Great Britain Travel Blog 1

In May, before we left for Great Britain, I was scurrying around  like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to do all the impossible things before we departed. I told myself, "my life is too complicated...I need to simplify things when I get home! " Little did I know how that was going to apply during Summer 2019, but in the mean time I really want to record at least the beginnings of our travel adventures to Wales and England. I loved it! I had a wonderful time. I can't wait to go back. I am a very lucky person to get to go.

We actually were scheduled to leave SFO on 5/6/2019 and arrive the evening of 5/7/2019 in Wales, but things happened to delay us (and make us stronger!) and we did not actually step foot into England until late-night on 5/8/2019 and we got to Wales on the morning of 5/9/2019.  And from there, my paper journal (which I am so glad that I forced myself to keep up with) begins...

Thursday May 9, 2019
Last night we flew from London Heathrow into Manchester airport and we got our room in at the Manchester airport hotel sometime around midnight. The kind shuttle driver was cheerful to come and pick up just us standing out in the cold at the airport and took us to our hotel, where we were welcomed as if it were 12 noon instead of 12 midnight. Ahhh. A shower and bed.

Thursday morning, we picked up our rental car, a Vauxhall crossover which was quite comfortable. We had made arrangements to meet Claire and Elgar at Chester Services, which is a wonderful place to stop for everything you might need while traveling. Finally we made it to Wales! It was everything I expected, and so much more.

Winding our way along roads that got smaller and narrower as we drove further into the valley where Elgar told me has lived most of his life, everything was as I had seen in pictures and videos. It is a very peaceful place to be. It was very green with stone walls, endless fields of sheep, and not an LGD in sight. That was hard to get used to! Hedges between fields, are kept neatly and some are very tall! We also saw lots of laid hedges.

Field of Welsh Mountain sheep near Llanarmon, DC, in Wales

We picked up food at a tiny shop and then proceeded on to the Jones' farm where we stayed in a brand new caravan on the farm. It was perfect. We walked up the road to stretch our legs, to the Berwyn Barns, which is a 5-star self-catering accommodation. The Berwyn Barns is in a wonderful setting just above a running creek. There were more sheep, ewes, and lambs everywhere- mostly Welsh Mountain breed, but a few mules here and there. Everything was so green and the roads were so narrow. There is barely enough room for two small cars. My Chevy pickup would be too massive! I kept channeling Jill as I knew she would find this place to be paradise. There was no mobile service. It felt like a restorative retreat.

Everyone wanted to show us their dogs, which of course we were most happy to oblige! I loved watching all the different dogs on our trip.  Most of the Welsh dogs that we saw were worked ultra quietly, on the softest voice and whistle, and so patiently. I fell in love with their dogs, mostly rough coated. Many of the sets of farm dogs are on separate sets of whistles so that they can be run together on the hill for farm work, as well as for trialling in the brace competitions.  The lines they have developed are dogs that fit their own particular farm work and as such, not overly flanky and wide for use on the hill.  Claire also worked Briar at everyone's request. They liked Briar.

In the evening, Gloria, Claire and I went to The Hand in the village for a delicious pub dinner in front of a massive old fireplace. It was rainy and cold outside...but warm and cosy inside, and I loved all of it. What a great day it was, and it was more than worth all of the patience that it took to get us there!

The Hand

In our lodgings (caravan) in Wales

View outside our lodgings in Wales

A building that caught my eye in a tiny village in Wales