

The other noticeable thing about Wales is that there are a lot more farm animals enjoying the open air here compared to England – though it does appear still far less than in New Zealand. Lots of sheep with black, white or brown faces, cows, horses and a few spotted pigs were on view this weekend. The highlight of the day came next. One thing about not reading up about where you are going before you go is that we are constantly surprised (and on the downside we never know what we have missed so could miss some quite special things). Rhossili Bay is at the end of a road going no where. It is a little town perched on a cliff really and we were intrigued by a house which must be one of ‘loneliest’ we have seen so far (though we think Northern Scotland might have a few winners as well). Would you believe this little town had a hotel and a bed and breakfast and they were both fully booked – we think either by surfers waiting for some waves or those wanting to walk across to the island at night. But anyway no room at the inn for us. What a lovely scene walking over the cliffs – if we had spent the night there – the beach would have beckoned us in the morning. Around low tide you can wander across the rocks to Worm Head (we decided it looked more like the Lochness Monster or a dinosaur but those naming it many years ago probably didn’t know that Lochy or the dinorsaur existed – so we forgave them). People were waiting expectantly for low tide and while we were there began to wander across the wet rocks to the island. Another thing about not reading up about things before you go is that you aren’t prepared for all eventualities (like torches) and so we didn’t venture across as darkness was not far away. Instead we decided to drive back to Newport to Anne’s place for Thai takeaways and the rugby (England vs South Africa) which our workmates didn’t say much about on Monday – neither did they say much about Lewis Hamilton and we didn’t rub it in cos really they had both done really well considering.

So, there was no more walking around the Gower on Sunday and instead we took a ride to a little mountain railway. We misread the timetable and arrived just as the train was about to leave – talk about great timing! It was a 16 mile trip up to the Brecon hills and a little town and reservoir. There wasn’t much to explore at Pontyscill but the reservoir with its little building reminded me of the Karori Sanctuary as both buildings were similar though different colour. We took some photos – the dedication Harry has to taking photos is unbelievable – he actually scraped his chin on stinging nettle during the photo shoot of the old ramshackle building and had an itchy chin for the rest of the day and incidentally a sore back from lifting me so I could see over the reservoir wall. We had a wander up a hill, following a dry stone wall that meandered up towards the sky (the walls don’t look very stable but have been there for years) and then along the train track (quite safe as we knew when the train was coming back to pick us up). Impeccable timing again saw us standing first in line at the cafe to get a cup of tea, just as the train pulled in to the station with its next load of passengers. We obviously felt like exercise in the weekend cos when we drove towards Brecon we (or should I say ‘I’) carried the thermos’s up another big hill to have a cup of tea and look at the view. Not a very good view but we needed that drink. Underfoot we walked on a very spongy moss but we were still surprised when we watched orienteerers run up and down the hill without falling over while we cautiously made our way back to the only yellow car in the car park. Brecon was a cute little town, especially cos it served a lovely Devonshire tea with real cream and not clotted cream and a cathedral surrounded by heaps of trees and autumn leaves. We all had fun playing in the pile of leaves and were careful not to spread them around too much as the gardener wouldn’t have been too pleased (he may have noticed a few scattered around the place but put it down to kids I suspect). We drove back tired and contented, made slightly longer by a detour where a canal had burst its banks (the roads and villages are often lower than the canal) so you can imagine the potential mess. We said goodbye to Wales (with all its bilingual signs – Araf means slow – so we are learning but rather slowly I think) and look forward to exploring more with Anne in the future.

One thing I think the English do well (besides supermarket pizzas) are public toilets. I forgot to mention that last week in Wells we came across a loo that had security connected to it. Hopefully not a video but certainly taped music and a voice that reminded us to lock the door and then said ‘you will be told when you may leave’ – we left before we were told!!