Got up from the bed around 4.30 AM (with just around 4 hrs of sleep thanks to Naresh's send off night). Packed up all the stuff remaining to be packed and off we went to the Hounslow west station to take the 6.30 AM Piccadilly service to Earls court.

As the the four musketeers came out of the Earl's court station, we were greeted by a good looking welsh girl with a charming smile (Claire, that’s you..). We were then introduced to Dan (finally we put a face to the voice we were interacting for the past 2 weeks). More on Dan and Claire as we go about on this virtual trip. In the next 20 minutes the van was ready to go with all the trip-mates (Indians, South Africans, Aussie, Swiss..what a mix).

After a couple of hours on the motorway from London where Claire gave us all a bit of a primer on Welsh language (Boy, pretty tough on your throat) and their culture, we hit the Big Pit National mining museum located in a town called Blaenafon. This was a coal mine operational till it got shutdown sometime in the 80s.



We were taken down the underground coal mine more than 90 ft below ground with the miner's kit around us and the guide who took us was a miner in this very coal mine before it got shut and converted into a museum. We could see and understand how a coal mine functions and the typical work day of a miner. The way the air supply (using air doors) is handled, maintaining horses in underground stables and the methane detection techniques were fantastic. The best part was that there was no entrace fee for it. My only regret was that they do not allow you to carry camera underground due to fire and safety reasons :-(



The next place to visit was the Aberfan memorial of the tragic event of 100s of innocent school children and few adults died due to a slid of coal wastes piled up on the mountain above this small village. Many of the graves of these were very touching..Clare and Dan explained how the village missed a particular generation of people for years to come.






With the first part of the day with minimal activity, the time had come for us to sweat it out a bit. We hit the Brecon Beacons National Park where we had our lunch and post lunch went trekking the Pen y Fan mountain (Its the highest mount in South Wales). It was awesome to see the beauty of nature around and we trekked for around 3 1/2 hours. Clare had trekked along with us and made sure we were on the right track. In her own words, she acted like a "shepherd" (not that we were like sheeps).









Dan had meanwhile driven the van to the place the trek would end and walked up to see us when we were around 200 meters to the end of the trek.




After the trek, all we wanted was get back home soon and crash. The first one did happen in around an hour when we reached the "Pentre Farm" in a small welsh village, Llanfair Clydogau. This was a beautiful farm run by Dan's relatives. Its about 40 mins drive from Cardiff. It boasts a fantastic view of the countryside with lush greenery around. We had reached the place around 6.30 and were shown our rooms. All four of us were put in a large room. We then relaxed for a couple of hours in the farm drinking juice and trying to imitate the sound of the sheep.


Additional sheds in the farm










It was dinner time and Dan's father had prepared vegetable Lasagna for us vegetarians. Truly, this was one the best Lasagna i have ever tasted (need to get Dan to send the recipe..). After dinner, went back to our room and had a long session of playing cards. We then had a round of arguments as to who should get up first and what should we eat for breakfast. After both these issues were resolved, had a very sound sleep with the alarm set for 5.30 am the following day.zzzzz.....

Continued here

Labels: Outings