Wales Continued

Urgh, back to the monotony and grind.....and of course the flippin' jet stream (the position of which drives the British weather) has dropped bringing us the most un-July like temps and forecasts....apparently the couple of weeks of heatwave we had is about it for summer this year...joy.

But, at least I can reminisce and look at photos from those heady days of my holiday to Wales all those week ago.....
Day 2 was less than inspiring on the weather front so my Aunt and Uncle took us into the Pembrokeshire National Park and to an off the beaten track local pub for lunch...said pub was used by miners back in the day, a couple of hundred years ago, has sawdust covering the floorboards and all sorts of ancient trinkets, photos and other quirky bits and bobs adorning the walls....including the following found in the ladies loo:


After lunch, we stopped off for some touristy type activities....first up the reservoir at Rosebush

Ciebwr Bay near Moylgrove

Over looking Ynys Fach near the Davils Couldren (the great thing about Wales is even if you spell it wrong....nobody will know)


What you see on the right of the horizon is a particularly nasty little rain shower which we expertly managed to avoid by nipping into a garden centre cafe for a cuppa for the olds and cake for me....

Before heading back to the homestead for dinner....this by the way is the view from my Aunt's house, looking towards Cardigan Bay


Cameo by my Aunt and her, slightly unhinged, dog Pip...the silly 9 yr old pup growls at the Tv every time an animal appears on screen because he thinks it's actually inside the room....but apparently dosen't give a monkeys about the cattle in the field across the road.

St. Dogmaels was an old fishing village and dad and I ventured out after dinner to check out the ruins of the Abbey....


The Abbey was built on the site of a pre-Norman monastery (possibly from around the 6th Century), known as the 'old house' of Llandudoch, around 1113 and upgraded to Abbey status in 1120.


The site is a kind of hotch potch of different Centuries with Cloisters and Abbey Church being added from the 12th Century.


The site is great for wandering around and I was amazed as to how big the area was and how much has survived....even if it is ruins.

Then along the river to Poppit sands, which no doubt looks much more favourable without the darkened skies...

As mentioned fishing was the main reason for the existence of St. Dogmaels and with such a place the obligatory legend surrounds this carving of a mermaid....

History tells of a fishing boat captain who once caught a Mermaid in his nets...the Mermaid persuaded the fisherman to let her go, promising to appear to him when danger was afoot....Days later and the Mermaid, good to her word, appeared to the fisherman telling him to take his boat and crew back to shore...trusting her word he did just that, on the way trying to warn the other boats and crew only to be laughed at...A particularly vicious storm blew up shortly thereafter and 27 local men and boats were destroyed...the only one to survive was that of the fisherman who had caught the Mermaid.

Poppit Sands from up the top of a bloomin' great hill


Cardigan Island from Poppit Sands


Overlooking Cardigan Bay and Island...from even further up the bloomin' great hill.


Poppit Sands

Some like it so much they actually live in small dwellings built into the sand dunes....

The little huts have no running water or electricity....each to their own....but they are the ultimate beach hut I suppose.....Tis all for now.

Croeso i Gymru

Or...Welcome to Wales.

So...what to make of Wales then...bit damp, bit hilly, bit full of sheep and bit unpronounceable...but also ridiculously full of stunning scenery, history (home of a certain King Arthur after all) and not at all bad once you get used to 'W's being 'oo's, 'F's being 'V's and' ll's being...well....that kind of phlegm one has build up during a particularly nasty bout of flu...oh yes...that's Wales.

We had a fairly uneventful six plus hours car journey...... not so much for the fender benders, sports car in a tree and the lorry on fire, which we passed on the way to the land of Dragons and Leeks...such are the joys of the M4. Then of course there's the crossing the Severn bridge which scheduled the inevitable climate change which comes with venturing into this green and pleasant country...still in the grand tradition of the great British holiday my family unit persevered on debt building priced service station ham sarnies and tea, until reaching our goal of my Aunts pad in St. Dogmaels....just in time for Roast lamb with all the trimmings...nom nom nom.

The original plan for the few days we had in Wales was for the adult folk to mingle, drink copious amounts of tea and chat about cotton top related affairs whilst I explored what the local area had to offer...fighting dragons...searching for Merlin...discovering Avalon..etc etc. Unfortunately my sudden onset acrobatics upon the hillside (really need to work on my rolly-polly technique) which resulted in the slightly bulbous appearance of a usually straight appendage (hmm, that sounded less 'Porky's' in my head...meh) put pay to much of that idea...the H2O descending from the heavens also made me a tad paranoid...steep cliff side footpaths + freshly watered mud + wobbly human would probably equal something resembling 'baaaad idea' Fortunately the adults had occasion to put away the Tetley and venture outside the homestead to visit local villages, observe sea views and take in some of the Welsh hospitality...not to be anti-social I tagged along.

First day was to the harbour town of Aberaeron:

New Quay (not to mistaken with Newquay in Cornwall...which those who have been paying attention to my blog will know is where I went on holiday last year)

...and look, the sun came out too

And the small village of Llangranog (yup, no idea how to pronounce it either)


I discovered some steps to a cliff path so, while the olds had a cuppa, I tootled off to take pix

In the pm, after being fed and watered back at my Aunts, dad and I decided to make the most of the fairly sunny evening and go a wanderin'....the idea was to find the coastal path north of Cardigan Bay and walk along to overlook Cardigan Island, which according to local information, is where all the seals hang out....

Looking across Cardigan Bay

Cove at Gwbert

Looking across to Cardigan Island...which is about as close as we managed to get

Looking back toward Cardigan Bay

Unfortunately some tight fisted Grinch, who owns some of the land, has put up multiple fences and, of a day, charges for the privilege to view the island from the point...so dad and I chose plan B and drove across to a nearby beauty spot:

Mwnt...which looks like unimposing little hill now doesn't it....

The church dates back to the 1400's

I got so very close to the top before I made the mistake of looking down....

And so it was left to dad to cover the final 50 yards to become 'king of the castle'....while I started scooching back down the mountain on my bum....can scatch Mt. Everest off my to do list one thinks ;-)


Looking across the beach


Mwnt at sunset...Plan B turns out to be not such a bad idea after all.

So, there you go Wales part one....stay tuned for more.