August 8 - Tuesday
When we woke up there were clouds in the sky but it didn't look like rain - at least not immediately. You could see the gray clouds coming in off the coast. I went to the laundry room to get some our clothes that were hung up to dry. The door was locked with a keypad and I didn't have the code. I took a chance and turned the knob hoping that it was not activated - the door swung open, thank goodness, I would have hated to have to disrupt the owners whe were kind enough to let us hang our clothes in their laundry room. The deaf/blind dog was curled up on his bed and there was an energenic Collie that was more than happy to play with the stranger that opened the door - he went running out of the room. Oh no. Here doggy doggy, trying to act as enthusiastic as the dog in order to lure him back into the landry room. It worked, he came bounding back into the room and nudged the older dog awake to let him know it was time to get up and play - or at least go to the bathroom. I quickly took our clothes down, petted the Collie, the older dog was still trying to get up. I slipped out the door and closed both dogs back in where I found them. I felt kind of bad about doing that. The rest of the clothes were in the barn and were still damp. I gathered them up and walked back to camp and hung them in the sun along the wire fence. Jon had the fly hanging off the side of the tractor and the solor panel velcro-ed to the side of the fence charging up the cellphone.
Since we were so isolated in the corner we thought we would be able to pack up and be on our way without delay. Not gonna happen. Some camper, from somewhere appeared and started talking about the bikes, made some recommendations on where to go in Scotland and was on his way. We sat to breakfast and the proprietess came out with the dogs in her fuzzy pink bathrobe. The older dog was quick to sniff out our food, obviously what he was lacking in sight and hearing he made up for with his sniffer. He had made a beeline to our camp from the house which was a good 50 yards away. He knew he was getting a little to close because as soon as his owner began chastising him for trying to share our breakfast, he immediately backed off. Poor thing. The woman lead everyone through the gate and out into the fields where the sheep were grazing. She was followed by the energetic Collie with the older black Lab plodding behind and a gray medium haird cat and a black medium haired cat with the peg leg. When the black cat would walk he would have to swing his right hind leg around to take a step - it didn't appear to be able to bend it's knee and when he sat the hind leg would stick straight out. This cat reminded us of our own Tracker and we think that when he gets older this may be what happens with his knees.
Once packed we rolled out of the farm. We rode through small villages, just clusters of home really, no markets, butchers, banks, etc. We rode over small stone bridges that crossed tree-lined streams. We passed lots and lots of sheep and cows. I must say that the smell I'll most associate with Wales - as beautiful as it is - is the smell of manure with the occasional smell of honeysuckle, and lilies if we're lucky. We have passed so many pastures, full of cows and sheep. Every so often we would ring our bicycle bells, more out of boredem, to see if we could get a reaction out of the animals. Usually they couldn't care less and wouldn't even be bothered to acknowledge us. Every so often we would get a "baaaa" from a sheep and Jon would respond in kind. He's become a regular Dr. Doolittle on this trip. He'll talk to the sheep or let the cows know, "Hey, there's something in your eye" when we would pass the cows with flies landing near their eyes. They don't seem to mind the flies so much though. We continued along the coast of Wales, rolling hills and wind. It was beautiful. The blue green of the water and the variety of lush green vegetation surrounding us on the hills. It seemed that most of this part of the coast was still pasture land. I can't imagine something so picturesque not being sold to make room for a condo farm or gated community back home. I'm surprised at how undeveloped this part of the country is - maybe it's the unpredictable weather that makes it less appealing. Being from Washington state and the Puget Sound area we guess the weather doesn't deter us so much especially since it's so peaceful. That's the other thing, there isn't many people around. There aren't any jobs in the villages so people either move or commute into the cities for the week. The traffic is totally manageable as a cyclist, the roads are good. I find it a pretty ideal place to live - except for the fact that I have no desire to live in the UK. If I was interested, Wales would be the place I would want to live - how I would make a living would have to be figured out later.
We finally went up our first mountain. It wasn't too bad afterall but by no means was I just zooming up the mountain. It seemed endless at times and I think that I just got anxious to see the top and wished I could pedal faster to get there. I could tell we had gained some elevation with the temperature dropping but we were by no means climbing Everest. We were traveling through the Cambrian mountains on our way to Bangor where we would catch a train to Scotland.
This area of Wales is part of the Snowdonia park which if you had to pick one part of Wales this park should be it and you could probably spend weeks here hiking, biking, taking the steam train and it's all beautiful - I mean all of it.
We're both pedalling and looking all around us trying to take it all in and at the same time thinking how glad we are to be riding our bikes. I think one could still appreciate this area if doing a driving tour but it would go by so fast. Even at less than 10 mph I know we didn't see everything. We'll post the pictures but to see the top of a rocky mountain surrounded by more lush hills, fronted by a lake with cows in a pasture - Hello! We were cycling through a postcard! It was unreal, all we could do was just take it all in.
Once at the top we could enjoy the downhill that we had earned with one stop on the way down to put on the fleece gloves - it was cold. We stopped just outside of the town of Caernarfon for some lunch - we were starving - and watched some men building a house with cement blocks. We lingered a little too long and we soon chatting it up with some develop mentally disabled guys waitng for the bus. Let me tell you, they knew their stuff about trains. We learned how long it would take to get from Edinburgh from Bangor, where there would be a transfer, where the good sights were locally, etc. They were cool. When we arrived in the town of Caernarfon we figured this would be the best place to stay for the night since it didn't look like Bangor had camping afterall. We got directions from the information center and then just walked around town. There was an impressively intact castle in town but being later in the afternoon I wasn't too interested in going in and checking it out. They did have golfing so I suggested we see what was going on with the local golf course. Jon was quick to agree. The course was only a couple miles from the town center right on the banks of the Menai Strait. The water would turn a murking gray/green like the waters of the Puget Sound to a beautiful aqua blue depending on whether or not the sun was shining through the clouds or not. I know this because this is what I looked at while waiting for Jon to return from hitting some balls with a borrowed club in his biking clothes AND his cycling shoes! I'm sure he was a site for those golf club members. Jon was given a bag of balls and a pitching wedge to use at no cost - turns out it was a private club but must have recognized a kindred spirit in Jon and understood his need for a golf "fix".
After golf we found our campsite. A pretty nice place - family run by a super couple and their adult son. £8.50, showers included. Even better was that we had a picnic table!!! This was pretty exciting as they don't typically have picnic tables in campgrounds in Europe - what a treat! We ate our dinner at a table! It's the little things in life: picnic tables, campsites near the bathroom, showers you don't have on a timer or are coin operated, grass to pitch your tent on instead of hard packed earth - stuff like that. I was hoping for a hot shower and admit that I took an extra long shower once I got in there and established that the warm water would be continuous and not last a few seconds before turning icey cold.
The last couple of nights the bugs had been feasting on me and it was all I could do not to scratch my legs and arms to death so after the shower I had to apply the anti-bug cream - Ode de Eucalyptus. I was really sleepy - guess the mountain and fresh air took more out of me than I thought. A couple had just arrived as I went to the shower. We were getting ready to tuck in for the night so Jon went over to offer the use of "our" picnic table. Of course, this lead to conversation and I could hear that the couple was from Vancouver, BC which was as close to home as we've gotten as far was meeting anyone. It was pretty cold outside by then and I was already drifting off while drying to read my new book on permaculture and awoke, briefly, some time later with the book on my chest and Jon coming back into the tent to go to sleep.
