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Published: July 13th 2009
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Day 3
Friday 12th June After packing up camp, it was a couple of hours drive before we crossed over into Wales, our sixth country! Our destination for the night was a town called Barry on the south coast, where we were staying with Lynne, a lady Dav and I met in Ireland. We were a little early to go there, but a little late to head into Cardiff, so we stopped just outside of Barry at Cosmeston Lake. There we had some lunch and plotted out our itinerary for the rest of the UK trip, while being surrounded by the very tame resident swans.
On to Lynne’s for the night, we met her partner Paul and their crazy excitable dog called Colin. We were really spoilt with gin and tonics, and a delicious fish pie for dinner. They are a really lovely couple and we spent the whole night chatting and drinking wine and listening to music, not getting to bed until 1am...
Day 4
Saturday 13th June For breakfast we were once again spoilt with a delicious spread of
croissants, toast, fruit and yougurt. So generous! After goodbyes and promises that they make their way over to Australia in the near future, we hit the road once again.
We drove around Cardiff Bay and through Cardiff city on our way up to Brecon Beacons National Park. We found a campsite quite close to Llyn Lake and after setting up and having a late lunch, we went off to explore the lake. There was a boat hire place on the lake so Craig, Dav and I set off in a rowboat, while Lucretia went back to the campsite. It was a really fun adventure out on the lake, although our rowing needs some work if we plan on getting anywhere in a straight line! We were having a great time until a rather unfriendly swan decided to swim right up to the boat and hiss at me.... Beautiful but scary! Apparently they can break human arms with their wings! Might be a rumour but who wants to test that out?!
We eventually zip-zagged our way back to shore and headed back to the campsite for some dinner, before cramming into the one tent to
watch a movie before bed - camping in the 2000’s!
Day 5
Sunday 14th June Up and packed, we were on the road again by 10am. We drove down and around the Gower Peninsular, stopping at Oxwich Beach for some lunch. It really is no wonder that the poor Brit’s go crazy when they come Down Under and see our beaches - their beaches really have nothing compared to ours, with hundreds of people crammed on the sand, and only a few brave souls venturing into the freezing water. But they do seem to love it, I guess soaking up the sunshine while they can!
From the Gower Peninsular, it was on to Llansteffan to check out their castle ruins. Built on a headland, the castle offered great views of the river meeting the ocean, and was a typical example of the massive tidal variations they have over here, with it obviously being close to low tide and hence miles and miles of sandy flats.
Driving on, we found a lovely campsite at Whitesand Beach, with only a short walk down to
the water. Craig, an avid surfer, even got to have a paddle as he got talking to another guy camping in the same place who happened to have a spare wetsuit and board. While it was a little of a stretch to get it on (Craig, at 6 foot 4, is not the smallest of guys), apparently the wetsuit worked fantastically, acting like a drysuit by keeping all water away from his body. Unfortunately his feet and hands were still exposed and so stung a fair bit in the freezing temps until they went numb, and every time he went under the water, he got an ‘icecream headache’, but it still didn’t stop him from being our there for a good hour or so.
When he eventually made his way back into shore, a massive smile from ear to ear, we had a lovely dinner while watching the waves ahead, before heading off to bed.
Day 6
Monday 15th June Bit of a later start to the day as we woke to quite a drizzly morning, although it did clear up enough for us
to get up and have some breakfast. The clouds cleared pretty quickly in the end so by the time we had finished breaky and packed up our belongings, the tents had basically dried and were able to be packed away.
Back on the road, the plan for the day was to finish driving around the Pembrokeshire coast to St Davids, then head on up to the Snowdonia National Park.
In St Davids, we stopped at the Cathedral and the nearby Bishops Palace across the stream. The others went into the Cathedral but I objected to having to pay an entry fee and then a ‘photography licence’, so instead I walked over to the Bishops Palace to explore the ruins.
The drive from St Davids to Cardigan on the coast was meant to be a really lovely scenic drive but we couldn’t see much due to the hedges and stone walls, which was quite disappointing.
From Cardigan we drove up into the Snowdonia National Park where the scenery improved a great deal, as we were once again surrounded by woody forests. We found what we thought to be a
Lucretia
- Day 3 - great campsite just outside a town called Betws-y-Coed - it was a big paddock on a creek, and with no-one else around, we had the place to ourselves.... that should have been a sign! The midges were quite bad as we were setting up camp, and only continued to get worse as we gathered wood for the fire. They were so bad Craig had to sit in the front section of the tent while cooking, and even there he was hassled by the little buggers. They just continued to get worse and worse as the night went on, literally swarming around us, getting in our mouth, our eyes. The fire seemed to settle them momentarily while we ate dinner, but they won out in the end as we all retired to our tents to escape the little bloodsuckers!
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