For the last few days of the Kendricks' visit, we drove my CR-V over to southern Wales and stayed in and around Brecon Beacons National Park. I'd visited the area back in 2003 when I studied abroad, but hadn't gotten this deep into the park as we were limited to train travel. We stayed in Talybont-on-Usk, a small town with a couple of pubs. Our AirBnB was located up a steep one-lane road on the side of a mountain. The views from the place were absolutely gorgeous; it was a little unusual as it was built from an old barn and the beds were tucked into little archways without doors. It was fine for our group, except that it was hard for Charlotte to get to sleep for naps and at bedtime. (For the record, I think we were both still a bit jetlagged from our trip to the States as well.) So that was a little tough, but we obviously survived. And next time we'll double-check that the bedrooms have doors prior to booking ;)
We ate dinner at one pub the first night, then headed back to the apartment to rest. The hosts of the AirBnb provided all the fixing to make a true English (Welsh?) breakfast, so we ate well both days by preparing eggs, sausages, toast, yogurt, etc. The first morning, we continued up the steep road past our apartment (by car) -- a few miles up, the road provided some beautiful lookouts. There were lots of sheep wandering the roads and fields, and the spot we pulled over was no different. I pointed out some sheep poop to Charlotte and asked her to try not to step in any. She became super-sleuth Charlotte, and spent the entire stop obsessing over all the sheep poop around. (Admittedly there was a LOT of sheep poop!) You can see her looking out for it in the pictures. As we got back in the car, I noticed that I had stepped in some, and she was mildly horrified and told me I was a "silly Mommy!"
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| Hmm... that looks like sheep poop |
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| Note the sheep in the background |
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| "Look mama, sheep poop" |
After that, we drove around the lake pictured above to see some more gorgeous scenery. The water and sky were so pretty, and there were some enormous rhododendron bushes going crazy with spring temperatures! We then drove a bit further and parked to do the Blaen y Glyn trail. It was slow going with the toddler, but I hung back with Charlotte and we eventually caught up with Paul, Tim, and Jess at one of the waterfall viewing points. We traded off kid care after that, and Paul ended up carrying her much of the way down on his shoulders to speed things along :)
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| Trees along Blaen y Glyn trail |
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| Waterfall at the end of Blaen y Glyn trail |
When we got back to the apartment, our host offered to let us feed the animals with some vegetable ("veg") peelings she gave us. Charlotte was appropriately cautious and wasn't in love with the big pigs, but enjoyed feeding the nanny goats. She also really liked the chickens who came over to investigate, especially the one "little chicken" she kept cooing at in a high pitched voice.
While Charlotte napped and Paul did a little work from the apartment, Tim, Jess & I headed over to see some of the taller peaks in the area and ended up seeing Pen y Fan from a distance (I believe). We took a nice quiet walk through some fields to get some nice shots and watch the sheep wandering around us!
That night we had clear skies and took advantage of the fact that we were staying in one of the certified "dark" areas of the world -- far enough from big city lights that sky viewing is ideal. Because of the time of year, it never truly reached "night" -- I think a version of twilight is as good as it gets -- but we did see some amazing stars. Paul and Tim saw something streak through the sky after I went to bed as well. UFO or meteorite, we may never know!
The next morning, we packed up and headed out. We stopped at Raglan Castle on our way out of Wales (on a whim, but it was definitely worth it!). It was a beautiful castle ruin, with lots of interesting preserved parts that made it easier to imagine what life would have been like in the castle... for example, a framed out window in the great eating hall, and staircases down to the kitchens that still had full oven spaces with chimneys up to the sky intact. We got some great views from the tops of the towers as well!
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| Window frames in the eating hall |
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| A xylophone of sorts that Charlotte enjoyed jamming to |
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| Bridge over the moat |
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| Tim & Jess! |
Our drive back from Wales took longer than expected -- there was bad traffic around Birmingham, so we decided to take a more southerly route... that ended up taking awhile too. We felt like the GPS had told us we were about 2:30 away for many hours in a row, but that might have just been our impatience to get out of the car. We continue to love our visits to Wales -- such friendly people and amazing scenery.
PS -- this is my 100th post on the blog! Thanks for following along!
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