Monmouthshire 3 - Caerphilly/avoiding duck poo/ Rugby and a trip up the valleys/ Mr and Mrs Doncaster /it's not the batteries

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We got the phone call as you do when you have a house on the market. Mr and Mrs Doncaster are having a day out on Sunday. They have a few houses they want to see. Can they visit yours? Not what we want when we are deep in the valleys. They can come next week we say. That was the last we heard from them.

A more important task for us was to try to negotiate the capital. Cardiff - we pondered on how on earth it ended up as capital of Wales? More from the point that we were North Walians and we cannot understand why it is so far away from us at the North. Why wasn't the capital somewhere in the middle of the country? We knew the reasons we just didn't want to think about them.

Today going round Cardiff was going to be more difficult than normal. It was Rugby day. The world and his dog were on the M4 heading for the Millenium Stadium to watch the last game of the Six nations. If Wales win today they win the Six nations .,. If they lose - well we don't want to contemplate that possibility. PS - they won. Us North Walians are not much of rugby fans, We are more into football but despite this we wanted Wales to win.

We drove along the industrial south. Past the steelworks with their blast furnaces belching out smoke and fiery red smoke. A representation of some kind of hell I think . We thought about the recently painted Banksy art work that appeared on a garage wall. . An art work that caused its owner a major headache. On to Pontypool, signs for more of the souths industrial heritage. The Big Pit signposted. We concluded that we could spend a week here. There was so much to see.

So again the question of parking GAbby reared its ugly head. It appeared that once we were in Pembrokeshire we could take up two spots and pay for two. Here it was the same old rules. We tried every car park before we headed this way and each had height barriers. In the end I rang the council and asked where we could park only to be told that we would need to park on the road. In a fit of pique I wrote off a complaint letter to the council stating that was idiotic. It would be hit or miss finding a spot and not being local how would we be expected to find one. The response shocked me. The council offered us parking on the coach park on the condition they knew our van . registration number , the time of arrival, paid for two spots and the promise that we would not camp the night. In the end we did not use the facility. The rain was so heavy that no-one was about and we had as many spaces on the road as we needed.

Caerphilly is a massive castle and a moat stretches round it. Our first obstacle was the walk to it. The first gate was locked. We had to get back onto the path again after negotiating the piles of Canadian Goose poo. Not an easy task . You try dodging poo in the rain. The ducks and the geese were having a whale of a time puddling in the wet puddles. The setting was just perfect. The perfect castle with the perfect moat. But it did take a long time to get round to the entrance.

First opinions of the castle were favourable despite the dreadful weather. The leaning tower leaned at a crazier angle than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The view took me back again to a dim and distant memory . The Commercial Bank of Wales. A bank formed by Julian Hodge which had branches in my local town. I opened an account with them in the mid 1970's purely because I liked the cheque books. One set were plain brown and boring. I didn't want that one . What I wanted was the one that showed views of Wales. Caernarfon Castle, a view of somewhere in Pembrokeshire, Caerphilly Castle and somewhere in Mid Wales together with Cardiffs municipal buildings.

So what can I say about the castle? The castle was constructed by Gilbert de Clare in the 13th century as part of his campaign to conquer Glamorgan. It saw extensive fighting beween Gilbert, his descendants and the native Welsh. The water defences were described as some of the best in Britain and the site occupies 30 acres making it the 2nd largest castle in Britain. We did not have to pay as this was yet another Cadw castle. This is becoming a cheap holiday.

We entered the main gatehouse into the interior of the castle . Siege engines lined the parapets. It had the usual murder holes and a Great Hall . We could have walked the ramparts but the weather stopped us . Instead we found ourselves in the guardroom which was full of stones used with the siege engines. The guardhouse and gatehouse had been used for accommodation. Wooden screens had been added to the hall for authenticity. We virtually had the place to ourselves due to the appalling weather . We had moved on from Freya to Storm Gareth.

Edward II had briefly taken the castle in 1326 as he fled from his wife Isabella and her companion /lover Roger Mortimer. In the grounds we spotted the Dragons Lair . This had been moving from Welsh castle to castle. Something for the children to enjoy. In the end the weather got the better of us. We just got fed up with the rain, fed up getting wet and decided to move on for our stop for the night . Gowerton Caravan and Motorhome Club site . It was the usual type of site . Neat and tidy, a friendly warden who booked us in . She offered us a plot near the ablution block saying she hoped it would be OK so that I wouldn't have to walk back to change it. It wasn't quite right so we moved a couple of plots up and found the perfect sheltered spot. The site was as always out of the way and too far to walk into the village. There wasn't much to see or do there anyway. It was a night in watching the new TV, reading and just chilling out. Tomorrow we head off for something a bit different. I promise there is not a castle in sight . Next stop something flowery and a bit of Under Milk Wood. This area is proving a delight and one we have never appreciated very much.

Then there is the story of the batteries . We bought them , we fitted them, we still did not have light showing the alarm was working. After all this we need a new alarm to keep us safe in Gabby.

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