South Wales Tour 2005 Part 1 - Heart of the Valleys

*Note: Advisable to have a cup of tea around*

Because there are toooooo many photos to show, & tooooo much things to blog abt, I shall divide it into parts. Can't believe that I took 100+ photos in just 2 days...gosh...but 98% of the pics don't have me cos I was alone (the disadvantage). I can't possibly load every pic up here, so only relevant ones are posted. Click the pics if u want a bigger view :)

3 tours in total, but I only went for 2 cos I realised that my aching shoulder's draining lots of my energy away. I shall do the 3rd tour another time.

It was a lovely Friday morning in Cardiff & I was aaaaallllll set to go on my tour ard South Wales. Happily went to buy sandwiches before I set off just in case I have to eat in some valley/mountain without any restaurant.

Pickup point: National Museum & Gallery, Cardiff

Love its architectural structure. It's located close to where I'm living currently (moving out already though), the main University campus (but not the medical school...SHUCKS!), the beautifully built City Hall where all the big functions are held in, & the city centre.

Here is my tour minibus:

A new company, & the only one with day trip excursions. Tour guide's friendly too. What a waste..forgot to take a pic with him. His uniform reminds me of the staff at a safari..haha..cute.

Map showing various points the minibus will be stopping:

Can you imagine how BIG Wales is? And it's still smaller than England...what the..!!! What you see in the pic is JUSSSSTTTTTTT the southern part of Wales.
Red dot: Cardiff
Green dot: Destinations for the tour (part 1)

First Stop

Situated in Blaenafon, Torfaen (don't ask me how to pronounce the word..it's Welsh)
Wales used to be a mining ground for iron. However, soon they realised that iron's not the best trade to be in, and coal seems to be more profitable, hence, iron mining was stopped and was converted to coal mining instead. The Big Pit is one of the mines used before.

Train's for transport of Coal, & the big wheel handling the internal lift which will be bring me 300ft underground to see what life is like for thousands of men, women & children (yup..kids) who worked at the coal face. In the past, there isn't such a thing called a lift. Workers go underground by standing in a big basket, and then fellow colleagues will manually help him/her descend down by means of a rope. Tsk tsk...technology of those days...

The big wheel again :)
Gear to be worn before going underground: Safety helmet, CO2 gas bottle, headlight connected to the wet cell battery.

All objects containing batteries & flammable objects e.g. watches, mobiles, CD players, cigarette lighters, etc are NOT to be brought in. This is to prevent explosions from happening in the pit. By the way, the CO2 gas bottle is for life-saving purposes. It can last 1 hr. To be used during a gas leak.
Muahaha....I'm all geared up!!!! Taken together with 2 guides who used to be miners :)

Check out the "carriage" with coal...

and timber...

Moving the "carriages"...

and then emptying it...

A staff of the Big Pit holding onto a safety lamp.

Looks similar to an oil lamp huh? It's used to detect presence of gas leak in the pits. A safety check is done every 4 hrs. Gas leaks can kill you and cause explosions.
No pics were taken in the pit (reason being obvious...I don't want to die yet). It's pitch dark in there, so dark that you can't even see your hand when you place it in front of your face. Scary huh? Kids ages 5-9 work in the mines too, and they are in charge of the ventilation underground. Gosh, I wonder how they manage to counteract their fear of the dark. Not to mention, there are loads of creepy crawlies e.g. cockroaches, rats running around in the pit. The ceiling is very low too, hence, even shorties like me have to bend down to move around. There are also 3 stables where horses are kept. Working in the mine is extremely dangerous since accidents are very common. Mining is lots of hard work as well, but the miners aren't paid much at all. After seeing the Big Pit, it's no wonder why my patients who used to be miners are always extremely proud to tell me their past occupation. Indeed, it's their pride, and definitely something worth to be proud of & talk about.

Second Stop

Brecon Beacons National Park
A must-visit place for national beauty of the countryside of Wales.
"Brecon" because the park is named after a place in Wales nearby called Brecon; "Beacons" in order to remember past occupants of Wales who used Beacons as a signalling tool.

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See the mountain whose peak is covered by the clouds? That's Pen y Fan, the highest peak in Wales standing at a height of 886m. It isn't very difficult to climb to the top..takes only a few hours by foot.
3 types of rocks mainly make up the highlands of the National Park:
Old Red Sandstone

Limestone

Millstone Grit

See the red piece of land? It's a special type of natural soil which is very fertile. There are mountains filled with them, hence being named as the Black Mountains (no idea why Black instead of Red though..hahaha)
Sheep!!!! "Baaaaaahhhhhhhhh" :X

Loads of them in Wales..haha, esp in the countryside. You can find tons of horses, poultry, cattle, etc in Wales too. Farming is a common trade. Hhaha..no wonder the Englishmen nickname the Welsh as "Sheep Shaggers"..hmm...
Horses!!!

Check this pic out...it's one of my most favourite..

A perfect horse riding surrounding isn't it?!
*GROWL* hungry hungry...let's see what's for my lunch at the National Park...hehehehee...

Fish Pie, carrots, boiled potatoes, Suede. :) Fish pie's yummy, but not the tasteless vegetables which accompanied it. Costs me £5...quite ex...

On the way to the 3rd stop...I spotted this old structure from the bus. It's a bridge I think. Very beautiful right?

Third Stop
Caerphilly Castle in Caerphilly

This castle's built in the late 13th century by the Anglo-Norman lord, Gilbert de Clare. This fortress is surrounded by a body of water, which plays a crucial role for defence. Because the body of water is so huge, the enemy will find it difficult to get over it to reach the main fortress. Apart from the water, you'll be amazed by the number of gates one will have to go through before reaching the castle's inner core. There is a part of the castle which is very amazing, called the 'leaning tower' which I could not take a photo of unfortunately. It is similar to the famous leaning tower of Pisa.
This is a drawing of how the castle looks like:

And a model...

In 1766, John the 3rd Marquess of Bute's family, the Mount Stuarts inherited the castle. John was an antiquarian. In 1868, he re-roofed the Great Hall of the castle, commissioned a thorough architectural survey and started buying up property around the castle. John is also the guy who rebuilt the Cardiff Castle & Castell Coch.

The Great Hall..

No, the chairs are there for some event. Such chairs didn't exist in the past.
Wanna check out what the army of those days use to fight their enemy?

That's used to throw these rock balls...

Can you imagine getting wacked by these? Scary hor? I can imagine myself turning into an airport runway on the spot with this wacking on my chest.

Final Stop
The magnificent CASTELL COCH (also known as 'The Red Castle')!!!!!!! Muahahhaa...woohoo!!!!!

Unlucky me since the castle's closed, hence, disallowing me to enter, but I heard the interior's marvellous. This castle is known to be a fairytale-like castle built in the late 19th century. It is owned by Lord Bute (same guy who inherited Caerphilly Castle I think), who is reputed to be the wealthiest man in the world and is one for staying, not a fortress. And built by architect William Burges who died in 1881 before completion of the castle. The work when then completed by his colleagues. The castle is a popular place to visit by tourists and even the local Brits. Every year, numerous weddings are held here (I was lucky enuff to witness one there). The surroundings of the castle is beautiful too. Lots of trees and nature...just like what we see in films.


Phew...finally....finished Part 1...will get Part 2 done soon.....