Sunday 30 June 2013. Aberystwyth, New Quay

Today we awoke to yet another very overcast day with spots of rain and went down to a full breakfast in the restaurant. This sets us up for the day and we find that we don’t need to eat until dinner.

As the British Formula 1 Grand Prix from Silverstone was being broadcast on the BBC today,  we only had the morning to do some sightseeing so we decided to drive down the coast to New Quay.

New Quay is a seaside town in Ceredigion, Wales with a resident population of around 1,200 people. Located on Cardigan Bay with a harbour and large sandy beaches, it is a popular seaside resort and traditional fishing town.

As usual the drive was beautiful with lots of great views.

When we arrived we found a beautiful little town with very narrow roads and not a lot of people. The small beach areas were practically deserted as it was quite cool with an even cooler breeze. Mick eschewed his shorts in favour of long pants which normally takes some doing.

We found that the road that ran through the town was a one way street which means that it is really narrow.

There were a couple of people sitting on the wall overlooking the sea counting whales and dolphins for some wild life organization.  They didn’t see any whilst we were there.

The boats moored in the harbour were sitting on the sand as the tide was out. A pity if you wanted to take your boat out as you would have to wait for the tide to come in. Also several people offered us brochures for boat trips out to see dolphins.

A lovely spot, but much too cold to do anything other than have a coffee and take the pleasant drive home. Lyn is getting a bit depressed with the poor weather. A bit of sunshine would make a lot of difference.

Of course we got home to watch the Formula 1 motor race from Silverstone where the track was bathed in brilliant sunshine. Maybe the sun never shines in Wales.

In the race, Mark Webber made his usual poor start from 4th on the grid and languished back in 15th place after the first corner however he managed to turn things around and after some brilliant driving, finished the race in 2nd place. This will be his last F1 race in Britain as he is retiring from F1 at the end of the season to go and race Porsches.

NB

Mick just read an article in Friday’s Daily Mail saying that Paul Rudd has deposed Julia Gillard to become the Australian Prime Minister.

No-one here is interested in Australian politics.


Oh, and Glastonbury 2013 ends tonight with Mumford and Sons as the closing act and the new series of Top Gear starts tonight on the BBC.

 

 View from our hotel room window in Aberystwyth

Coast view in Wales. Farmers grow crops right down to the water. In Australia the council would be grabbing that land to sell for housing.

Lyn in New Quay talking on the phone to Mick's cousin Doreen who rang to say hello. Next 6 photos are of New Quay

 

Tomorrows weather. Todays temps were all 10 and 11c..

A bit warmer tomorrow.

Saturday 29 June 2013, Llanwrtyd Wells to Aberystwyth, tyre repair

Today after saying farewell to our hosts, we left Llanwrtyd Wells and headed to Aberystwyth, Wales on the west coast. Country Wales must be one of the prettiest places to drive in the world.

The smooth roads sweep through countryside made up of huge hills some covered in trees and others with grass and deep valleys with streams of crystal clear water. Grazing animals, mainly sheep are everywhere.

Some of the sheep graze on ridiculously steep hillsides like goats. One wrong step and they would be history.

When we arrived in Aberystwyth we went to the Kwik Fit tyre shop to get the puncture fixed. They found a pin hole in the side of the tyre which was not repairable so replaced the tyre.

We then went to our hotel which was just around the corner. We had booked a flash hotel because it had 32” flat screen LCD TV’s so we could watch the Motogp race and the Formula 1 qualifying followed by the tennis.

After watching the Motogp and F1 we watched Bernard Tomic play and beat Richard Gasquet in the tennis, c’mon Aussie. Then we watched Sam Stosur blow it in her match.

Before dinner we went for a drive around the town and down to the sea. We found many motor homes parked on the sea front and stopped to chat with some of the campers. They are allowed to park there for free and stay overnight.

The beach was made up of large stones and had no sand at all and it was very cold down there so we decided to try again tomorrow hoping the weather would be better. A pity as the day had started off quite warm but became cooler as we reached the coast.

So if you were watching the tennis and thought the sun was shining in all of England that is not correct.

If you think the pictures look a bit dull you'd be right. They match the weather.

The Aberystwyth Park Lodge - our hotel

The green car is a Peugeot 307 the same model car as we have hired. There didn't appear to be anything wrong with it until this bloke put another car on top of it on the tilt truck

Friday 28 June 2013. Llanwrtyd Wells. Llandovery and Viaduct

Rain when we awoke this morning and very low cloud. It was a good job we didn’t delay our trip to the mountains yesterday as today they were in cloud.

We decided to go and seek out this fantastic viaduct which spans a valley not far from here as we had been unable to locate it yesterday.

Armed with more maps we headed off and after a few wrong turns managed to connect with a part of it. Unfortunately we were only able to see a small portion of it but it was still quite a spectacle.

