Winding down...

... in preparation for the next bit of my travels!

Friday was Depart Wales day, and we made it to Swindon in good time to meet eldest sister (actually we were quite early and sat in the car for an hour!) only to discover that she had suffered a senior moment and missed her train! We had persuaded the station people to let us on the platform (they don't do platform tickets any more) so we could meet her, and we had some hilarious conversations about missing sisters, and when she did finally arrive an hour late we gave them the double thumbs-up.

Then we totally confused her by heading off to find the very last white horse - in Oxfordshire - which is actually THE oldest of all the white horses, at Uffington. It's a very abstract horse but well worth the visit.

Then the anti-navigation demon took over again and we took a very scenic route to Newbury and to the motel we were booked into for the night. I blame it on the other two nattering away and not focussing on where we were going, me seeing a sign that said Newbury and turning right about a mile or so earlier than I was supposed to. Ah well, it was scenic!

The motel left a lot to be desired - we'd asked for a family room for 3 adults - only enough towels for two, no towel rail in the bathroom even though there was a very polite sign cautioning us that the towel rail may become quite hot (!), no power outlets in the bathroom other than for a man's shaver, the service in the restaurant next door was abysmally slow (a table next to us remained uncleared the entire time we were in there and they weren't exactly wildly busy) - needless to say we didn't leave a tip. We went to the next door Maccas for brekkie the next day.

Then it was off to see my cousins on Dad's side of the family - and I finally got to meet most of their kids and partners that I hadn't met the last time around (which was most of them!). We got there around 12 ish, and left at 6.30! A nice easy drive back to Letchworth and even with stopping off at a supermarket to pick up milk and a paper, we were back by 8pm.

Then it was all on yesterday for the other side of the family - all my nieces and nephews and their assorted kids and partners who I had never met, plus my sister's fiance's family - hordes of kids and a magician and food - and the cleaning up afterwards. However, the one shining light amongst all of that was when Sue and I went to the supermarket to get the last minute things and I spotted bottles from my favourite winery on the shelf. Yep, I bought a bottle and drank half of it last night. Brown Bros - you rock! I did have a good look through the shelves for Cienna but it wasn't there. However I'm sure it can be found in a dedicated wine store rather than a supermarket.

This morning I packed up all the stuff I'm mailing back - three boxes in all! Not huge, not madly heavy, but it will make the trip to America much lighter.

And spent half the morning dodging raindrops with my washing - we'd have a nice fine spell and then down it would come - luckily I still have tomorrow to deal with it if it doesn't dry overnight on the rack in the middle of the loungeroom *g*

The UK part of my trip has been wonderful. I have carefully avoided places I already know - the closest we have been to my old home is the top of the hill on the way back to Sue's after dropping eldest sis off on Saturday evening. I did glance down the hill but had no desire to ask Sue to turn right instead of left - I'd much rather remember the place as I last saw it.

Everyone has asked me if I've noticed much change - but I haven't, simply because of not revisiting familiar places.

However, next trip... Sue has said we must book ourselves into a place in Wiltshire and dedicate a week to crop circle hunting! She's pretty certain that on one of the crop circle websites is mention of the one we saw - she picked that up when I was looking through the Wiltshire Street Map she'd bought and noticed the name of the farm near where we saw the circle, so I shall go investigate and report back, fingers xx'd with photo.

Time for dinner (and Neighbours!)

I'll post the photo of the Uffington white horse tomorrow, and the results of my crop circle search.

Dr Who fangirl mode... commence

What a day!

We got thoroughly lost in Cardiff but with some excellent navigation from me (yeah, I know I'm supremely modest *g*) we found our way to where we wanted to be, only to find that the Cardiff Food & Wine Festival was in the process of being set up - right where I wanted to stand on THE Paving Stone!

DRABBIT!

However, we did the Dr Who Up Close & Personal exhibit after drinking the weakest and un-foamiest capuccino's we'd ever had. Seriously, not a drop of foam on either cup! Plus we thought the waitress looked and seemed rather like Pheobe out of Friends, and they didn't seem to have a till!

