Thursday September 14, 2006

A week in Ceredigion ( Part Two )

The other lovely thing about this area is there are lots of local shops. No big supermarkets. People stop as they do their shopping to speak to each other. Lets hope this way of life remains somewhere in the UK always. Our flat was part of a house owned by someone who was actually born in the house. She inherited the house when her mother died and now rents the half she does not live in. Our third walk had us back on the coast starting by a village called Llangranog. We past along a wooded ridge and came out to open land where a centre for Welsh youth has been setup. It provides courses and activity holidays for thousands of visitors annually and was setup in 1932, The place is called the Urdd Centre. We then joined the coast and went uphill for our first view of Ynys-Lochtyn.

This is a pretty piece of land that juts out from the coast. It used to have a Puffin population but these were wiped out by rats that landed from wrecked ships. To encourage the birds back concrete Puffins have been setup on the coastline. Singing on the beach by the promontory is meant to have been the inspiration for Edward Elgar to write Introduction and Allegro for strings. We then took a path down to the village where a beachside cafe supplied us an excellent lunch and a short walk back to the car.

Our next walk had us take an inland walk to Aberarth on a day where a light drizzle could be felt. We carried on following a path on our first walk along the river before taking an alternative path. We were now in open in rolling hills and the rain responded by coming down heavily. In the distance St David's church came into view the only sound breaking the silence was someone cutting the grass with a landmower. It takes more than a drop of rain to stop a Welshman cutting the grass.

Past the church we then dropped into the village where there is no pub or shop to stop for a break so it was onto the beach to follow it back to the town of Aberaeron. This we did getting wetter and wetter but back at the flat we dried off and headed to the local gold mine.

This mine at Dolaucothi is the only known Roman gold mine in the UK, the Victorians also used it and then in modern times. We had an excellent tour into the mine. The gold was found in quartz which was found in seams in the rock. Something like sixty tons of rock yielded one ton of quartz which yielded a sugar cube of gold. The only Welsh gold available now is in reserves and has been used for wedding rings of the Royal family over the years. Years ago children worked the mines sorting in darkness the quartz from the bedrock using their own urine to sanitise their hands when they were cut by the sharp quartz.

Outside an area was set aside so you could do your own Gold Panning all we found was fools gold! Last part tomorrow.