Friday 5 July 2013. Tennis, Crow Mountain, Poncysyllte Aquaduct

We awoke to a warm sunny day and as Lyn’s knee was a bit sore we decided to rest and watch some tennis.

The match between Del Potro and Djokovic was really a never ending war which finally ended when the big man, Del Potro, was spent. Well, they both were really but Djokovic, being smaller, was carrying less weight.

The girls decided during the day that they would go to Bingo so when Geoff got home from work he and I headed off to climb up the mountain to Crow Castle. See previous post.

We drove up the winding mountain road with the diesel Peugeot handling the hill easily although sometimes needing  first gear.

The road was winding, steep and single lane and a few hundred metres from the base we found a place to park to begin our walk.

We stopped a few times on our ascent to get our breath and reached the top in good shape, perhaps Mick better than Geoff as Mick doesn’t smoke!

After resting whilst marveling at the views, we took some photos and then made our way down.

Unfortunately photographs don’t seem able to capture the impression of altitude. And the photographs don’t do justice to the extreme height and beauty of the views.

When we reached ground level we then went to look at the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. It is fantastic structure built to carry a canal high above a gorge down which narrow boats travel. It also has a path at the side of the water channel to walk or if you are game to ride a bike. If you decided you had had enough of life then this is the place to jump from and several have.

Geoff and Mick, suitably thirsty then went to the pub near to the aqueduct and had a pint before returning home. (There is a pub near to everything here!).

A very enjoyable outing as Geoff is great company.

 

Gate to keep the sheep on the mountain where Crow Castle is

View from Crow Castle with the Viaduct and Aqueduct in the background

 

Thursday 4 July 2013 Overton. Llangollen Railway, Mary, Crow Castle, Bec & Lincoln

Today’s weather forecast was for a warm sunny day and that is just what we got.

We first visited Mary who lives on a farm near to where we are staying in Overton. 

When we were in the UK in 2010, we stayed with her and her dog, Suzie as Davina and Geoff's house was undergoing some renovation.

She was in good health as was her dog, Suzie.

After a brief visit we headed off to the Llangollen railway station to catch the 1pm steam train on the Llangollen Railway.  

The Llangollen Railway is primarily a steam hauled Heritage Railway Line. The train journey runs from Llangollen station in Llangollen which is located beside the historical Dee Bridge which was built in 1345, to Carrog. Llangollen is Lyn's favourite Welsh village.

The journey runs for 7 ½ miles upstream to Carrog and then after a 30 minute stop, returns to Llangollen. The train passes through quite a long tunnel en route.

We all enjoyed the trip immensely as the rail line runs alongside the beautiful Dee River for most of the journey and with the Welsh hills in the background made it a memorable trip.

When we returned to Llangollen we walked around some of the souvenir shops before taking a leisurely stroll down the side of the river.

We then decided to drive up to Castell Dinas Brân (Crow Castle) which is a medieval castle standing high on a hill above the town of Llangollen in Denbighshire, Wales. 

Castell Dinas Brân translates into English literally as Castle of the City of Crows, so the simple explanation for the name of the castle is as a place where crows live. However, Dinas is a name associated with several ancient hill forts in Wales and England (i.e. Dinas Emrys, Dinas Powys, Pen Dinas and Castle-an-Dinas in Cornwall) and so can be taken to mean fort or stronghold. The origins of the name Brân are more uncertain.  

The GPS showed that we had risen about 1,000 feet to get up to as far as the road would take us and the last part required a fair walk so we decided to keep driving and descend the mountain! 


On the way down we decided to call in and see Hannah, Davina and Geoff’s younger daughter at her new house. There we found a Partridge with young hiding in the grass near the house. The chicks were very cute so we took a couple of pictures before heading home.

In the evening we went for dinner at Rebecca and Lincoln’s farm. Rebecca is Davina and Geoff’s other daughter. Rebecca had cooked a beautiful meal and we enjoyed our time there immensely as they are a charming couple. Mick spent some time with Trevor, Lincoln’s father getting up to date with modern farming technology. 

After a great meal we headed home to get some well earned rest as we had had a big day.

Lyn and Mary

A Newfoundland dog which excels at water rescue due to it's innate swimming ability

A young swallow

Rebecca, Lincoln and Lyn

Wednesday 3 July 2013. Overton. Ellesmere, Horseshoe Pass.

After a late evening helping my Cousin, Davina, with the intricacies of Windows 7, we awoke from a good sleep the next morning to dappled sunshine which quickly disappeared to another overcast and cool day.

We headed out of Wales to the Shropshire town of Ellesmere.

Ellesmere is a small market town near Oswestry in north Shropshire, England, notable for its proximity to a number of prominent lakes, the Meres.

We parked the car and had a leisurely walk around the lake to a nice café where we had a coffee.

Mick went off to talk to lady who was a member of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust who filled him in on the small island 30 metres or so from the shore which contains a Heron nesting site.

She told him that the heron is one of the first breeds of bird to nest each season and unfortunately all the first broods of chicks produced in March died due to the late burst of cold weather which included snow.

After coffee we walked back to the car and drove up a “mountain” through the Horseshoe Pass. At the top there was a nice café and gift shop which made Lyn very happy!

After reducing the weight of her purse quite a bit ( yeah right Mick) we headed down the mountain to organize dinner.

In the evening Davina and Lyn went to Bingo in Wrexham whilst Geoff and Mick went to see daughter Hannah practicing jumps on her horse.About this time the sun came out.

Davina with Geoff on the rocking horse. It's beautiful and it's for sale!

Lyn with Geoff

 View down Horseshoe Pass

The highest village in wales.  What, no vowels?

Ellesmere Park. Bumble Bees

 

 Mole Hills. Makes a mess of your lawn.

 Lyn with Mute Swans on the Mere

 Hannah

Tuesday 2 July 2013. Overton, Wales.

The weather forecast for today was for rain later so Mick said “Let’s get the washing done early….”

Lyn obliged and we had just enough time to get the washing mostly dry before down it came and we finished it off in Davina's dryer..

It then rained for most of the day so we had a day off and watched the tennis with Lyn doing some knitting.

Davina’s daughter, Bec came to visit. She is married to Lincoln who is a dairy farmer and they have 2 children, Annabelle and Archie.

Yesterday, Davina’s other daughter, Hannah came to visit. Hannah is an avid horse lover and rides competitively. She is single.

 Cousin Davin and Geoff's house

                                                                        Geoff and Mick

Further pic of us at The Boat Inn

Monday 1 July 2013. Aberystwyth to Overton, Wales.

Another very overcast day saw us driving the 90 miles from Aberystwyth to Overton in North Wales to stay with Mick’s cousin, Davina, and her husband Geoff.

Geoff is quite a character and if you picture Greengrass from the TV show Heartbeat you’d have a pretty good resemblance before he grew a huge moustache. In fact Geoff once auditioned for a stand-in part for Greengrass and just missed out.

The weather was very ordinary on the trip up with sprinkles of rain most of the way. When we arrived we saw some patchy sun which is a good start.

Davina and Geoff both looked very well and gave us a warm welcome.

After a lovely roast pork dinner, we all went down to The Boat, an old Welsh Pub at the end of an ever narrowing road. Apparently despite its seemingly isolated location, it is very popular and it is in an idyllic setting at the side of the River Dee.

The River Dee which is 110klms long flows through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries. It has a reasonably strong flow and has beautiful overhanging trees on its banks.

 Sculpture of an Osprey? on the roadside

 Davina and Mick

 Road down the mountain

 At the pub by the side of the River Dee