Travels > The UK > Adventure Girls

Tue 22.9.2009 by Liz

Being on the road with Bron has been fun, but right now I'm feeling meh. I've been lame-i-fied by this lame king Arthur's Labrynth thing we went to. We thought it would be a bit lame, but we intended to make fun of it a bit to get our enjoyment from it, but it was even too lame to make fun of. And now I have the "meh's".

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To re-cap our journey, our trip began on Friday when we left London, perfectly navigated by Bron and headed to Bath - our first tourist stop. We entered Bath to see the residential streets looking like a continuous large wall with windows and doors in it. This is the first time I had seen all the houses blend into one large structure such as this.

After circling Bath for a few times we found somewhere to park and followed the sign to the Roman Baths. We toured the baths for a few hours and with the aid of our remote audio guides, we learned a few things about the baths and the Romans, such as "they" know the Romans thought of the earth as spherical due to an orb sculpture found in the ruins... yes, compelling evidence... ?

In the main bath room (for a lack of a better description) I had to bend down and touch the water, to the contrary of the many signs warning of health risks. Pft! It's only lead lined, I'll be fine... It was quite warm, closer to 40° than 30°. That's my kind of bath... except for the lead lining of course. (I can happily report no ill effects came from touching the water.)

We did miss our chance to taste the apparently horrible (or "acquired taste" as they put it) spring water for ourselves - not from the lead lined-lined pool of course but the "pumproom" where you taste it was closed by the time we made it through to the end. Oh well. I'll just have to taste vile water another time.

Onward we then went to stay in the country near Bath. Our first night in the van, and it worked well. We have enough room - or perhaps Bron was too polite to say she didn't. It was warm enough and we found our camping rhythm quickly. The next night would prove quite a bit colder. Brrr.

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We moved onto the city of Cardiff in Wales. Of course we picked the route that incurred a £10.00 toll to into Wales. Jack and I had previously entered Wales without a toll. I am happy to report the toll was worth it. Let's call it our tip to Wales for being so fun. :)

Cardiff - well, like any capital city, it's congested. Especially with the vast amounts of road works everywhere. We slowly inched our way into the city centre, trying to visually locate the castle, only to realise we were driving right next to its walls!

Accidently stumbling upon the parking lot, we parked and walked across the gardens to the castle. In the gardens we saw a couple of wedding parties and in the castle grounds a few more. T'was the day for Matrimony (with great weather who could blame them for taking advantage of it).

The guides of the castle were amusing and even humoured us as we went along playing the kids "Find the <sculpture or painting>" fun sheet. After the castle, I drearily dragged myself back to the car with Bron. I expended too much energy at the castle and now my backpack was weighing me down. We drove on to stay at a pretty caravan park where the night became VERY frosty. Brr.

In the morning, we were back on the road, letting the brown tourist signs tell us where to go. We followed signs directing us to a forest drive. Sure, we have no timeline, let's go the scenic way. Upon reading the "start" of the this forest drive (which we thought we were already on) we realised that we forgot to refuel and turned back (not that the toll to enter the forest drive had anything to do with it).

We refuelled and were back on the road, when Bron spotted a sign to Caerphilly castle, one I had already seen, but was on Bron's "to see" list. We took the turn-off and headed to Caerphilly, but alas, we arrived too late and the castle was already closed. Bron couldn't go for a good look around, but she did get up and through the gates due to a wedding going on and guests entering. I did get to see the castle in a new light, literally. It was lit up with huge flood lights, casting tungsten glows on its walls, something I didn't see at my last visit during the day.

After finally locating a pizza shop, we proceeded with our newly acquired dinner to a campsite we saw on our "forest drive" earlier. We assumed it would be too late to get into the campsite at this time, so we aimed for the picnic site not too far from the campgrounds. But alas, the picnic grounds had CCTV and "No overnight stay" signs all over the place, so back to the camp grounds we go.

Although the gate was shut, and visitor centre closed, we were able to open the gate ourselves and drive in for the night. We had to have a bit of luck on our side when it came to using the outlets though - combo lock. We kept an eye out when people were heading to the toilets so we can just get there coincidentally at the same time as combination knowers. Come morning, we drove away before the ranger was up and about. A free night, score! Onward to "The Big Pit" coal mine.

