Travelling to West Wales (part 2)

The second half of the journey to west Wales was a bit fraught. It took an hour and half to get around 40km of the M25 (normally less than half an hour), then my Tom-tom sent me via Birmingham (a route I would never chose as it’s the least scenic and involves the most motorway driving). Finally, when I got to the mountain pass between from Llangurig to Aberystwyth (already running late) it was closed – due to a fatal pile up on one the many dangerous bends. I had to make a 50km detour through the next valley north, via Caersws and Machynlleth.

Still my journey was made more pleasant by seeing England and Wales in spring bloom. Hawthorn and Wild Cherry seemed to brightening all the hedgerows and fields . I don’t know whether the blossoms are particularly vivid this year or if we just don’t enough of these species in Flanders and Holland. And I saw pheasant wander nonchantly in front of my van across an A road just outside of Llanidloes.

I’m staying with friends of more than thirty years who live between the sea and mountains, looking after their chickens and cat while they will be away. I lived close by for several years so there’s a sense of coming home and much catching up t be done, about the changes in people’s lives: the daughters away at university, the builders who came to a sticky end and the politics of the local university.

But mostly its nice to be in the countryside again: the sea is a ten minute walk away, the air is replete with bird song, the wild garlic is in full leaf and there are innumerable different wild flowers to be found in the hedgerows. I could get used to this.