In December 2005 I discovered some photographs from our earliest trips in the T3 when we went to the South West of England and to North Wales........... You'll soon see why on longer trips I started to make notes - there's very little detail which I can recall five years after the event! Contributors to three VW forums have helped to provide information for some of the locations.
On out way down we'd dropped off Will and Stobb near to the Glastonbury Festival site. (I'm ashamed to say that they went to a pub, found some dodgy dudes and paid £20 to be smuggled into the site whilst covered by boxes in the back of a van).
Our first campsite had been near Taunton, Somerset. Here's the second near to Widemouth (that's Widmuth) Bay.
New shorter hair, new-ish baggy pants and completely new-to-us van.
| St Michael's Mount.
As soon as we saw these photographs again we both agreed that we certainly liked and possibly even preferred the van in white! Well, at that stage the beastly rust stains had hardly had time to come through. |
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| Yes, alright, I was pretending to light a fire. Chysauster, (kiz-oyster, 'shy saucer', 'shyster' or however you want, I guess). | ||
| Near Hayle.
Here, when my grandfather wasn't having exciting cycling adventures in Switzerland, my grandparents used to holiday. |
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The holed stone in conjunction with the other two standing stones may also have been used as an astronomical device for solar cycles, or a symbolic site in fertility rites (you'll be surprised to read, no doubt!). Also known as the Crick Stone, the name Men an Tol is derived from the Cornish and means literary stone of hole and it's being argued whether or not the three stones are a site in themselves or part of a burial chamber or a stone circle. Folklore has it that similar healing properties to the <<<< Long Stone in the Parish of Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire. Known locally as the "holey stone", this slab of limestone stands nearly 8 feet high with a thickness of about 18 inches. Believed to be the last surviving fragment of a long barrow chamber, the stone has two holes in it through the larger of which mothers would pass their children to cure them of whooping cough or rickets.
<<<< (Stolen image), The Long Stone runs around the field when it hears the town clock striking midnight in nearby Minchinhampton . One Friday teatime long ago I was born in the then new Stroud Maternity Hospital and kept there for a flippin' fortnight before being whisked back home to Hyde, Chalford, near Minchinhampton. I've no problem believing in the running stone and if anyone even suggests that it might be untrue, I'll fight them in the playground, just see if I don't. |
Lanyon Quoit is a very impressive structure, but not a true historical representation. Originally it was taller, of sufficient height for a horseman to sit below the capstone which had a circumference of 47 feet, (before a piece broke off) and an average thickness of 20 inches but unfortunately it collapsed in 1815. These were re-erected in 1824 but were not put back into their original position. Quoits (aka dolmens or cromlechs), were probably covered by a mound. The capstone may have been left showing above the mound, together with an entrance for religious ceremonies. Over the millennia the soil has been removed either by natural processes or for stone for building elsewhere. Just by looking at the ordinance survey map one can see there are other prehistoric sites in close proximity to the quoit. Nearby on private land are the remnants of West Lanyon Quoit.
We arrived at the Welsh border in 1hr 15mins. It took us that long again to get to Betws-y-Coed via the Conwy valley.
The estuary was bursting all over with heavy rain and melt water.
Looking for just the half-price fleece jacket which Jo had been dreaming of, in Betws we "did" five outdoor shops, but no joy. I had to buy a half-price kite instead and we didn't find any wind without rain, so it didn't get tested. It has two strings and looks like a hang glider.
Swallow Falls were roaring and raging and ten times more impressive than I'd ever seen them.
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With slightly better weather in sight off to the west we topped Pen y Gwryd and the views opened up like the Promised Land! A wet version of it.
Down in Beddgelert I chatted with a "Bay Window" owner from Hertfordshire, who was running the excellent village shop. (A Bay Window is a VW Type 2, T2, the second generation of the Transporter).
I thought perhaps he'd been talking about his restoration project for too long. It sounded like a very major undertaking. (150304: We saw him again. He recognized our van straight away).
He had built a shelter under which to do the work and has made a start on the restoration).
We bought Jo's fleece at Y Warws, but not in a sale! (The English language is a total mongrel, of course, but you'd think the Welsh would have their own word for Warehouse, wouldn't you?
Update 210809 from a Welsh person: "Y Warws Beddgelert as it was called 'then' is a light-hearted piss-take of an Inglish name.... started off as Warws Beddgelert brand of outdoor material and built it's fame in North Wales by producing outdoor gear for farmers, (wellingtons!), expanded to pacamac-type products in the 70s while at same time producing a marvellous cinema advert that entertained a couple of generations in this part of the world. (You had to be there!!). Now employing hundreds, it still has its store in Beddgelert and recently built a new HQ in Portmadoc - rebranded its name to Gelert and deals with dozens of different countries for its supplies)."
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The Forest Enterprise campsite set in native birch and oak woodland amongst the foreign conifers at Beddgelert is first rate (and I can say that despite having managed to bend the nearside end of the back bumper while reversing around an invisible tree stump there). They say that most collisions occur within 3 miles of home. Well, mine happened within 3 inches (our 2nd home being, "where I park it").
The moon came up over a bristling pine ridge to the south, the stars came out, the clouds came back and it rained again all in 15mins. <<<< Food, Scrabble & wine. Our oil-filled radiator struggled personfully in the uninsulated van. |
Day 2:
We were away at 11am in 50:50 sun and rain. We went to Porthmadog and visited Cob Records. (I used to buy or exchange secondhand LPs with them in the 70s).
There's a £0.05 toll on The Cob where, when I queried the cost, a local geezer, revelling in being a "character", suggested we photograph the inscribed-on-slate list of tolls.
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Portmeirion, (which in January is even less like Italy). We had lunch there in the Town Hall.
Hey, Buddha Fingers! |
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We took the B road into Harlech. Surely it is the very best looking Welsh castle.
Stopping for more photographs, I pulled into an invisible ditch, from which, with the van leaning increasingly to port, we had to scrabble out in 2nd with mud flying.
The Shell Island campsite was all closed up, but it looks good and duney. We saw an egret in the estuary there. Later I e-mailed the RSPB and was surprised to be told that egrets aren't rare in this area.
6,000 to 4,000 yrs old, the superb twin-chambered burial cairn (behind the school) at Dyffryn Ardudwy.
Barmouth looked slightly naff, in a cute sort of way, but the Mawddach estuary is beautiful (unlike the nuclear power station at Trawsfynydd which we passed. I've been told that it's been closed down, but it's still an obscenity in every way.
The B4410
through Rhyd is a highly recommended up-and-downer.
Day 3:
There were sheets of rain across Snowdon. (Phew, that's another day with minimal exercise).
We drove over the pass and down to Llanberis, to Bangor (don't bother, I suggest), into Llandudno and on to Great Orme, which I do suggest is compulsory especially if you'd enjoy a one-way circumnavigation of limestone cliffs. We're definitely going back when the copper mines are open.
A westerly whizz along the A55 and M56 and with the hightop we took full advantage of an exciting tailwind.
To quote those nasty multi-national sweatshop traders -
Just do it!
And don't wait for better weather.
