Holiday in Wales, Part 3
Day 4 - Trapped in a Tunnel
We headed over to Carreg Cennen Castle, an eerie rock pile on a hilltop. Rhandolph ran about crazily like a bit over-excited doggy, and had practically moved in after five minutes, whereas I was more into soaking it all up in relaxed fashion. There was a cave tunnel system below the castle which he dragged me down. It was a 'love it or hate it' experience. He loved it. I hated it.
After a reviving cup of tea and a sniggering fit due to overhearing a group of welsh twitchers with their binoculors lookign at tits "ooooh yes, ooooooo yes, loook at that!", we headed back to the cottage where I checked out the hot tub and looked at the stars, then went to bed late and slept a wonderful sleep in the great big bed nest.
Day 5 - Fear of Pork Overcome
It's extraordinarily difficult to find a town in Wales. All the locations touted as such, as in fact, villages. In Wales, villages are hamlets and hamlets are one bloke living on his own with his pet rock.
Nevertheless, we found something approaching a town in New Quay, which had a crescent shaped bay with slate piled high, in far too tempting a fashion for mere mortals such as ourselves to resist clambering about on. Cue comedy moment when Rhandolph said "watch out, it's slippery" and I'd fallen over before he'd even finished the sentence.
Visited a marvellous farm shop on the way back, where R bravely overcome his Fear of Porcine Breakfast Goods.
Day 6 - Mud Wrestling with Gears
An opportunity arose to legitimately indulge my desire to sit in mechanical things and make them go fast over very rough roads - quad biking....wheeeeeee!!! Bounce bounce bounce bounce :-)
Despite an initial slow start due to non-drivers lack of gear knowledge, R rose to the occasion on open terrain, while I went bouncing round the trail track over bumps and humps and precipitous drops. Wish I'd worn a sports bra, though...
A more sedate form of transport presented itself afterward in the form of an amble round some country lanes on horseback. We took a short hack up to the beach, and my mighty steed was chosen more for its bombproof tendencies than any chance of excitement. Fortunately the instructions 'just sit on her and point' matched precisely with my riding ability. Stayed on the horse with no problems whatsover for an hour. Got off, walked for five feet and then fell over and sprawled in the mud. Class.
We stopped for lunch in between these two activities, at a pub on the beach near Tenby. Wales has some glorious sandy beaches and I'd love to come back and swim. But not in this weather as it's a bit more hot-tub season than it is 'fling all my clothes off and run in the sea' season.
Day 7 - Bears and Glares
Drove home, via the gift of sat nav hire. I've always been quite snooty about sat nav, because it's 'cheating' - much better to be able to navigate the old fashioned way and keep a road map in your head. Turns out - that's bollocks. Sat nav's brilliant; I take it all back. No more trying to read the map on my knees while driving. No more long-suffering Rhandolph (who doesn't drive and can't read road maps) bearing the brunt of my murderous glares as he's unable to decipher my instructions. No more extended diversions on way home when i'm tired and grumpy. PLUS, you get the bonus of hearing 'Bear Left' or 'Bear Right' - something I never tired of even after 6 days. 'There's a BEAR? On the left? WHERE???!!!!'
As an additional bonus, I found the sat nav audio segued quite nicely into whatever music we had playing. For the first few days I'd here an instruction and think 'that's an interesting sample. I wonder...what does it mean? Oh shit - ABORT! ABORT! I've missed the turning!'
We headed over to Carreg Cennen Castle, an eerie rock pile on a hilltop. Rhandolph ran about crazily like a bit over-excited doggy, and had practically moved in after five minutes, whereas I was more into soaking it all up in relaxed fashion. There was a cave tunnel system below the castle which he dragged me down. It was a 'love it or hate it' experience. He loved it. I hated it.
After a reviving cup of tea and a sniggering fit due to overhearing a group of welsh twitchers with their binoculors lookign at tits "ooooh yes, ooooooo yes, loook at that!", we headed back to the cottage where I checked out the hot tub and looked at the stars, then went to bed late and slept a wonderful sleep in the great big bed nest.
Day 5 - Fear of Pork Overcome
It's extraordinarily difficult to find a town in Wales. All the locations touted as such, as in fact, villages. In Wales, villages are hamlets and hamlets are one bloke living on his own with his pet rock.
Nevertheless, we found something approaching a town in New Quay, which had a crescent shaped bay with slate piled high, in far too tempting a fashion for mere mortals such as ourselves to resist clambering about on. Cue comedy moment when Rhandolph said "watch out, it's slippery" and I'd fallen over before he'd even finished the sentence.
Visited a marvellous farm shop on the way back, where R bravely overcome his Fear of Porcine Breakfast Goods.
Day 6 - Mud Wrestling with Gears
An opportunity arose to legitimately indulge my desire to sit in mechanical things and make them go fast over very rough roads - quad biking....wheeeeeee!!! Bounce bounce bounce bounce :-)
Despite an initial slow start due to non-drivers lack of gear knowledge, R rose to the occasion on open terrain, while I went bouncing round the trail track over bumps and humps and precipitous drops. Wish I'd worn a sports bra, though...
A more sedate form of transport presented itself afterward in the form of an amble round some country lanes on horseback. We took a short hack up to the beach, and my mighty steed was chosen more for its bombproof tendencies than any chance of excitement. Fortunately the instructions 'just sit on her and point' matched precisely with my riding ability. Stayed on the horse with no problems whatsover for an hour. Got off, walked for five feet and then fell over and sprawled in the mud. Class.
We stopped for lunch in between these two activities, at a pub on the beach near Tenby. Wales has some glorious sandy beaches and I'd love to come back and swim. But not in this weather as it's a bit more hot-tub season than it is 'fling all my clothes off and run in the sea' season.
Day 7 - Bears and Glares
Drove home, via the gift of sat nav hire. I've always been quite snooty about sat nav, because it's 'cheating' - much better to be able to navigate the old fashioned way and keep a road map in your head. Turns out - that's bollocks. Sat nav's brilliant; I take it all back. No more trying to read the map on my knees while driving. No more long-suffering Rhandolph (who doesn't drive and can't read road maps) bearing the brunt of my murderous glares as he's unable to decipher my instructions. No more extended diversions on way home when i'm tired and grumpy. PLUS, you get the bonus of hearing 'Bear Left' or 'Bear Right' - something I never tired of even after 6 days. 'There's a BEAR? On the left? WHERE???!!!!'
As an additional bonus, I found the sat nav audio segued quite nicely into whatever music we had playing. For the first few days I'd here an instruction and think 'that's an interesting sample. I wonder...what does it mean? Oh shit - ABORT! ABORT! I've missed the turning!'