Being a Tourist 2023

Now that we are properly settled in here in Wales it's a good time to really start exploring what there is for us to see and do.  We've always felt that we didn't really explore Devon properly when we had the chance and we really don't want to make the same mistakes whilst we're here.  Especially as there is so much for us to see and explore around here.  Obviously, we are still trying to keep our spending low to help with our long-term goals, but we don't want this to be at the complete expense of enjoying ourselves now.  Thankfully, most of what we like doing is free /cheap and we have also been given a Cadw membership as a gift which has opened up even more things we can explore for free.

After doing a little bit of looking around we now have an initial list of places we want to see, walk, and swim around that are close to us, along with a couple of helpful books that will be useful as we're still getting to know the area.  This should make it easier for us to quickly make a decision about what we're going to do when we have time off.  Once we have more of a clue we can start working out our own walks to explore even more of the areas we've gotten to know.   One thing I definitely want to make sure that I do is explore the walks that are right outside our doorstep as it's all too easy to only think about walking in the Beacons, but then I'd be missing out.

As we've just started out we haven't crossed off too many things yet.  There is also the slight issue of our mismatching work shifts which means that we don't get as many days off together as we would like.  Though we would like to visit as many of these places together as we can, there have been some walks that we've done on our own just so we can still get out and see things.  We also want to fit these around learning to surf, but this just means that we have to be a little bit more organised to fit all these in.

Most of the places we've been about to cross off on our 'tourist board' I've already written about, but the most recent one was the Blaenavon Ironworks.  This turned out to be a very enjoyable day and also involved us having a little exploration around Blaenavon itself.  It's actually very close to where we live so I'm not entirely sure why we haven't visited it already.  It's very interesting to see how we use to make iron, but I personally really liked the workers' cottages that were on site and which they had decorated in the different styles of the decades that the cottages were lived in.  They seemed the perfect size for what we would like now, but maybe with a bathroom added on rather than just an outhouse down a lane.  There are a couple more industrial sites we would like to explore near us, especially as these played such an important role to those who lived here in southern Wales.

One thing we want to concentrate a little more on is wild swimming as we haven't done too much of that yet.  The warmer weather that is meant to be coming our way would make this the perfect time to really give this a go.  At least now we have all the equipment that we need to do this comfortably and we can just head out to a spot and enjoy it.  In fact, it would probably fit perfectly with surfing practice.

Walking: Sugar Loaf

This was a very quick walk that we did in May, so this will be a very quick post about it.  Sugar Loaf was on our list of walks we would like to do and as we were needing to go to Abergavenny any way we decided to fit this in as well.  There are a number of different routes that can take you different amounts of time, but we decided to do one that would take us around 1.5 hours.

We parked in the car park just below the National Trust car park and headed up the hill turning left onto the main path that takes you to the top.  We decided to take the path that curves as it goes up the hill as this seemed to be the gentlest and my legs were a little soar after all the walking I had done that week at work.

The views you get from the top are beautiful, at least on a clear day, and you get a great view across the Usk valley towards the Brecon Beacons.  However, we didn't stay too long as there were quite a few people there already.  The route we took back down was much more direct, taking us down into the valley just where the woodland started and back up to the path we started on.

We always seem to be pretty luck when it comes to the weather and that day was no exception.  It was very sunny, but thankfully there was just enough breeze to make it pleasant.  This walk is pretty easy to access so I'm glad we went relatively early that day as there was already quite a few people.  There is a longer circular walk you can do that is around 3 hours long and we might do that in the future, though maybe more in the winter time when there will be less people.  I can imagine it's going to get quite busy up there over the next few months.

Barge Holiday: The Brecon and Monmouthshire Canal

We had decided to celebrate our one year anniversary by going on a barge trip and went for the Brecon and Monmouthshire Canal as we liked the area and wanted to see more of it.  Of course, we booked it a while ago we had no idea that we would be moving to the area, but we decided to keep it as it was as one of the main points of a barge holiday is just to slow down and as we no longer needed to 'visit' places we could really just enjoy being on the barge.  

