Day 8: Wales and North

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Off to the great rugby nation Wales today, it rained of course, it had to happen, with virtually no rain on the trip so far it was only a matter of time. Using the main motorway for the first time this trip it took little time to reach the mighty Severn River, coming around this bend we saw this huge bridge structure and looking to the right we saw its twin some 7-8 miles up river. to wales just to say we had been there but we found this fantastic old castle call Caerphilly Castle, built around 1300 originally to defend Wales from the hordes from Scotland and England but was never really put to the test as around 1644 during the Civil war between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists they went and gave up and Wales became part of the Empire. This castle is the second largest in England and is a remarkable example of 13th century architecture. Walking around the battlements and great hall you can almost feel the spirit of the place and you can with a little imagination see the old knights and ladies prancing around the place. With a great field within the battlements it was large enough for jousting tourneys competition. Dragging ourselves away after 3 hours wandering around we headed back to good old blighty across the Severn bridge again. On to our next destination of points unknown we were heading up the M4 and out of the corner of Pam's eye she spotted a "Wetlands" sign and that is like red rag to a bull, I tried to halt the cries of lets go there, lets go there but it was no good, it was decided and off we went down this poky little lane barely wide enough to fit a mini. This bird sanctuary was just awesome with so many varieties of wetland birds and a superb example of wildlife conservation. The good thing about the side trip was they had a cool campground as well so we stayed the night. Oh by the way it was set next to a canal and we saw the bridge opening the next day with a big canal boat heading out on a cruise.

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