[Photos] UK 08 - Wales (the North inc. Capel Curig)

[moonvoice]

When we were in Chester, visiting family (Mum's brother and cousin - they're the same person, by the way, it's complicated), we stayed at this hotel that my stepdad chose and it was kind of super boring and not really close to anything and Glen and I had a day to ourselves where we were like 'what the fuck do we do' because I wasn't really that well and so I couldn't walk around everywhere, but we wanted to do something.

And then I was like looking at Google maps squinting and I just said 'hey I think we're like ten minutes away from Wales.' Which we were. Glen and I looked at each other and then we were like 'day trip!' I picked Capel Curig because it looked pretty (it was pretty) and we were supposed to loop around, it did not happen that way.

So, Wales! Dual-language signs are awesome. Like, Inverness and the Highlands make an attempt a this, but Wales does it in a really dedicated way (i.e. it's not just some of the location indicators, it's everything just about). The North of Wales that we drove through sort of...brought home how much England has neglected Wales financially, generally the roads were in worse condition, more stores were closed, everything seemed a bit more functional and a bit less interested in being 'pretty' for its own sake.

But we loved it, and we'll go back. Though I'm really not a fan of one-way bridges, lmao, where you just have to 'guess' if someone is coming over the rise by going forward slowly and hoping for the best. This was also, I think, the only place where we did a fair bit off-road driving.

We ended up spending most of the day in Wales, driving through Snowdonia mountain range, mostly because I was like 'oh hey we're close enough.' (Honestly, this still blows my mind, Western Australia does not work this way at all.) On the way to Capel Curig we stopped off at a little roadside cafe, listened to the locals, and I mostly just marvelled at Glen and I getting a day to ourselves to do some exploring.

Spiritually, I had some pretty profound experiences with Gwyn ap Nudd that I hadn't been expecting or looking for, and I left pretty changed. But none of that will go in a public post, so potentially..more about that later.







These standing stones were actually laid down in the 90s or early 00s or something, I just really liked that there was sort of a contemporary attempt to keep this going. It aligns to the sun and everything.





We were offroad here. We were actually attempting to get to a very specific location that we knew was publically accessible, however, every last gate we came to that would actually let us into the site was locked, so we could get all the way there, but not to the thing itself.



It worked out because the drive as you can see was very pretty.







I also kind of fell in love with this bleak, open, endless landscape. It was like staring at a meditation.





Capel Curig







Same shot but loooooong:





Next, Snowdonia!

Comments

[redheart]

Goodness this is a lovely place. <333

[moonvoice]

We were enchanted, especially for something where we were supposed to go to a 'you are in Wales' photo and that was it, and then we just...kept going and going. I'd love to visit Wales properly.

[elinox]

Beautiful!

I loved Wales and Scotland too. (Although Welsh roads, I can confirm, are scary!)

[moonvoice]

Ahaha, I didn't find Welsh roads as scary as some of the Scottish ones! I just didn't love the one way bridges, mostly because in most places in Scotland, one way bridges had like a traffic light system to make sure they were clear of traffic coming the other direction and vice versa. Wales - at least the bridges we were on in the North - was literally just 'GUESS!' :D

[silverjackal]

I particularly like the photos with the trees, especially that one gnarled oak. I miss oak trees, and the more mixed deciduous forests in Europe. We don't have the same diversity of species here, for all we have dense forests.

[moonvoice]

The trees were incredible, I admit I couldn't recognise almost any of them without their leaves, they're just so unfamiliar to me (oaks are rare here, and grown in botanic gardens or in people's homes only; except they don't really like the climate here, and therefore they're still just...not seen much. I couldn't go to my local chain nurseries and get an oak, for example, frangipani and even maples would be more common).

What I found really surprising about Scotland was just how much of the forest was monocrop plantation forest (with huge tracts being farmed off and therefore clearcut down). It took ages for us to find a mixed species forest, and you'll probably see in a lot of the photos past Edinburgh that when there is forest, it's often plantation forest. I have no problems with plantation forests, like, I'd rather have them than have nothing there at all, but I hadn't expected it at all to the degree it was present. Maybe I should have, because we have a fair amount of pine plantations even here in Western Australia (though we have Mediterranean pines).

[silverjackal]

Do not get me started on the evils of monoculture forestry. ;D As you say, it's better than no forest at all, but frankly not by much in terms of offering suitable biodiversity to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Even the soil biota are affected. I will spare you the rant, however.

[scatteredshells]

Ahhhh you went to Wales! Of course you went to Wales! Aaaah so pretty. So so pretty.

I went to Wales last year! Visiting, so I got to stay with hir, and I'm going again in September, though sie lives in a different town now, and this one has a castle! (Also lots of Canadian geese which amuses me greatly.)

I need to sit down and read though your photo posts from all of this, just. Wow. Had to happysquee when I saw this. :D