Mick Paskins Blog

2025 Wales

2025-wales

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  • Wed 30th Jun
    Escaping the Pride pop concert and the extended park closure – again.
    The setup started last Thursday, 9 days before the event, and the park was closed, surrounded by solid 10 foot high metal barriers on Monday.
    So, drove off to Tredegar House, and the motorhome site there. Decided to go the motorway route, including the dreaded M25, which was actually OK.
    Now happily parked up on a pleasant evening, unusually able to sit outside. My fear of yesterdays overcast sky and drizzle proved not to be a practice for worst to come today. Living in hope for the next 7 days! Unfortunately, very close to the M4, so lots of traffic noise.
    Our unfathomable radio, which was not working on our last trip, is now working, following extended fiddling about. Unfortunately, I have no idea what I did to get it working, so hopefully it will just keep going.
  • Thu 31st Jul
    An overcast, very warm and humid morning, which gave way to some short but heavy downpours, but then a fine sunny evening. We were able to sit outside for our evening meal, that is two nights in a row. I cannot remember that ever happening before.
    A short walk from our campsite is Tredegar House, a NT property we tried to visit during covid in 2021. Then, we had to pre book, and on a dismal May day, after a trudge through the drizzle, we found the booking was for the grounds only, the house was closed. Now caught up with it.
    The outside.

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    The entrance hall.

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    Dining room, with a fine moulded ceiling.
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    What an impressive doorway.
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    The ground floor rooms were all wood panelled, and dark brown.
    Except the last room.

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    The grounds boasted a stone circle, erected in 1987, for the Eisteddfod held here the following year. The central stone was used by the Archdruid to proclaimed the festival. How wonderfully pagan!

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  • Fri 1st Aug
    Left our overnight site at Tredegar House, and drove the short distance to Caerphilly, and it’s impressive castle.
    The leaning tower is thought to be due to subsidence.
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    One of the many rooms in the gatehouse, which proved to be quite a labyrinth.
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    Two views from the battlements.
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    And two views looking into the centre of the castle.
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    The kings bedroom.

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    The newly restored great hall.

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    From Caerphilly, a shortish but very congested drive to Jane and Steve in Swansea.

  • Tue 5th Aug
    A really enjoyable day, visiting Big Pit, a no longer working coal mine. Descended about 900 feet, and a walk through a labyrinth of tunnels, often having to stoop quite low. Hard hats essential! Working conditions for the miners, children and women were awful, only minor improvements from the eighteenth century up to nationalisation in 1947. Then, greatly improved, but still pretty awful.
    Unfortunately we were not allowed to take anything electrical with us – danger of sparks – and that included cameras. I did manage to grab a picture prior to our descent.
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    The view from outside, overlooking the pit head.

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    Inside one of the buildings, the pit head winding gear.
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    Amongst the bumpf we were given on entry was a leaflet about an art exhibition by a Filipina Pakistani artist. I quote from a part of the blurb….
    “Her practice is led by semiotic and associative journeying in resistance to western processes of historicisation and displacement”.
    And so it went on. We didn’t try and find where this historicisation and displacement was. Not, I thought, described to grab the imagination.

  • Thu 7th Aug
    Last night, enjoyable visit to Annette’s, and easy drive home today.

    The last bits of clear from Pride were still there this morning, gone by late afternoon dog walk.
    Normality returns!