Whales?!

Our first night in beautiful Wales - overlooking the Isle of Man

We got a great quote out of one of our daughters as we entered Wales. This one always has her ear

buds in her ears when we’re driving, and as we shouted “Hey! We’re in Wales!!”, she leaned to look out of the windows at the fields going by and said “Whales?! Where are the Whales? I don’t see any Whales!”

That night we drove to the coast and stopped to make Leek and Potato soup at the beach looking out over at the Isle of Man. We were treated to a painted sky of blues and pinks as the sun went down over the island and hundreds of wind turbines seemingly growing out of the sea! It was quite a sight to see so many sprouting from the horizon. (Sorry they don't seem to show up on the photo very well..)

I fell in love with Wales very quickly. I don’t know what it was exactly, but maybe just the simple fact that I hadn’t put in too much thought into what it would be like. But the scenery was stunning, the buildings well preserved and the people friendly. I think it helped that we had some clear sunny skies! Though I didn’t get to hear any of those thick Welsh accents I was waiting for. Maybe I had to go further south for that. The second day we drove over to the Island of Anglesey, which like the Isle of Skye, has a bridge to connect it from the mainland. We visited a stone age village with circular house ruins and a grave sight also from the stone age. And close by was the sea again with a vast windswept bay of bluey grey water and a rocky outcrop just out to sea, which has seen so many shipwrecks there is now a permanent stone dwelling on there with a cache of food for any unfortunate sailors finding themselves in need of saving.

Walking down the lane to the stone age burial ground.

Inside the burial mound was a tunnel and a chamber (empty now) where the sun still shines directly in on summer solstice.

The next day we braved the highest mountain of Wales - Snowdon. It was quite a climb, although it is actually only 1, 085m but it felt like we had to climb directly up without a decent zig-zag in sight. The day began fairl sunny but with a hefty cloud perched on top of the mountain which in hind-sight was a good thing because if we'd seen from the bottom how steep it was us girls might have given up before we began! (Poor Josh- the things he has to put up with!)

The beginning of the Snowdonia Valley. The mountain is behind all that cloud.

The beginning of the track was a farm road.

But oh, the scenery! Very much like New Zealand actually, (haha, of course!) but add in some old mine excavations (humongous scrag piles tumbling out of the mountain) and stone age ruins of tiny round houses and ancient corrals for cattle and sheep. 

The higher we climbed the colder and windy-er it became. We stopped at what we thought was about half way there, sheltered behind a stone wall for some lunch and there the cloud started to whip around the mountain, curling around the edge we were on and exposing a vast valley beneath us of little tarns, moor, and tiny white sheep. We kept walking up and up and got further into the cloud. At one stage we picked our way up giant stone steps with cloud blanketing both sides of the path. On the way down we saw the true nature of this path as the cloud had cleared and there was a sheer drop on each side running hundreds of meters down to the valley. Quite a sight to behold!

From near the top. This was on the way back down once the cloud began to clear. The path we took was behind the photo.

As we reached the top of the mountain we were very lucky because the cloud began to clear and we saw the whole vista stretching out before us in all it's splendor. (Very lucky as apparently it is not often without the cloud on top.) We shared that view with about 100 other people who had reached the summit by train! There was a sweet little steam engine that runs along the ridgeline and takes tourists up there instead of them doing the grueling walk. But I felt proud of all of us achieving the climb, though I was feeling the pain in my muscles for up to a week. Noa even came to me a few days later and said, "Mum, I think there is something wrong with my legs. They are hurting all the time when I stretch them." I don't think she had felt that before, even after all the other tramps we had done. It surely was a decent up hill climb! And I am pleased that once we reached the bottom that afternoon we could see the summit, and how far we had climbed, and not before we left to climb it! 

We also visited in Wales a cute fishing town called Conwy. It had a huge castle as the focal point of the town that was built by the English  Edward the 1st in his conquest of Wales in 1283. It boast the most intact city walls in the whole of Europe and we enjoyed walking along the walls and spying at all the houses from there. Many of the houses are built right into the walls and have their garden in the turrets.

 

The lovely Welsh town of Conwy with the castle in the background. (Photo taken from the walls.)

Conwy didn't feel like a touristy town which was rather refreshing, so it felt like we were just part of an ordinary day in the old town.  Almost like stepping back in time with the front of the town over-looking the harbour where boats and cray-pots were coming and going instead of the shore front being all built up for tourists.

One of the houses along this street was an English Heritage building because it dated from the 1100's and had been a merchants house for it's entire lifespan. Inside every room represented a different period in time. I still haven't gotten used to being in such an old building with so much history! I don't know if I ever will be able to take it all in. It's truly mind boggling.