Wales Day Trip

Last weekend (5 August 2006) we hitched a ride with a workmate of mine, Phil Drew (from Canada). Phil's girlfriend was back in Canada for a while, so we kept him company for the day as we checked out what Wales had to offer. Wales is only about 20 mins drive from Bristol, but there is a five pound toll on the bridge (only have to pay one way thankfully). Our fist port of call was at Chepstow, which contains among other things, the Chepstow Castle, which is around 1000 years old and still in very good condition.

Chepstow Castle from the Entrance



One of the many long drops in the Castle. Just sit down on the metal bars and let it drop into the river (that passes along one side of the Castle) to be taken away downstream. Great Sanitation!




These give you an idea of the sheer cliff face the Castle was built on for a great defensive position. The water level rises and falls up to 5m a day! Supplies could also be hoisted up by rope from boats in the river to the Castle above. The river is near the mouth entering the sea (near Wales/England border), hence affected by rising tides.


More impressive stonework within the Castle

Lunch after the Castle visit was at the local bakery enjoying some traditional Cornish Pasties which they make very well over here.


Typical Welsh lane for horses and people only not wide enough for cars!

That afternoon we drove to Tintern Abbey. In this small town, contains an old Cistercian Abbey that dates back to 1131, much of it in ruins. After paying to go into the previous Castle, we were happy just to walk around the outside and save on the entry fee - yes we are tight a*s aussies after all.


And my first pay cheque had not come through still so we were still living off Aussie dollars converted to Pounds.


Tintern Abbey main street (the only street pretty much) lined with cliffs and houses on one side, river on the other side.


There was not too much else we felt like doing that afternoon, so we took some back roads and got lost, partly due to the lack of signage on the roads in Wales, but eventually found our way to a spot I located on the map which was the location of Harolds Stones. These three oblong stones were in a small grassed field accompanied by sheep resting in the shade. The significance of these stones is not known but we checked them out nonetheless.



Its starting to fall over....!!!!!


On the way back we finished the afternoon off with local beer/Guinness back at Chepstow enjoying the views of the Chepstow Castle from our bench in the Pub gardens.

The toll bridge on the way back to Bristol.

Big Thanks to Phil for a great day in our first Country outside of England.





And Here is a photo of Phil. Cheers.