Cardiff to Crickhowell

It’s been a while. I took a trip.

For eight days I was in Wales with my sister. She drove from London while I flew to Cardiff. I’ve been back for a week now and, despite some life stuff going on, I’ve been in decent form. Holidays really are restorative. It wasn’t just what we did while we were in Wales, but how being there made me feel.

First, the trip.

London Sister planned it all, as she’s good at that sort of thing, and knowing that, I was confident it would be a good plan. We met in Cardiff and drove to a village in the Brecon Beacons where we stayed at the Kestrel Inn, a former coaching inn believed to be more than 200 years old. We were sleeping in a building that has welcomed travellers since the coaching era. I’m willing to bet the beds we slept in were a vast improvement on those offered in the late eighteenth century!

When I complimented our host, Richard, on how comfortable they were, he let us into the secret: the mattresses came from John Lewis. Despite the heat, we slept like logs. There’s nothing quite like thick stone walls for keeping a room cool during a heatwave.

We caught the tail end of the hot weather in Wales, and the day we climbed Crug Hywel (Table Mountain) was still very warm. It was a tough walk, especially at the beginning and again near the end. I hadn’t done a proper hike in ages, but I reminded myself that Mammy had climbed Slemish well into her seventies, and that this was a similar elevation to our own local hill. And in addition, our host told us that his Mum had climbed it recently and she in her eighties! 

Even so, I was exhausted when we made the top for the last half hour had been quite a scramble. But, as promised, the views were excellent and to make things even better, there were early bilberries to scoff and a small herd of mountain ponies to watch. 

So we descended, which was thankfully much easier than the climb up, returned to the inn, got changed and headed out for a walk around Crickhowell, then dinner.* Then it was back to those wonderfully comfortable beds for a second night.

The next morning we said goodbye to Richard and continued our journey. A good start to the holiday. Next stop Dolgellau.

*Food excellent, service abominable disappointing.