A Wale of a country

We had a great although moist time in Wales.

Joyce Walker knows Hay on Wye like a book

To escape the rain we went underground on a coal mine tour.

Lust 150 years ago a 6 year old boy would have worked the doors in complete darkness during 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week. If his family could afford a candle, he would leave it off most of the time to conseve it. By all accounts the horses were treated much better than the people.

We met up with Joyce Walker who put us up, dried my socks with the hot water tank and made enough sandwiches to last us the next 6 weeks. She was delightful. We had a great time exploring Hay on Wye a cute town where every other store sells books. I had an amazing run along the canal and have resolved to come back and boat it at a later date.

Just how many of these can we take in a year?

You have to have alot of respect for the town marketing manager who 1,200 years ago said to the mayor "you know I bet if we change our town name to some gibberish 58 letters long I forsee a day when tourist will flock to this place in buses and they'll buy anything with our name on it". As we did.

The driving here has been stressful to say the least. Not only are we travelling on the `wrong` side of the road, but the roads are incredibly narrow with absolutely no shoulder as massive stone walls rise up from the edge of the road. Some roads are so tight that two cars can not pass and there are strategically placed little pull-outs always in the right place for one car to take cover. Deb's level of comfort is threatened when her side of the car is less than 3 inches from the fence. I often turn my rear view mirror in, as you see dangling mirors everywhere from mirror to mirror collisions. The ettiquette is to continue driving if they collide while jousting on the motorway. The route finding is also challenging with tons of roundabouts that don't announce the direction of a road, but the next small town which always seems to start with 2 L's followed by up to 56 letters.

Ll...That's Quinn way down there 58 letters away

Portmeirion the bizarre master plan

The Big Pit coal mine