Archive for 2018
To Soweto by way of the Plough & Harrow
Of all the Great Causes we pursued back in our days of hope in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was only one that came to an unambiguously good end: the abolition of apartheid in South Africa. Wales was blessed with one of the most active Anti-Apartheid Movement organisations anywhere, and the cause united […]
The sore feet of Ursula Martin
When I first heard about what Ursula Martin had done I found it hard to believe. Over a period of seventeen months she set out to walk 3,300 miles around Wales – in the end she walked 3,700 – including all the recognized long distance paths and other, river-long walks, she devised herself. Now she’s […]
Wales Coast Path, day 86: Newborough to Brynsiencyn
It’s our last day, and a chance to fill a missing link, between Newborough and Brynsiencyn, the furthest point west we managed last year. We leave the car in the Llyn Rhos Ddu car park south of Newborough. In its centre is a metal sculpture by Ann Catrin Evans of several ‘gafrod’ or bunches of […]
Wales Coast Path, day 81: Trearddur Bay to Four Mile Bridge
After Holy Island north, today three of us are tackling Holy Island south – a much shorter and less strenuous trek. It’s a cooler and cloudier day. We start from Trearddur Bay. Just as it took half an hour to get into Trearddur from the north, it takes half an hour to leave it walking […]
Wales Coast Path, day 80: Valley to Trearddur Bay
Just the two of us today. Valley to Trearddur Bay direct is no more than three miles. Valley to Trearddur Bay via Holyhead Mountain, taking in a circuit of the northern half of Holy Island, is sixteen miles, and that’s our route. We’re lucky to have a day of continuous sun, from start to finish. […]
Wales Coast Path, day 85: Malltraeth from Newborough
In Sgwâr Bodorgan in the centre of Aberffraw we’re waiting for Gwynfor. After twenty minutes we’re still waiting. We’re on the point of giving up and taking two cars when a bus turns up – the original vehicle had broken down – and we’re bowling along the road south. Today we have a second guest, […]
Wales Coast Path, day 82: Valley to Rhosneigr
It’s still and warm as we deliver C to the railway station at Rhosneigr for the absurdly long train journey back to Swansea (including an enforced bus journey between Cwmbran and Newport). Someone has scratched the words ‘… is shit’ as a predicate to the platform sign for Arriva Trains Wales, the unlamented rail franchise […]
Wales Coast Path, day 83: Rhosneigr to Aberffraw
Rhosneigr is a bloated seaside village, with some forgettable seafront houses, but once past them we’re walking south into the morning wind on a long, dune-edged beach, Traeth Llydan. The sun has gone today and the distant mountains are reduced to grey silhouettes. A wind surfer races across the water of the bay. Reaching its […]
Wales Coast Path, day 84: Aberffraw from Malltraeth
There’s a royal wedding on, but we’re somewhere else entirely. Ca and I point the car towards the far north, through Talley, Temple Bar and Llanrhystud in the bright May sunshine. Coffee in Pysgoty in republican Aberystwyth, where protests quickly forced Oxfam to remove pictures of Harry and Meghan from their bookshop window, and a […]
Yn eisiau: Arlywydd Cymru
Mae ein Brenhines cyn wydn â lledr. Nid yw’n dangos chwaith unrhyw awydd i ildio ei lle’n fuan. Ond yn hwy neu’n hwyrach bydd ei gorsedd yn wag, ac oni bai am ddamwain, neu benderfyniad annhebygol iawn, Charles Windsor a fydd yn dilyn ei fam, fel Brenin Charles III. Neu fel ‘George VII’, os nad […]
