Devil's Bridge

Raining again this morning, so we just went into Aberystwyth and did some shopping, then had a look at the National Library of Wales on the way back. Surprisingly, it was closed. Presumably it doesn't open on Sundays. We couldn't see any signage listing the opening hours.

After lunch, the rain stopped and so I took the chance to do the walk to view the waterfalls at Devil's Bridge. As we've had quite a bit of rain over the last couple of days, I thought I'd better do the walk while I could or I might miss out!!!

There are two walks - one on each side of the bridges. The better of the two is described as "arduous" due to the many steep, uneven steps - particularly the part known as "Jacob's Ladder". The walk was well worth doing; it was really beautiful. But I must say, I'm glad that I brought my boots!! I have uploaded some photos, and the web site explains the legend of Devil's Bridge.

I did both walks, as the easier of the two walks is on the other side of the bridge and gives different views. This one gives a better view of the bridge from further up the river, and includes the magnificent "punchbowl", where the effect of erosion of the swirling waters can be seen.

I'm glad that I got the chance to do these walks; it would have been a shame to have missed them.

Wales - an update!

Today, we have had quite a bit of rain and so we went back to Borth to have a look around the village itself. On the way, we passed through Eglwysfach more slowly and I stopped to take a photo of my first school (now closed, and known as "The Old School" - that really makes me feel ancient!). This enabled us to see that our house (Tyglyneiddwen) next door to the school was still there after all - another house has been built in between on what was the playgound. Fancy things changing after 40+ years!!!

On the way to Borth, we went past Ynyslas. I remember Ynyslas as the place where you can drive your car onto the beach. To my surprise, this is still allowed, but I wasn't game to risk it! My other memory of Ynyslas is of our car being stuck in the sand one day, and I didn't fancy going through that again!!
The people in Borth were very friendly and welcoming. Funny how the memory plays tricks on you. As I said yesterday, Borth remains essentially unchanged and unspoiled. Like a well-kept secret! Looking at some old photos from the 50s and 60s, we could see that there was actually a caravan park back then - it just looked really different. Much smaller, and none of the modern on-site cabins that I saw yesterday.

After Borth, we went to Aberystwyth for the rest of the day. Aberystwyth is a funny town. Most of the year, it is essentially a University town. In the summer, there are people there for the holidays. All the houses along the Promenade look like guest houses. There is a quaint little electric cliff railway at the North end of the Promenade.