We then headed off to Llandovery a small town which has a history of drovers and a battle between the Welsh and the English, which the English won, for the town and its castle. Llewelyn ap Gruffydd Fychan of Caeo was hung, drawn and quartered by Henry IV in the town square in 1401 because he refused to betray the Prince and the cause of Welsh freedom and the Darth Vader looking statue commemorates his death.

Llandovery is a relatively small town and after a coffee at the pub we visited most of the shops including a wool shop whose owner said that Prince Charles lives just 3 miles out of town and was visiting the city next Monday. Leading up to his visit there were heavies walking about sealing the drains etc before his visit. The town was also undergoing a tidy up.

After our shopping was decided to head home and took a different route home down the A40 which took us through this weird area belonging to the Ministry of Defence. The road through the area is a smooth hot mix bitumen road and apparently is closed sometimes. It did not show up on either of our Sat Nav devices and we only knew about it because John at our B & B told us about it.

The 1000’s of acres of land within it had a few small Army sheds, a sprinkling of servicemen and lots of sheep roaming about. There is also a city there with no one living in it which has something to do with war games and Czechoslovakia. Anyway the Sat Navs kept telling us to turn around so we turned them off because they wouldn’t shut up.

We got home OK and in the evening had a lovely evening meal at the Neuadd Arms pub in the village with Bernie and John, the couple who own our B & B.

So if you are looking for a quiet B & B in the Welsh countryside, the Cerdyn Villa is for you. Check out their web site. Charming couple and nothing is too much trouble for them.

Low cloud over the hills. 

 Next door rounding up the sheep

Adelaide even in Wales. A street in Llandovery

Having a meal with Bernie and John from Cerdyn Villa, Llanwrtyd Wells

 Llandovery Castle or what remains of it

 Llewelyn ap Gruffydd Fychan of Caeo was hung, drawn and quartered by Henry IV

Part of the viaduct near Llanwrtyd Wells

Strange town on MoD land

 Useless GPS. Where am I? On secret Dept of Defence land.

 Welsh parking sign

Thursday 27 June 2013. Llanwrtyd Wells drive to the hills.

After the dramas of yesterday we slept well and awoke to a sunny morning but after our Welsh breakfast cooked using eggs produced by the garden chooks and sausages made by the local butcher, it started raining. Lyn was not happy as she had just hung our washing out.

We had planned to head off into the wilderness of the Welsh mountains and after deciding that the rain clouds were not low enough to affect us, we headed off with detailed maps in hand.

We quickly found ourselves amongst the Welsh hills on Lyn’s favourite narrow single lane roads with the added benefit that there was an unguarded sheer drop on Lyn’s side of the car. As she started to have an Asthma/panic attack Mick reassured her that everything would be OK and he would try to keep to the right of the single lane road.

With Lyn reassured we continued to thread our way along the mountain roads marveling at the views of the hills and lakes (reservoirs). At times we could see what were really only tracks snaking their way through the hills miles away.

At the end of the valley there was a huge dam which was holding the water in the reservoirs for the use of the towns downstream.

The rain was only intermittent so we stopped frequently to take photos. At one point we climbed steeply up the Devils Stairs (that’s its name on the map) which has a 1 in 4 gradient with the in-car GPS showing 1560 feet before we descended to almost sea level again.

The hills and roads had a sprinkling of sheep grazing on the lush vegetation, many of them with young lambs in tow. The coats of the sheep seemed to be falling off. I guess they don’t have to worry about shearing them but we weren’t sure how the farmer recovered the wool. Mick thought they were genetically modified sheep such that their coats fell off once a year!

A few miles before we reached the “A” road we found a little shop with a tea room (The Ty Te Twm) and stopped for a cup of tea and some scones with cream and jam.

We then rejoined the A483 and headed back to Llanwrtyd Wells to our B & B.

When we got back and walked in to say “hello” to the owners Lyn noticed they had taken her washing off the line and hung it in the dining room on a clothes hoist which hangs from the ceiling on a series of pulleys. They said it would dry overnight. Nothing seems to be a bother with them, such easy going people.

A footnote to our puncture adventure:

Mick rang the car hire company this morning to check on the process for getting the tyre fixed. They said that they would send a repair van to where we are staying in the bush in Wales to change the tyre! They would have to drive for 2 hours there and back from Newtown in Wales as they use the Quickfit tyre service and that is the closest.

 Mick told them not to bother and told them we would be in Aberystwyth next to which he was told that there was a Quickfit dealer there and we could take the car in and they would replace the tyre.

We just have to hope that we don’t get another puncture.

                                                                           Chaffinch

  Coal Tit
 

 Female Siskin
                                                        

Male Siskin 

 

  

 Weak Bridge - you must be kidding, this is Wales not Ireland

Devonshire tea in Wales