Day 1
Our early waking mornings continue and after our breakfast Adrienne wandered up the street to get a better look at the cathedral while I tried to catchup with my blog ! It was quite cloudy with a few spots of rain but we decided to walk back to the Waitrose carpark to bring the car to the front of the hotel rather than lump our bags there if the rain worsened. We got a parking spot right at the front of the hotel when we got back and by the time we bought our bags out Erin was also arriving ready to go.
We were parting company with Erin today as she headed back to London for a last couple of days before setting off on her journey home. It has been a wonderful and fun week with her and we will miss her as we move on. So we headed for Bristol to drop her off where she would get her train back into London.
We drove through Cheddar Gorge on the way, It is a limestone gorge where back in 1903 the oldest human skelton to be found in England was unearthed in a cave in the gorge – about 9,000 years old. It is popular with tourists for the caves formed from an underground river. In 2005 it was named the “2nd greatest natural wonder in Britain” – maybe it was the weather or what they define as a “natural wonder” or the tacky tourist shops at one section, but I was a bit underwhelmed !
In Bristol we found the station and after last hugs and kisses for Erin we started off again, with the weather clearing somewhat, for the next section of our tour to Wales. Leaving Bristol we crossed the wide Severn River Bridge heading to our first stop – the National Roman Legion Museum in Caerleon. Wales was the furthest point west in the Roman Empire and this was the location of one of the three permanent Roman Legion forts in Britain and operated for about 200 years from around 75 AD.
A short walk away is the remains of an open-air Roman amphitheatre, the most complete in Britain. The museum itself has many artefacts recovered from the area.
Not far further on we came to Cardiff, the modern day capital of Wales. We parked in a carpark in the centre of the city, backing on to the home of Welsh Rugby, Cardiff Arms Park. We were headed to nearby Cardiff Castle – which is a medieval castle as well as a Victorian Gothic revival mansion. In WWII, extensive air raid shelters were built into the castle walls which could house about 1,800 people in an air raid. It now also houses “Firing Line” – the castle museum of the welsh soldier, covering the full history of the armed forces in Wales to today. The section about the “24th Regiment of Foot” has the 7 Victoria Crosses awarded to the soldiers in that regiment.
In a nearby arcade we found a spot for lunch before heading on our way. The final part of our drive was through part of the Brecon Beacons National Park near Black Mountain. Unfortunately the weather by now was grey and drizzly, so we didn’t get the best of the views.
Adrienne had chosen this section to drive today as it has become very popular since it was featured on a “Top Gear” television episode back in 2011 and became known as the “Top Gear road”. It was a nice drive – dodging the odd sheep along the way – but unfortunately the weather didn’t do it justice.
Our accommodation in Llandeilo is a self contained cottage in basically the quiet back streets of the town. It is very well appointed with a nice outdoor terrace – which we have ear marked for tomorrow as the weather is not good tonight. We stopped in a Tesco nearby to buy our provisions for breakfast and dinner for our two night stay – and enable us to catch up on our washing! Tomorrow we will explore the nearby area.
Day 2
The weather was back to good again and with another early start we headed to the South-East region to what is known as the Gower Peninsula. This area was the first “Designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty” in the UK. The area has golden sand beaches, salt marshes amongst the generally pretty countryside – and of course more narrow roads and hedgerows. When we did reach the high open country there were fabulous views down to the sea.
Our destination was a tiny town at the end of the peninsula called Rhossili. The National Trust here maintains an area of wide grass pathways and tracks towards the National Coastwatch Institute (NCI) lookout. The lookout is over “Worm’s Head” which is at the point of the peninsula and only accessible for about 2 hours either side of low tide across a natural causeway.
At the top of the walk near the car park there are fabulous views of the coastal beach – sand and not the usually pebbly beaches associated with the UK – and other than a handful of dog walkers the beach was almost deserted. We set off to walk a loop down to the lookout and around the bay back to the carpark. The weather perfect with the sun shining, not hot and very little wind. There were a few other walkers – including a few heading up from the causeway below, for which the NCI staff had now set the tidal sign to “Too late to cross” – but otherwise there doesn’t seem to be as many around this part.
Our next stop back toward Llandeilo was Kidwelly Castle which was first built by the Normans. It is probably one of the most “intact” castle ruins we have come across as most seem to have been destroyed or torn down in various tumultuous times in UK history. Probably why this castle is further famous as being the filming site for the opening scenes of the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” .
Our plans for the day had worked well as the bright sunny morning began to turn grey by early afternoon. We stopped into the town of Carmarthan for coffee and a sandwich for lunch and then our last stop for the day was actually just around the block from our cottage – only a bit more grand !
Another National Trust property, Newton House in Dinefwr Park was a Jacobean Mansion surrounded by a huge wooded deer park and even a ruined castle on the surrounding hills. Like many of these old properties, the front of this one is currently surrounded with scaffold however we wandered through the rooms. It had fallen on hard times before it became a National Trust property so the inside was not as grand as many. However the “Parterre” garden and grounds at the back were very nice. The grounds are so big they have their own narrow roads and hedgerows to get in and out of the place !
Eventually back at our cottage the weather had improved enough for us to sit on the outdoor terrace and have a relaxed drink and casual dinner a really nice spot !
