Any Porthcawl in a storm

12/8/08

This morning was wet and cold again. We left Barmouth and drove to King Arthurs Labyrinth where according to Welsh legend King Arthur and his knights lived for some time. It was really well done. The tour guide is dressed as a monk and the cave lighting is very dim trying to copy old torches or oil lamps. There are tunnels all over the place and without a guide it would be easy to get lost in there. Some of the passages are quite low and narrow before opening into huge caverns. It's one of the best cave systems I have seen  and along the way we were given a lesson on the Welsh version of King Arthurs life and times. From here we drove to Devils Bridge where there is a small waterfall into a large creek if that makes sense. As the water flows under the bridge it narrows to only a 1M wide crack in the rock wall of 2 mountains. All the water trying to get through that gap at once is amazing. It swirls as a washing machine does and has worn a round "tub" in the rock wall just before the crack but has not eroded the crack at all. It is the same width from top to bottom. From here we drove to St David, the most easterly town in Wales.It was here that I discovered Brains beer after several of which I was smart enough to notice that not only was I drunk but that the days are getting shorter. It was dark by about 9.30

Next morning we went to St Davids Cathedral which was built inthe 1200s. The cathedral is still in use today and costs £2200 a day to maintain according to the board asking for donations. It really is a wonder how they built things like this with the tools and equipment they had at the time. The ornate stone work has to seen to be believed. The bishops residence and all the servants buildings etc are now ruins but again they are fairly much intact so you can imagine the lifestyle of the people who lived there.

Once again the rain is falling so we went driving for the day again. The rain is speedy our trip up a bit as we aren't spending as much time looking around the towns we come to as previous so we are covering more ground.

The scenery is still stunning with streams turning to rivers after the rains and rushing through the valleys between all the rolling hills and occasional mountain range. At one spot I thought I was back in North Scotland with towering mountains, cliffs and fantastic views back over the foothills. After a good days driving we came to Porthcawl in the middle of a storm. The sea was crashing onto the rocky coast and spraying across the road. I'm glad it was a hire car and not mine that was parked in that all night. On the other hand we were warm and dry in the pub looking at all this through the double glazed window so who cared?