Wales From Top to Bottom

We’ve been in Wales for nine months now but outside of traveling to airports (mostly outside of Wales) we haven’t seen much of our host country. Oh sure, we’ve been out to Gower, a magnificent windswept peninsula about an hour and a half east of here and were impressed with the rugged coast line offset by the long stretch of Rhossili beach. And we’ve visited cousin Dreda and clan in Swansea. We visited Brecon Beacon national park shortly after arriving last August but that’s just an hour north of here and our little peek didn’t show us much.

But Monday morning found us in Liverpool where we’d delivered Sis ‘n Hubby to the rellies to continue their six month European Adventure. We had a choice to make: head south to Cardiff via the ‘M’ and be home in three and a half hours or head out west to the coast for Caernarfon, a walled town and castle on the north welsh coast. We reasoned it was time to see Wales and time was running out.

Life in the shadow of the castle

So departure to Caernarfon was set for 8:30AM with a plan to see the castle then inland to Llanberis, the launching pad for Mt Snowdon, the tallest mountain in the country. We were to get on the small train to the peak then get on the secondary highway that traveled the heart of Wales. Didn’t work out that way.

I’d left our most faithful traveling companion, our computer, at my cousin’s house the night before. We were spending the night at another cousin’s home and when I called cousin 1 in the morning they said they’d bring it to cousin 2 but were stopping for breakfast. No prob, a few hours delay but a relaxed start to the day. We shipped off at 11:30 and about a half hour down the road the car starts clearing its throat. It’s getting louder. And louder.

It was "The Black Boy" for lunch

I’d had the catalytic converter replaced shortly before we left Cardiff and the vigorous install caused the center connection to slowly release itself from the end section. By the time we hit the traffic jam halfway to Caernarfon we were in full roar. It sounded like a Harley as we crawled along and heads turned. I put on my sunglasses and slunk down in my seat.

There's something anti-warm n' fuzzy 'bout castles

Caernarfon is indeed a beautiful town but the noise had worn me down and wound me up. “I need a beer” says I and off to the nearest pub we went for fish, chips and beer. With a quick tour of the town total time in Caernarfon was about an hour which, with the late start and traffic delay, put us several hours behind.British directions: "I live just past the castle.."

We roared into Llanberis a half hour later and found the next train was in 45 minutes. Then 45 minutes to the top, 30 minutes to stroll, 45 minutes back down.... almost three hours. We settled for a piddle and a peek at the visitor center.Stark beauty

The secondary highway is the A470 and it’s a fickle road that weaves and swoops and climbs the hills of Wales heartland. It meets other roads, gets engaged for a while then divorces abruptly. My navigator had to be sharp to keep us with the intended and godblessher, the road only shook us twice. At one point it wasn’t until we noticed the sun was now on our right - Magellans that we are - that we realized were heading north.

And the countryside was worth the effort. Snowdonia is a mountainous region, hilly by Canadian standards, but beautiful in their nakedness. There are a few stands of trees but it’s primarily rocky cliffs and reaching peaks that stand like silent sentinels guarding the twisting valleys. The grass on the slopes fed the sheep, the cliffs challenged the climbers who were out in abundance.You may have to click the pic to see the climbers

The black snake that was our road continued out of Snowdonia and slithered its way through Wales. One unpronounceable town after another greeted us with its lower speed limit. We averaged maybe 40 mph and what we thought would be a four hour cruise became six. But hey, life’s a journey, right? Go too fast and you miss it. No fear of that here.

We stopped briefly in Brecon Beacon for a stretch and a pic then pounded out the last hour, noisily announcing our arrival to Cardiff.

Buzzin' By Brecon Beacon

So we did it. We invested one day out of the year to seeing this beautiful land. We saw churches and castles, mountains and rivers. We saw some of the best that Wales had to offer and we weren’t disappointed. There’s a few more spots I’ve bookmarked for weekend ventures afore we depart but they’ll come later. Right now it’s time to get ready for Spain; we leave next week.

Flowers for his Mom