There isn't really a whole lot to say about the route we took as there is only one navigable canal here with no off-shoots which goes from Brecon to just south of Pontymoile.  For this trip we started at Llangynidr, where we collected the barge from Country Craft Narrowboats, and first headed north to Brecon before very slowly pottering south to just north of Pontymoile (bridge 56 to be exact) and then back to Llangynidr again.  Our trip was about a week and that was plenty of time to do the canal, though as with all holidays we felt we could have easily done longer.

I've realised that I didn't take any photos of the inside of the barge, but I actually really liked the space that we were living in.  It had everything that we needed and there was plenty of storage space.  To me it didn't feel like we were crammed in or that I needed more room, although a stove would have been a nice addition even though we didn't really need it heat wise.  If we ever decided to live in one we would need to downsize some of the things we have, but it would definitely be doable.

A couple of things that we did really enjoy were the much slower pace of life you had to do, the fastest you could travel was 2.5 mph and even that was too much on some sections of the canal, and always being surrounded by wildlife.  For most of the trip we didn't really hear any other man made sounds, just the movement of the water, the wind, and some birds singing.  It was really nice always being around greenery as well and waking up every morning to really only seeing water and trees.  It definitely helped that we had good weather, I'm not sure how we would have felt if it had been raining the whole time.  For most of this canal you can just moor your boat anywhere on the towpath side of the canal (unless there was a sign telling you not to) and that meant we got to choose places that were away from other people and the villages that are dotted along the canal.  That definitely had it's charms.

As we were celebrating our anniversary we did eat out a couple of times, especially when my parents came up to visit, but for the most part we just stayed and ate on the barge.  As we could only have what we had brought with us we ended up saving quite a bit of money on that front and there's something to be said for that.  The shops are really close to us at home so it's tempting to just go out and get any food we want when we want.  I wonder how possible it would be to try and keep the barge mindset with us the rest of the time.

This isn't the first time that I've been on a barge, but it had been a while so it was a nice thing when I found myself adapting back into being on one.  Part of me likes the fact that the things that you need to worry about are a bit more fundamental like checking the engine is alright, making sure you have enough water, and thinking about where you can stay that night.  I find that sometimes in my normal life I start worrying about other things that just aren't as important and don't really matter that much. It was good to get a break from this.

All in all it was a very enjoyable holiday and I could see myself spending more time on a barge, even living on one if I needed to (or in fact didn't need to).  You never know, there may be a barge in our not so distant future.

Walks 2023: Fan Fawr, Pont ar Daf Circuit

I decided that, as it's been a while since I've done any mountain walks, I wanted to test out my legs and basic navigation skills so I decided to do a relatively long walk in the Brecon Beacons.  The route I took ended up including an AA walk (And on into Fforest Fawr), was around 13 miles, and it took me about 5.5 hours to do.

I started off at the Pont ar Daf National Trust car park and walked up to the Storey Arms before crossing the road and heading straight up hill for the top of Fan Fawr.  Most of this walk is pretty doable, but one of the last sections of Fan Fawr is a particularly steep bit which definitely gets your heart going and I'm glad I decided to tackle that first.  After a mini false summit the rest of the walk up to the top felt a lot gentler.  I then carried on west to the triangulation pillar, before turning back on myself down that steep side of Fan Fawr before heading north, skirting below a cliff edge, and joining into the path that walks along the highest point of the moorlands.

This path then connects to the Beacons Way at Craig Cerrig-gleisiad and I followed this path for a little bit before breaking off to follow the path that takes you into the Graig Cerrig Gleisiad National Nature Reserve (taking a slight detour to reach the triangulation pillar at Fan Frynych) and down towards Twyn Dylluan-ddu, passing a very handy cairn on the left.  It was then right at a cross-paths to follow a very well used footpath down into the valley, crossing the A470 and carrying on down the valley to the river Afon Tarell. 

