ONGOING: No. 7: 50k/Miles of Weatherman Walks - No. 3 - Cardiff Bay

 

I'm doing really well with moving on with a lot of ongoing, long term challenges but the one which is furthest behind so far is No.7 - Weatherman Walks: 50 miles of Derek Brockway Welsh hikes.  No particular reason for this, just had other things to do at weekends, particularly now the football season has started again.  So, with Stewart taking a couple of days off work this week I decided to join him today and we agreed we'd go out another Weatherman's Walks.

Today we'd be doing the only urban one of Derek's Weatherman Walking hikes, the Cardiff Bay and Barrage circular hike, 5 miles today, bringing my ongoing total up to 15 miles so far.  Unfortunately, Derek's weathermen colleagues got the forecast for today completely wrong - it peed down the entire time we were out walking and we have ended exceedingly damp and steaming!?  Still, we'd said we do the walk today, we knew which restaurant we wanted to finish up in for tea so off we set trying to ignore the rain and the wind.

The actual start point for the Barrage walk is in Penarth but we decided to ignore that bit and started in the Bay and by point No.9 on the route - Roald Dahl Plass.  For those not from Cardiff this is the central point of the Bay with the Millennium Centre and the Senedd (Welsh Government building) and close to the restaurant area.   As it was a circular walk it was easy to start and end here.  Thankfully, I was able to kill two birds today as I am also currently hunting down Cardiff snow dogs and there were a LOT along this route.

From the central point in the Bay, we walked past all the restaurants, past Ianto's shrine (only really makes sense if you are in to Torchwood - filmed in Cardiff just like Dr Who is)

 

and on past St Davids Hotel, and Techniquest to the start of an area we've never been to before, the Cardiff Wetland Area Reserve.

It was very pretty, though the weather was awful by now, but there were birds about, it felt very peaceful and it did have lovely views across the Bay - well I'm sure they would be lovely on any other day when it wasn't chucking it down but at we tried to use our imaginations.

 

We carried on, heading towards Penarth, walking past the ice rink, the swimming pool and Cardiff Whitewater Rafting centre.  The weather was becoming bloody horrible by now.

Heading from the Wetlands Centre over to Penarth we came across this sculpture, it must have been fairly recent as Derek didn't mention it in his Weatherman Walking route -but then again, there was a lot of new building works we passed which have sprung up since he did his original walk.  Anyway, I've just looked this sculpture up online and it's called A Personal View.  I just liked it because I could take selfies of me and me!

Still, if we wanted to get back to Cardiff Bay train station there was only one way now.  Across the Barrage.   Completely open to the elements - the wind, the peeing down rain and the cold.   Thankfully it either wasn't as bad when we walked the barrage, or, we were so numb and damp that we no longer felt the cold. 

Because of the weather, it almost felt fitting when half way across we came across an exhibit about Captain Scott - there because apparently they set off for the South Pole from Cardiff.  Though by this point the wind had died down, it had stopped raining and we were nearly at the end of the walk in any case.   We got back to the main part of Cardiff Bay, caught the train back to Queen Street and we could go for a meal in Stewart's favourite chain restaurant Café Rouge feeling that we had earned the right to stuff our faces.   It would have been nice to do this walk in decent weather och well, cest la vie.

ONGOING: No.7: 50k/miles of walking - No.2 of Weatherman Walks - Dyffryn Gardens

We went for our second official 'Weatherman Walks today and it was a gorgeous 6 mile circular walk roundabout the village of Dyffryn in the Vale of Glamorgan. This was mostly a flat walk with no real incline or hills.  It was described as being 5.7 miles, of moderate difficulty and to allow 3 hours - we did come in way under and had plenty of time to relax and explore at the interesting bits.

Thankfully the weather stayed dry which is the main thing really.  Was dressed in fleece and waterproof and quickly had to discard both cos it was still quite muggy.  Summer in Wales this year has been pretty crap to be honest - it hasn't been 'bad' but we've never been able to trust what the weather will be so you've always got to go ready for heat, for rain and for cold - all at the same bloody time!!!!!

So, the walk starts at the National Trust property of Dyffryn Gardens which we haven't yet visited properly - will do soon, promise.  The walk which Derek 'the Weather' Brockway follows is a section of the 65 miles Millennium Heritage trail.  It was fairly easy to be honest, with it being in the Vale we knew it would be pertty flat.  That's not to say we didn't find obstacles of sheep in our way, cows in our ways, bramble ridden paths etc etc.  But it was SO pretty to start with:

First major point of interest was a Neolithic burial ground, Tinkinswood.  In actual fact, this burial chamber is one of the oldest and largest prehistoric monuments in Wales - from 5000 years ago which is properly mind boggling.

So after the burial chamber we kept along through the vale heading to the village of St Nicholas which is described as being like a 'chocolate box' village.  Not sure I'd agree with this description, it was really pretty but no shops and no pubs and no castle!!!!   Nah, it was nice, but certainly not 'chocolate box picture perfect'.   It does however have an example of the best 'post-war council housing in Wales'.  Coming from council housing in Scotland I'd actually argue this is/was the best council housing ever!  Anywhere!  Really gorgeous wee street.  There were folk outside when we took these photos and they were definitely bemused and curious about us.  But what the hell, I'm a council house person and was just looking from an interested socio-anthropological point of view :)

In this wee village there is also an 11th century church - which is always going to be impressive - and it does also have a lychgate.  The village also has one of the oldest police stations - in the vale! I thought this was going to be really historic as in maybe one of the oldest police stations 'anywhere' but no, only really in this area.  The 'funny' thing, Derek thought was that some 'wag' found it funny to alter the painting from 'police' to 'old'. Hahaha?  No, I didn't actually find it that funny.  Not as funny as some of Derek's weather predictions that's for sure!

After this village, we pretty much headed in to the home straight which was mainly through across fields and through farms.  Of course you always stick to obvious paths.  If farmers allow you through their land you should always be respectful and cause least disruption.  We're used to going through farms when out walking but must admit I was a weeeeee bit scared and intimidated by one field we went through where the resident cows were just maybe a little too curious!  They behaved impeccably and are gorgeous creatures but still....they can a be a teensy bit intimidating.

So, on to the home straight - apologies for the length of this blog!?  Thought it would be a fairly boring description of an easy walk - didn't realise I'd want to post so many photos and stuff.  Anyways, after surviving the walk past the cows and through the fields of wheat which kind of reminded me of a horror flick, the name of which I don't quite have to mind we headed towards the end of the walk only to stumble upon our second! neolithic burial chamber - who'd have thunk it!!!!