Once we'd cleaned out the Dr Who store (yet more for the package to be mailed home!) we wandered over to the Roald Dahl Plass where the water tower is, to find it blocked off and decorated with strawberries (the theme of the festival apparently). Still, I was able to get photos of the tower and the Milennium Centre and then we walked down to the water's edge and down to the lower walkway.

I was convinced that the wooden door in the wall at the end of the boardwalk was the entry into the Hub - Sue wasn't. Until three young girls, all wearing the Dr Who exhibition wristbands walked up beside us in even more fangirl mode than me and started taking photos of the door.

We wandered around some more, found the Cardiff visitor centre which is inside the fuselage of some kind of plane (not sure what type of plane exactly) and found some more souvenirs to buy.

Then we headed back to the caravan park where we are now watching Day Four of Children of Earth - Torchwood.

July 10 - Dr Who day

The visit with my cousin turned into a most of the day event, so we didn't do the waterfall that day, but did it yesterday. Mind you, we did leave my cousin's place with enough leftovers from lunch to provide our dinner last night!

Aberdulais Falls are gorgeous. It's a narrow river that screams down from the Black Mountains (at full flow 1 million litres a minute) and just before it joins the River Neath (where there's a ruined abbey - see photo) it has been harnessed for (now) electricity but in the past there have been several industries using the force of the water - including copper manufacturing in 1584 to the last being tin-plating.

Most of the tinworks are in ruins but the National Trust is working to restore as much as they can - my sister who saw the Falls back in April said there has been quite a bit done in that short a time.

There is a massive water wheel there now, which is kicked off with a burst of electricity but once it gets going the water itself keeps it moving. It is the largest currently used in Europe to generate electricity which makes Aberdulais Falls self-sufficient.

Unfortunately when the main road was constructed and then widened the bulk of the village was destroyed, but they are looking after what's left with a great deal of care.

After lunch we headed further up into the Black Mountains to a cave system known as Dan-y-Ogof. These were discovered in 1912 by a pair of brothers and while the show caves are quite enough for the ordinary folk to see, the whole system is massive with lots for the dedicated and professional spelunker to enjoy. There is even one cave, the Cathedral Cave, where weddings are held. Mind you, the bride would want to wear something waterproof. Aside from the myriad drips from the walls there are a pair of waterfalls that you have to walk between and depending on how high the river is depends on how wet you get walking through. Each fall lands on either side of the walkway, but they splash!

At the end, where there's a lovely little arch with (fake) flowers set up for the ceremony, we found a large sign advising that the cave system continued from this point for another 1.5 miles but was strictly only for professional cavers - it did look somewhat rockier - all the pathways through this cave and the other show cave were concreted.

We returned through the waterfalls and emerged into the dinosaur park that surrounds the caves.

The main show cave, which I didn't take any photos in because it wasn't as well lit, and lights were continually coming up and going down to suit the narration that was going on, was quite deep and extensive. We got to one part where a path led off down to the left with a big No Entry sign on it, and on the opposite wall a Way In sign with arrow pointing ahead deeper into the cave. We followed the Way In sign and found ourselves going down steep stairs and round and up and down again and I began to think I was in an Adventure game - the maze of twisty little passages had nothing on this! Eventually, of course, the path led round to where the No Entry sign was and we wandered back on out.

There is a third show cave but as the sign warned it was accessed by a long steep flight of steps and was quite long and low, we gave that one a miss. Sue had seen it before and wasn't particularly impressed with it anyway. As it was, we nearly missed out on a cuppa because the coffee shop was closing as we walked up to the door, but as all we wanted was a cup of tea and they hadn't cleaned out the machine yet and if we were quick... we got our cuppas!

We tootled back down to the M4 and back to the caravan park - noticing for the umpteenth time an area that looks like trolls had been bouncing up and down on their beds and hit the roof of their caves - all these weird lumps in the ground, on both sides of the motorway. We looked on the map and there is a ruined castle in that area but nothing to indicate why all the lumpy bits. We definitely prefer our troll theory!

Today is Dr Who Day. Torchwood last night had us gripping the edge of our seats. Sue is now perusing the map to work out where would be the best place to park, because, of course, the Ashes is in town too! Go the Aussies!

