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Saturday, May 8

Dolgoch Falls ~ 2 Nov 2002


Today was parked the car at Dolgoch Falls station (the Talyllyn Railway) and walked up to the beautiful Dolgoch waterfalls. Because of all the rain in the past week the falls were at full blast. This area has a lot of old mine shafts ~ why the railway was built. The autumn colours are just magnificent.

Centre for Alternative Technology ~ 1 Nov 2002


I visited the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) today. Extremely overpriced at 7 pounds. The village was established in 1975 and aims to inspire, inform and enable people to live an alternative lifestyle in an environmentally friendly manner. I felt the displays were a bit run down and outdated. The inspiration was there and I did enjoy the ride in the water powered cliff railway.

Powis Castle ~ 31 Oct 2002





One of the things that has made our journey so much nicer has been our New Zealand Historic Places membership card. With this card we've been able to get into many National Trust properties free of charge.

Today we visited Powis Castle near Welshpool. The castle held an impressive display of Indian works of art and treasures collected by Clive of India. The castle was built ca 1200 and perched romantically on a rocky outcrop. Inside held a collection of interesting furniture and paintings, but because of the lighting or should I say 'lack of lighting' everything felt very dark, gloomy and a bit oppressive.
The garden made up for the interior gloominess by it's beautiful terraced Italian and French style garden overhung by enormous clipped yew trees. Once again the autumn colours were breathtaking.

Happy ~ 30 Oct 2002

This afternoon we drove into a near by village called Machynlleth. This town houses many artists, potters, organic and alternative lifestylers.

We had afternoon tea in a pleasant organic cafe. We are feeling very relaxed and happy to be away from our previous situation in Cornwall.

Harlech Castle ~ 29 Oct 2002






Today we explored. Driving along the B4405 was just lovely. Tay-y-Llyn Lake, then onto an interested town called Dolgellau, Barmoth ~ all just so beautiful. Every thing is golden in colour, gold, yellow, amber, orange. Our destination is Harlech Castle.

Harlech is one of the most magnificently sited of all the Weslh castles, views of Cardigan Bay, the Lleyn Peninsula and inland the mountains of Snowdona and the Cader Idris range. Harlech is a castle of Edward I. Building started in 1283 and completed only seven years later. It was thought impregnable, but was taken in 1404 by the army of Owain Glyndower who established his court here until his family was taken prisoner four years later.

On the way home we stopped at Castell y Bere. This is an ancient Welsh castle ruins ~ a mountain fortress of Prince Llewelyn. Wales is such a glorious country, very proud of it's culture, history, people and natural beauty.

Tywyn ~ 28 Oct 2002


Tywyn is a the base of Snowdonia National Park. It's a very quiet town but the people are very friendly. The Welsh language is a normal part of daily life along with big round smiling faces. The holiday home we are staying in is very modest, but contains everything we need to have a very comfortable stay here. We feel very lucky.

Driving to Wales ~ 27 Oct 2002




We stayed over night in a B&B in Bideford, Devon. I really enjoy staying in B&Bs. They are always so comfortable and it feels like you are staying at someones home for the night.

We drove through Exmoor National Park. Very beautiful. We nearly looked at a job in Minehead when we first arrived. It would have been a nice place to explore.

Heading for Bristol, driving over the Severn Bridge into Wales, driving past Cardiff and Swansea on the motorway, it was very exciting. Getting off the motorway we experiences the beautiful Welsh countryside in full autumn colours. It was glorious.