A little crossing over the river at a waterfall (a very small waterfall) and I then walked along the Taff Trail back to the Storey Arms.  Having decided that I had a little bit more time to kill I didn't carry on along the path back to the Pont ar Daf car park, but instead went through the gate and up the footpath towards Corn Du.  There's a couple of different routes here but I decided to just follow the National Trust's path up, before cutting across on a path just below the summit as there were a lot of people there and heading back down to the Pont ar Daf car park on another well used path.

My legs definitely felt it by the time I was back at the car, probably not helped by the squats I'd done as part of my exercise routine the day before (what was I thinking), but I did really enjoy myself.  It was just great being back out in wilder lands and being surrounded by natural noises rather than just human noises.  Whilst I was there I kept forgetting to take photos, even though I had thought it would be good to blog about it, and I completely forgot that I had planned on possibly listening to some podcasts as I was walking.  The quiet, at least at the start, was just too enjoyable.  All good signs and it was also good feeling that type of terrain under my feet again.  I rarely find my feet get soar when I'm walking in these types of areas.  I'll be back as soon as I can.

We Moved

So I've been away from this blog for a while now, but I do have my reasons.....we moved.  And by that I don't mean just to a different flat but from Plymouth to the Brecon Beacons.  I had planned to do some posts about packing up our things and moving but I have to admit that I did get a little bit overwhelmed by it, even though we were just moving within Britain and I've never really gotten overwhelmed about moving before.  I think part of the reason was that we had really set roots in Plymouth with a whole load of plans of places we wanted to go to and things we wanted to do, something I hadn't really done before.  It was also our first home after getting married.

However, we were still excited by the prospect of exploring a new location and of my husband starting a job more in keeping with what he wants to do.  Trying to focus mostly on that we packed up our flat, shoved it all into the back of a van, and headed north.  Before it came to our move date we had been spending all of our free time researching what type of properties we could rent, what areas we would like to/ would be able to move into, and what types of jobs I'd be able to get.  It was looking like we would have to rent an unfurnished property, which would have led to quite a big additional expense and I was also researching where we could buy secondhand furniture, but in the end we were able to find the furnished house (yes you read that right, we've been able to rent a house up here) to move into.

Due to the fact that we'd been a little bit sad about leaving our previous home I wanted to spend the first week or so getting this new house into feeling like our home.  It's amazing how just putting up our books around the place made it feel like our space.  Now that our nick nacks and pictures are everywhere it definitely feeling more cosy.  I also spent that time sorting out our council tax, insurances, changes of addresses (why are there so many), and, of course, joining our local library.

And then there's all the new locations to find and explore, and I've already started putting together a list of possible places for us to go.  It'll be especially good to get back into the mountains again as we're now right beside them and we also want to get back into wild swimming as well.  From the basis research I've done so far, there seems to be quite a few opinions around us.  The one thing we will miss though is the sea and it does feel a little strange to not be able to see it straight from our window anymore.  However, it's not too far from us and there are lots of walks we can do there as well.  I think we'll probably end up spending a lot of time there just to make sure we get our seaside fix.  We should hopefully be able to get back to learning to surf again as well.  

Another thing that was high on our list was to find out where we could get refills for our dry groceries and cleaning products, which we've been successful with thanks to the husband, and that search has meant we've also found some towns and villages with good looking pubs which could work well at the end of a walk to explore.

Now that we're all settled in I should hopefully be able to get back to blogging regularly again, this time with a Welsh flavour.  I'm hoping to document all the exploring we get to do in this new area, though there is a possibility that when I finally get work our shifts might not match up again so I might have to do some of that exploring on my own.  One thing we did feel bad about when it came to leaving Devon was that we didn't explore the area as much as we had intended to (a common issue I know), so we plan on making a real effort to not do that again here.  There is a lot to see and, you never know, we might get to see some of it on a rain free day............not holding our breath though.