July 7 - Welcome to Wales

I am now in a country I have never visited before - and boy was it windy driving over the Severn Bridge! Took all my concentration to keep in the traffic lane - and then they charged us for entering the country!

Sue and I shared the driving from Helston to Trecco Bay (in Porthcawl) - a total of 240 miles and we did it in around 5 hours - not bad really considering the atrocious weather most of the way. Dartmoor was very dark & brooding with a massive raincloud over it. Luckily we went around to the north of the moor so we missed the worst of it.

Although it seemed as though the weather was playing games with us. We went to Glendurgan gardens just below Falmouth and walked all the way down to Helford Passage and up again, had a cuppa and as we were walking to the car down came the rain. The same happened when we took my friends, who had very kindly put us up in their caravan, out to lunch - it started raining as we left the restaurant!

Glendurgan is a fascinating garden with its laurel maze and lots of aussie plants. We also did St Ives, Land's End (by accident as we missed the turnoff to Mousehole), Minack Theatre, bits of Penzanze and saw St Michael's Mount. Blowing a gale, freezing cold (by aussie standards) but brilliantly sunny.

Today we're off to visit yet another cousin and to check out a waterfall my sis reckons would be a perfect swimming hole for a dragon.

Random thoughts on a rainy day

Yesterday sis and I did nothing - except our laundry!

For those of you who don't already know, I drive a Hyundai FX Coupe, silver, all curves and very sporty. So far I have seen one silver, one red, one dark blue and two black, much to my delight.

They also have the Tiburon over here but it's not called that and it has the Hyundai H on the back, not the T like in Oz.

As for driving - British drivers are very polite, not at all like Aussie drivers. While hooning along motorways or major roads, I've noticed that if I was coming up behind someone in the outside (slow) lane but someone was about to overtake me, they would move over into the inside (fast) lane to let me overtake without driving into the back of the car in front. Most times. There was one time I did have to slow up rather fast because the car overtaking me couldn't move over because he was being overtaken too! Also, when in a narrow street and you have to give way to someone, there's always a hand wave to say thanks.

Cornish towns have very narrow streets. On Thursday while driving to Helston we went through Boscastle which a few years ago was badly damaged by a flash flood, but Sue was driving that section. Then when we got to Helston we got our directions muddled and she directed me into the town instead of around. Yikes! Single lane streets, a main street that has little rivers down each side, so be very careful when parking, and a total maze of little twisty streets. We got ourselves thoroughly lost so parked and perused the street map and found we were not too far from our destination, but as Sue admitted later, she would not have liked to be driving to get ourselves out of our pickle and to where we meant to be. Not sure if that was a confidence booster for me or not *g* She did say I looked very calm and in control.

Today we're going to Glendurgan which has a maze.

Last random thought - traction engines go VERY slowly. We got stuck behind one for six miles - took us 45 mins to do that stretch and we were getting closer to it, but then we got to a roundabout and to everyone's delight the engine turned right - you could hear the cheers for miles!

July 2 - King Arthur

Today we travelled from Bude in north Cornwall to my friend's place in Helston, via Tintagel. It was raining, so we didn't go across to the site because the paths were grassy and wet and neither of us fancied getting a broken ankle or worse!

On the walk to the castle we popped into the Old Post Office, a really ancient building with tiny rooms (and must have been occupied by very short people) and I found a lovely little book of stories about the Tintagel Dragon. That will be in the ever-growing parcel that will be mailed home before I leave the UK.








Then we saw some drystone walls - so precisely laid I just had to take a couple of photos.









Then we got to the castle. Not really much to see any more, but that's another tick on the bucket list!

July 1 - churches & steps

There is a place I'd always wanted to see but when I was a child we would always bypass this little town, but this was my chance.









Wells is like Adelaide - full of churches and... a cathedral. This cathedral has a set of steps that have always fascinated me, and I believe have been used in movies. But the rest of the cathedral is also worth the visit. When it was being built the foundations began to sink (shades of the Leaning Tower of Pisa) so they came up with scissor arches to spread the weight.

And these are the steps that have always fascinated me - took a while to get a clear (ie no people) pic, but to actually walk up them was a special moment. They have replaced some of the most worn steps but as you can see at the bottom, they have been well-used.