We started out by going back to Devil's Bridge in the Vale of Rheidol,
and on the way back detoured through the village where we got lost last night. We headed south, and on our landlady's recommendation, stopped at New Quay, where we wandered around for a while and had morning tea.
A bit further south, we saw a sign to an iron-age fort, so headed off, and spent about an hour there,
including listening to a story-teller.
We had lunch in the car beside the road somewhere past Fishguard, then the rain really set in. We got as far as St David's, but it was too rainy to get out of the car, so kept on.
We stopped for afternoon tea, and arrived in Abergavenny at about 17:30. The Flinds kept in touch by phone through the day, from their climb up Mt Snowdon and late car trip to catch up with us by about 21:00.
Tuesday 12 August Llanberis to Aberystwyth
We got away by about 10:00, and took a little drive south of Caernarvon to look across to see where we had been yesterday. Then we headed south, mostly along the coast,
past grey towns full of grey houses,
and grey farms and stone fences.
We passed Harlech and its castle, built by Edward I.
The narrow winding roads kept our speed down, but we reached Tywyn just in time to catch the 13:30 train on the Talyllyn railway, which was the world's first co-operatively restored railway.
Rev W Audrey was an early member, and some of the Thomas series, especially the Skarloey trains, are based on this railway.
It didn't get back until nearly 16:00, and by the time we looked in the museum, then got on the road again, it was about 18:00 before we reached Aberystwyth. Our landlady suggested a local country pub, and after eating (K-salmon fillet, D-gammon steak), we decided to find the Devil's Bridge, where the local Vale of Rheidol railway terminates. But we ended up a mountain where the power line and the fences ran out and we were among the sheep, so we retraced our steps and came home.
Monday 11 August Llanberis
Jon went running, and Matt and Chris played 'snakes and ladders' before breakfast. There was much discussion about what to do for the day (the weather has been bad for the last couple of days – drizzle, heavy showers and only occasional sun), but we finally decided on a trip across the Menai Strait to Anglesea to a beach with sand dunes. Kath had been told there was even a shipwreck to see at low tide. So we left at about 11:00, found the carpark by 11:30 and headed off down the track. It turned out to be a long way, with the dunes covered with grass and scrub.
We eventually found the beach, and it was low tide, so we headed across the sand flats towards the point. And we walked and walked, and it was into the wind, and it took ages.
In the end we gave up, and started back, trying to take a short cut only to find our way blocked by a creek. By now it was raining. We went back to the beach, got around the creek, got back into the dunes, and headed off on another path.
Well, this also was a mistake, because it took us twice as long to reach a different carpark. We eventually reached the cars at 14:45, all wet and hungry and exhausted. Matt had done very well, had only been carried for a few short stages,
and Dan growled along in the back-pack.
We got stuck into the sandwiches we'd packed (except I'd left our pack behind), then went back home for a change of clothes. We moved ourselves into the room we had reserved for tonight, Chris cooked tea, and we all slept well.
Sunday 10 August Cross Houses to Llanberis
We wondered about returning to Ironbridge this morning, but then decided against it, and went on south from Shrewsbury, into Wales, through Montgomery and to Newtown. This features in both our family trees, so I thought we might be able to take photos or something. But the tourist office was closed, and the only map we saw did not show the 1851 street we knew. Still we walked around a bit, saw the ruins of their old church (used till 1860s),
and the new big one which replaced it but is now for sale. What a shame.
In the churchyard we found a tombstone which had the same names in the same time as Nan's ancestors, so this is another bit of research to follow up, We drove then to Dolgellau, a little grey town with tiny twisted streets, and a laundrette – so we bought soap powder and sandwiches at the Spar shop, and had a fun half hour.
We kept heading north, and in Caernarvon parked to go to the tourist office to find a B&B, so that we would be ready to go to Anglesea tomorrow and then to Llanberis YHA tomorrow night. But the phone rang. It was Kath 'Where are you?'. I asked her the same question. They had just gone into the Castle, about 2 mins walk from us. So we owned up to our location, and went into the castle. Kath didn't tell Matt we were right there, and he was very excited to see us.
Dan is just like his photos. He is pretty wild, and growls and grunts, especially 'o-oh' when anything goes wrong.
When the castle closed, we all headed back to Lanberis YHA. The 3 Flinds (with Dan in a cot) had a 6 bed room, and even with Chris Flind arriving today, there was still room for us. It was quite a squash, but we survived the night reasonably well.