I first entered this attraction thinking I wasn't going to like it but left loving it. The tour, the guides, the museum were all outstanding and for free! The guides were all ex-miners and very funny. It made for a great amusing tour and fun day.

Going into the mine we each donned a hard hat and head lamps, which mine conveniently was eye level with Bron and I had no hesitation using it to my amusement. "Who do you work for...?" After the amusing mine tour (not just due to my head light shenanigans), we went to the museum and pit simulation exhibit. They were set up really good and were very interesting. I had no idea the Welsh miners have such pride in their work. Here, I always thought of it as a bad job no-one really wants to do. It was good to see the other side and open my eyes a bit.

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The next day or two we spent heading west to get to the coast, driving through what we dubbed "Fairy Forests" - due to them looking like those from a fairy tale illustration - and attempted to find a place to stay in Borth. Well, don't even get me started on Borth!

So, our mission: to find a campsite with a laundry as I was wearing the last of my clean clothes. So we consulted our book of campsites and picked a large tourist camp centre purely for the fact it was most likely to have a laundry. Well, that's when we discovered what it means to be Borthite...

borthite [bor-thihyt]

- adjective

• To be obnoxious, unhelpful and unwelcoming.

The first place was fully booked for touring pitches. "That's OK" we thought, "There have been heaps of campground signs". The next one we tried had no one at reception and felt "err" so we moved on before we tried to find a staff member. The train line running right across the entrance made us thinking we made the right decision o move on. We tried the little on down the hill, "No touring vacancies". Ok, next? The next one had a closed sign on reception and didn't even bother coming to the door when we rang the door bell even though we could hear them just inside the house.

"Fine!, We'll move on from this town then." As we made our way back from the coast into the forest again, the fairies must have cast their magic upon us because abruptly a park appeared over the hill, and as we pulled up, the owner was right there to help us out. No more running about and ringing doorbells that would go unanswered and we got a great site, for a great price and even a laundry! :D

And we were even directed to a nice pizza place for dinner. "Turn right at the clock tower.." of course at this point I tuned out as thoughts of "Save the clock tower, save the clock tower" entered my mind. And when driving to dinner, we see beneath this fore mentioned clock tower a banner stating "Save our tower!" I tried to take a photo but by this time we were running on cheap disposable cameras - Bron's camera's battery died and the charger was left behind in London - and these disposable don't do well at night.

The next day we started heading north up the coast some more and stopped at a small café to have a bite of lunch and figure out logistics of our next leg of travel. During lunch, we pondered that we might not have time to make it up to the north coast of Wales and back. Lunch turned a little sombre as we came to accept that we can't see everything. After studying the map in the car a little more, and realising "this ain't Australian distances we're talking about" we concluded we can make it up to Caernarfon and back in time. Yey!

We got into Caernarfon around 4:30pm. We wanted to see the castle but it shut at 5pm and the guard suggested it would be better to come back in the morning instead of rushing around to see it now. So, we concluded to find a camp nearby and return in the morning for casle walking.

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The castle was amazing! Lots of little tunnels and passages to walk down and through. Many towers to climb and great walls to walk along. 2 hours of "castling" and we headed back to the car to drive to Conwy for lunch - which turned out to be afternoon tea at a tea house. YUM!

We then made our way down toward Oxford and found a campground nearby. Apparently they were closed but us being two travel weary girls (aided by my dishevelled state of driving all day) they took pity on us and gave us a site to stay.

At Oxford, Bron and I parted ways; she, heading back to London via train for a farewell do and me to find some accommodation for two nights in Oxford while I do some research and get an apartment for Jack and I in London. I ended up finding some accommodation at a cute B&B, with the help of a tourist office. Turns out I get into Oxford on alumni weekend, or something. Apparently the time where the students are about to go to uni, and their parents all in town to see them set up. I was lucky to get somewhere to stay!

I did like Oxford. The whole town/city feels like a big uni. I heard people having academic discussions in cafés, eager students about to start another year and even saw a professor with the robe and all! It was funny to catch a documentary about Oxford on the radio as I drove back to London. Apparently unfriendly clashes between students and towns people in the thirteenth century led to the creation of Cambridge University.

Now I sit in a café back in London, biding my time until I meet up with Bron again, and trying not to worry about my logistical and accommodation woes. At least I have the van for the next two nights as my bed if all else fails.

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