My memory of the Greyhound Inn at Llangynllo (from when I did Glyndwr's Way 9 years ago) was that it looked derelict but wasn't, it was a building site inside, it only had bottled beer and the jukebox was free and leaned towards heavy rock. Very little had changed. It wasn't a building site but the jukebox was there - still free and still HEAVY!!!
I'd spent a good half hour sitting in the corner cynically contemplating the pub's doomed future when I began to realise that the atmosphere was far better than anywhere I'd been so far. I had a chat with the couple who owned it and they laughed about the 'building site' visit. What they'd done was not a refurb, but they'd cleaned it up into its original state.
There was a scouse couple at the bar; they had accommodation booked in the area but couldn't find it so they were getting pissed instead, and none of the locals could pinpoint where they were supposed to be staying. I was given a pot of free mixed nuts and served beer at my table. The scouse couple bought everyone in the pub a drink (about a dozen of us). The gents toilet was outside with the urinal in full view of the houses next door. They didn't have wifi, didn't take credit cards and didn't serve food. They probably are doomed, and it's a real shame because the evening was a hoot.
The Greyhound. It almost looks like a pub at night. ROUND THE BACK!
The landlady at the B&B had said that they didn’t do packed lunches, then said she could do me a cheese and tomato sandwich, then presented me this morning with what looked like two complete packed lunches. Two individually wrapped sandwiches, two biscuits and two pieces of fruit. After checking that there weren’t two of me I gratefully accepted and promptly split them into today’s lunch and tomorrow’s lunch. Today's was delicious btw.
On paper this looked like the toughest day of the walk, and it would have been if it weren’t for the weather on day one. I’d planned my own route (so I only had myself to blame!) so that I could walk over Radnor Forest (it’s a 660m mountain, with a forest on part of it obvs), an area that I didn’t know at all.
In a nutshell the route was Llangynllo, Bleddfa, Radnor Forest, (just south of) Llandegley, Llandegley Rocks, Some Other Hills, Llandrindod Wells. The descent to Bleddfa was a pain as the path on the map was nowhere to be seen. The ascent of Radnor Forest was a pain because, well, coniferous forests are. Everything else was great fun. The moorland on top of Radnor Forest (the part with no trees on obvs) was as moory as a moor could be. Llandegley Rocks were strangely exciting and gave me a few scrambling opportunities. Some Other Hills went pleasantly up, down, up, down, up, down, then less pleasantly up, down, up, down, up, down so I went round the last few.
The mooriest of moors. Radnor Forest (not the part with the trees obvs).
Radnor Forest (note trees on skyline!) from Llandegley Rocks.
And still no rain. It was clearly raining further to the west but not where I was. Today was a no rain, no sun, grey sky day. Also the average temperature was 17°C, which was pathetic compared with what I’ve come to expect.
I’m never sure whether I like Llandrindod Wells or not, and considering the number of times I’ve been here I really should have made up my mind by now. It reminds me of Llandudno without the sea, which makes sense as they were both popular Victorian resorts (Llandrindod is a spa town), but like Llandudno it seems a bit run down. It does though have a good restaurant called Fabian's Kitchen that Jen and I went to a couple of years ago. If it's still there and not full I might give it a whirl. Talking of Jen, she's meeting me in Builth Wells tomorrow evening to do a day's walk with me and check my sanity levels.
Finally today though I need to have a moan about bilingualism gone mad. It now seems that every single sign in Wales needs to be bilingual, to the extent that places that I've always known in Welsh now have English names I'm sure they never used to have, and vice versa. An example of the latter that always gets me is approaching Welshpool, where you get the option of visiting Welshpool / Y Trallwng, Oswestry / Croesoswallt or Shrewsbury / Amwythig. If there's a job going somewhere to invent translated names that didn't previously exist I'd love it. I was reminded of this yesterday in Llangynllo which, when translated into English is Llangunllo. This strikes me not as a translation at all, but an attempt to show English people how you are supposed to pronounce it in Welsh. Though saying 'll', both of them, is another skill entirely!
Now what?!
Saying "ll" is easy -- it is the sound your cat makes just before it is about to spit up... :) (Says the American who works in Llanelli...)
ReplyDelete