We began the morning by trying to book accommodation for our final two nights in England, a stressful time as this would be weekend nights and located close to London and places we rang were fully booked.
Even a willingness to bend the budget in order to celebrate John’s birthday on the 23rd, didn’t seem to make a difference. Our local travel advisors suggested a luxury hotel in Gloucester called the Fosse Manor, but unfortunately it was already booked out for the weekend. Anyway with things still up in the air and a few phone numbers to yet to try, we set off in sunshine, to the north west coast of Wales.
The countryside, as we left Llangollen, of gentle hills and bushy vegetation close to the road, actually reminded me of New South Wales and I wondered if that was how our state came by its name. England with its manicured gardens and neat stone walls gives a sense of security and peace. Wales is much more natural and earthy.
As we headed west the countryside quickly changed from rolling hills to the steep rocky hills of the Snowdonia Mountain Range. We stopped at the Mt Snowdon railway with hundreds of others to try to catch a steam train up the side of the highest mountain in England & Wales and we would have had to wait 2 ½ hrs for an available seat. Since we had already paid four pounds ($10) for parking, we wandered around the town and enjoyed a simple lunch of fruit sitting beside the lake with the ducks and the swans harassing us for food.
We return to the car and head for the sea and the isle of Anglesey. There is not a lot to see on Anglesey but we have a destination in mind. On the other side of Anglesey is another island, a very small one, called Holy Island. We head for the small town of South Stack and a carpark that overlooks a lighthouse.
What we are looking for is a sign putting to some ‘hut circles’ and we found them!! I was very excited. “Hut Circles” you say, what on earth are they? They are circles of stones built as foundations for thatch houses built 2000-2500 years ago!! There are about 10 of them situated on top of a hill with a glorious view over the sea cliffs and the Irish Sea. And even though there were several cars in the carpark no one else was interested in them. We had the place to ourselves. What had led me to these hut circles? – well I have been reading for the 2nd time M Scott Peck’s book ‘In Search of Stones” which describes his touring around UK looking at ancient monuments and one of the places he visits is the hut circles. So they are exciting for two reasons 1) for being made so long ago and 2) I was walking in Scott Peck’s shoes!!
We also visit a bird watching tower which had a great view over the ocean. It overlooks cliffs where 4000 birds come and nest during summer.
In his book, Scott Peck also describes two “standing stones” from prehistoric times that are in the same area, but the directions are pretty vague and I don’t hold much chance of finding them as we drive up and down narrow lanes peering over the stone walls for any signs of enormous stones. Around a bend John suggests to chuck a left up a country lane and not far along we discover a sign pointing to the stones, through a farmer’s paddock and there they are, about 2 metres tall about 3 metres apart, unbelievable.
Whereas the hut circles are about 2000 years old, these stones are about 4000 years old, that is, the people who were living in the area 4000 years ago, erected these megaliths, for reasons we have no idea.
We reluctantly depart the Holy Island and its special places and head back to the mainland and the town of Caernarfon and its famous castle – it is enormous, but ugly and dreary and again a reminder of the history of war, so unlike the hut circles which were places of community and normal family life.
We are still aware we had some accommodation to book so we sought out a wireless hotspot to get on the internet, and shamefully I have to say – it was at McDonalds – our only visit to this fast food establishment so far!!. We finally booked accommodation for our last few nights, including a nice hotel with sea views in Worthing, which is close to Gatwick Airport so it is easy for our departure the next day.
From here we stayed close to the coast travelling to the town of Criccieth on the coast, the place of our B&B for the night. It also has its own castle – some beautiful ruins on a hill beside the beach, and it is blowing a gale!!