Saturday 9 August Bilsborrow to Cross Houses
Today it rained nearly all day, and we drove a long way on fairly narrow winding roads, so I spent most of the way with the map on my lap. We got lost a couple of times, but got to the end of our journey without having taken any photos.
We headed first, through the seaside town of Southport,
for Liverpool, with the intention of finding a park-and-ride and going into the city the easy way. But there appears to be no such thing, so we kept driving, and ended up nearly in the centre of the city ourselves. Saturday traffic was light, but we headed out as soon as we could.
We got lost after that (I missed a motorway exit), but we made it through to the M6, which was bumper-to-bumper. When we exited, we saw a sign for a steam fair, so headed off following the signs. They finished, but we kept going, and ended up at Congleton, which we had never heard of before. The lady at their tourist office told us that the fair was further up north, so we had McD for lunch, and headed off south again.
We wanted to stop at Ironbridge youth hostel so we could see the famous bridge (world's first iron bridge)
but they were full, and by then we were sick of traffic and people and narrow roads, so we just drove through, saw a B&B sign and found a farmhouse up a lane. We drove into Shrewsbury which has some wonderful old buildings. We took photos,
had some pasta, and came home to find that we have WIFI. Yeah!
Friday 8 August Talkin to Bilsborrow
This evening, when David was trying to upload the day's photos, something went wrong with either the card or the card reader, and we have no photos from today. Such is life. We have found someone else's on Googlearth.
We'd been driving only for about half an hour when we passed a sign to Lambley Viaduct so off we went, about 1.5 miles out of our way. We walked along an old-rail trail for about 20mins, and came to the South Tyne River. After crossing the viaduct, we climbed down and crossed back on a footbridge then climbed back up to the path again, having lost the official track and having to climb over a gate and up a bramble embankment. But it was a fun hour.
We then kept going through the North Yorkshire moors and fells and dales and ups and downs – such bleak countryside, with grey stone houses and grey stone fences separating nice green fields with sheep with black faces and legs, and long tails, but over it all the dull grey-green of the high hills, with occasional splashes of purple heather.
Then we got to the biggest waterfall in England, called High Force, which is a moderate size, but nothing compared to others we've seen this trip.
We had lunch (sausage roll) at Castle Barnard, and walked around their castle,
then drove on to Brough, and walked around theirs.
By Kirkby Lonsdale we needed a rest and an icecream, then we hit the M6, exited in time to go to Garstang, but it took until Bilsborrow to find a B&B. We back onto the Lancaster Canal, and there are boats moored just outside our window, and a pub next door.
Thursday 7 August Hadrian to Talkin
We started out with no money, so straight after breakfast, we went to the closest cashpoint in the nearby town of Haltwhistle, and found it has a great claim to fame. It is the geographical centre of Great Britain, being right in the middle of this skinny east-to-west bit, but also exactly in the middle if you draw a line from the Bill of Portland in the south to the tip of something in the north, and also some other less important compass directions. So we didn't know that before.
We went to Cawfields mile-castle,
then back to Vindolanda, the site of several Roman forts which will take over 100 years to excavate at the present rate. But they have some amazing stuff. Whereas usually only metal and stone artifacts survive, here bits of everything has. When the early Romans wanted to build a new wooden building, they chopped the old foundations at ground level, levelled the ground again with a layer of clay and turf, and started the next building. The clay kept out the air, so nothing has decayed. They have wooden furniture and implements, leather shoes, woollen clothes and Britain's Top Treasure' (popular vote by ??some people) - wooden writing tablets, with army records, personal letters etc. (No photos allowed, so maybe google for more info.)
We had lunch at the Roman Army Museum, and visited a number of other wall sites along the cliffs until about 16:00,
when being all walled out, we headed off and found a B&B on a farm at Talkin, south of Brampton, east of Carlisle. And in Carlisle we found an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.
and bought the souvenir, and the others, including Matt, took the 11:15am guided tour of the ceiling and tower of the cathedral.
They had a talkative guide,
who went 45mins over time, so it was lunch time before they returned to ground level. We had lunch together, then said goodbye. They stayed on at Salisbury, and we went to Winchester.
We wandered around their cathedral,
which is the destination for pilgrims seeking St Swithun (who is down a hole),
then had afternoon tea at McDs.
