Category: travel
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Snowdonia Slate Trail, day 2: Llanberis to Y Fron
Today’s a rare day: no waterproofs needed, and sun forecast for the afternoon. We set off from Llanberis and climb up the lane towards Waunfawr. On average, each day of the Trail crosses two watersheds, and this is the first of today’s two ascents. Sheep outnumber people by some margin, as usual. Their fleeces are…
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Snowdonia Slate Trail, day 1: Bethesda to Llanberis
I’ve had my eye on Llwybr Llechi Eryri, the Snowdonia Slate Trail, ever since it opened in 2017, and especially since two seasoned long-distance walkers, Eirlys Thomas and Lucy O’Donnell, told me in 2021 that it was one of the best long treks they’d ever tried. So the three of us, C1, C2 and I,…
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On the buses
A couple of weeks ago Transport for Wales invited people to come along to Swansea Bus Station to give their views on the routes that buses in the city should take, once TfW takes over full responsibility for decisions from the existing bus companies. We went along and had some interesting chats with TfW staff…
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Deep in Carmarthenshire
If you’re in love with green – I mean chlorophyll-saturated green, the lightest and deepest greens that nature can offer – there are fewer better places to find it than north-west Carmarthenshire. To wander through the fields and woods on the hills either side of the Tywi valley and its tributaries is to soak your…
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Against SUVs
A couple of weeks ago the campaign group Transport & Environment published a report explaining how the height of SUVs increases the risk of injury and death to pedestrians, especially children. It seems that the bonnet height of these vehicles is increasing by half a centimetre a year. High bonnets decrease the field of the…
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Cerddwyr coll: Seosamh Mac Grianna a Hamish Fulton
Profiad cyffredin ond anochel, on’d yw e? Yn syth ar ôl ichi gyhoedd llyfr, dych chi’n dod o hyd i themâu neu bobl fyddai wedi bod ynddo, heb amheuaeth, pe baech chi wedi clywed amdanyn nhw’n gynt. Dyna a ddigwyddodd yn ddiweddar ar ôl imi ddarganfod gwaith gan y llenor o Iwerddon, Seosamh Mac Grianna,…
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Beacons Way, day 8: Carreg Cennen to Bethlehem
The taxi arrives at the White Hart on the dot, and we set off from Llandeilo, on another fine morning, through Ffairfach and Trap to the farm car park at Castell Carreg Cennen. I thank Mr Teilo Taxis for his essential help, and he leaves for home and a day of painting his house, unless…
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Beacons Way, day 7: Llanddeusant to Carreg Cennen
The day’s started well: I’m travelling on one of my favourite railways, the Heart of Wales Line. The two-carriage train is dawdling and rattling its way towards Llangadog. The trick is to choose a seat on the left, and catch views of the coastal mudflats and Gower across the water. At Llanelli the train reverses,…
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An anatomy of early Welsh tourism
How many tourists visiting Wales today, I wonder, ever think about their early predecessors? I mean those who first arrived, in surprisingly large numbers, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. How many are aware that these travellers, rather than composing Instagram posts, blogs and TikTok videos, would most likely have busied themselves drawing…
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Beacons Way, day 6: Craig y Nos to Llanddeusant
After a comfortable night in the Penycae Inn I opt for the full breakfast, on the theory that yesterday’s fatigue was caused by lack of calories, and make an early start in the spring sunshine. Before the climbing starts there’s an hour-long ‘overture’ of flat walking. I cross the Tawe and retrace my steps along…