Explore Britain with me...

Thank you for joining me. My journey has only just begun (September 2014). I will be travelling around the coast of Britain over the coming years. I hope to see all the coastline and much of the interior. I am going anticlockwise and randomly started at the Dyfi Estuary, one of the most beautiful parts of Wales that I already knew, overlooked by the most beautiful mountain Cadar Idris. I am looking forward to seeing and recording all sorts of things. My own passion extends to wildlife, geology, scenery, history, architecture and I am interested to meet people and see the communities and towns that I pass. I have read different accounts on the length of the coast and it varies enormously, but at its extreme could be as much as 37000km, taking into accurate measurements and including all the islands. I don't think that's feasible, but much probably is! I suspect Ill use a combination of foot power, bikes and busses if I am to do it all. Perhaps I can use boats too and maybe even swim a bit.

Friday, 12 June 2015

National Botanic Garden of Wales and Carreg Cennen Castle

Tuesday 2nd June
National Botanic Garden of Wales and Carreg Cennen Castle





The next day was just too windy too walk so I headed to the National Botanic Garden of Wales for my first visit,  I was impressed by parts, especially the large single span glasshouse, filled with plants from all over the world.   There were a few ideas to take away from the vegetable gardens.  Somehow the gardens all looked to new and didn’t inspire me a great deal.  The displays of stumps of African rainforest trees actually offended me. Whilst I could see that the message of deforestation was being portrayed, transporting such huge objects is hardly environmentally sound.  The same message could have been portrayed with storm up rooted trees from nearby.



At the eastern end of the Black Mountains lies Carreg Cennen. Carreg Cennen is my favorite castle and I was really pleased to have the chance to visit it again, even in high winds.  Best of all is the tunnel underneath for which I had taken a torch.  No one knows what the tunnel is really for. The first part descends steps and then a slope and has windows cut into the cliff the castle sits upon.  Further on it becomes a conventional tunnel, winding ever deeper beyond the castle






.  At the end I turned my torch off just to experience the darkness and silence. Only drips of water could be heard. As I climbed back up the noise of the wind gradually grew and grew.   After I looked in at the adjacent long house, which is older than the castle.  Here next to the animals up to 18 people lived in one small room.

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