travel
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 5: Llangattock Lingoed to Longtown
Another morning of complete stillness and no clouds (just a criss-cross of high vapour-trails). Today Ca and Ch leave us, and C and I leave the rolling lowlands behind and head for the bare heights of the Black Mountains. First, there’s a bit more of the green country we’ve come to love in Monmouthshire. On […]
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 3: Bigsweir to Hendre
The morning’s chilly and overcast, and at first a low mist flows downstream, blocking the view of Llandogo. We march briskly along the riverside drive to Bigsweir Bridge, where G and A are waiting for us. The iron bridge makes an elegant low curve across the water, with metal latticework beneath and a tollhouse on […]
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 2: Chepstow to Bigsweir
After breakfast we wait for three more guestwalkers, J, G and A. It’s unusual to have as many as six in the group, and there can be drawbacks – losing members by accident on the way, for example – but it makes for a rich mix of character and conversation. We cross the old iron […]
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 1: Sedbury Cliffs to Chepstow
A couple of ancient carriages, probably scheduled to be replaced by Transport for Wales in the year 2030, rattle their way into Chepstow Station. One of the few adverts inside is for a useful sounding firm called Simple Cremations. As we get out it’s raining hard, and C and I dive into the station café […]
Steel mountain
For an early May walk the three of us are back here in Port Talbot, a town much in the news lately. First things first: coffee and serious cakes in a popular café, Selections, as fuel for a steep ascent. As always in Port Talbot, smiles and friendliness greet us. Then we wander across the […]
Walking with windmills
The Heart of Wales line train leaves me at the station in Ammanford. It’s still, sunny, and warm, the second day of summer time, with an extra hour of daylight walking. My plan is to cross Mynydd y Betws and Mynydd y Gwair and drop down the Lliw valley to Gowerton, completing the Gower Way. […]
Up the Ely river
Where we start happens to be in south Cardiff, but could be anywhere in the world in 2019. Apartments are stacked in Duplo’d piles, each block with a ‘concierge’ and a primary colour. Sheds, with metal roofs shaped in shallow arcs, are home to companies that shelter behind opaque titles, usually including the word ‘global’. […]
Dilyn Iolo
Bore mwyn, di-haul o Ionawr, a dyma bedwar ohonon ni’n cychwyn ar Daith Gerdded Treftadaeth Iolo Morganwg. Taith gylchol o ryw bedair milltir a hanner yw hon, un o gyfres o deithiau cerdded wedi’u dyfeisio gan Gyngor Bro Morgannwg, gyda help Valeways, Ramblers Bro Morgannwg a’r Undeb Ewropeaidd (cofio hwnnw?). Taith berffaith ar gyfer canol […]
M4+: a road to nowhere
Two public issues overshadow all others. That’s because doing little or nothing about them puts our own existence in danger. They are our own warming of the earth’s environment (anthropogenic climate change) and our destruction of life on earth (loss of biodiversity). Very soon Members of the National Assembly of Wales may be asked to […]
Indexing Gilbert White
Selborne, Hampshire. Why we’ve never been there before I don’t know. The village isn’t far from Winchester, familiar enough territory. It’s a bit off the beaten track, though a busy B road passes through the village, channelling noise and people through the narrow main street that would have been quiet in the mid-eighteenth century, when […]