Touring southern England & Wales

My parents came for a 2 week visit and we toured around southern England and Wales. I'll leave out the bits about London except to mention that the fruits of imperialism are vast! Upon leaving London, we stopped in Chawton to see Jane Austen's House Museum and stopped at Winchester Cathedral for a tour before heading on to Amesbury. Winchester Cathedral is a veritable exhibit of architecture. The structure is a time capsule, a home there several famous dead as well as a hand illustrated 12th century bible. From Amesbury we visited Stonehenge. In order to visit the inner circle of stones at Stonehenge, it is necessary to book a viewing time outside of the regular visitor hours. The process is straightforward and seeing the stones up close at sunrise is well worth getting up early and the few extra quid. Avesbury is another stone circle site that pre-dates Stonehenge by about 500 years. It is 30 minutes drive north of Stonehenge and has a small museum and displays dedicated to the archaeology of the site which includes the West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill in addition to the stone circle around the village.
On the way back to Aberystwyth, we stopped in Bath. The town is lovely with the Royal Cresent and the Circus. The shopping and food choices are high quality and varied. Because it is a spa town and has great shopping, I'd love to go back when I can spend a little more time and money!

It was nice to relax in Aberystwyth after 7 days of driving around England. The second week we took day trips in Wales. We spent one day fly fishing in the Cambrian Mountains. It was my first time and I gained an awe of the sport, though I won't be buying all the kit anytime soon! There are several guides and places to fish in Wales and the reputation for fly fishing is great. Our guide turned up on a motorbike with all of his gear (and ours) packed on it. He led us out on some logging roads outside of Ponterwyd. The best part was finding new places to explore outside of Aberystwyth.
Our other day journeys included trips to Devil's Bridge, Strata Florida Abbey, Aberaeron, and a quick jaunt to Machynllyth on market day. Konah and I put a few extra miles on the rental car on the way back from Manchester Airport after sending Mom and Dad back over the Atlantic and went to Conwy Castle. It is a fantastic site and the drive back to Aberystwyth through Snowdonia made me want to extend the trip even longer. We stopped off at Tal-y-llyn Lake and enjoyed the sun setting behind Cadair Idris from Castell y Bere to end our journey.

Unusually Pleasant Days in Wales

We've been having some unusually sunny days in Aberystwyth. These are the few days when the photographers for the Welsh Tourism Board grab their tripods and shoot as much as possible for promotional publications. I was beginning to believe that the scenes advertised in the glossy covers of Welsh holiday brochures only existed in the digitized dreams of Photoshop experts, but have been proven wrong. The near 60 degree (F) temps are enough to get the Welsh & Brits to shed their coats and bare pale pink skin to the sea and sky. Even the Royal Regiment of Wales's goat has been out on parade.

Malham Cove

On our trip back from Glasgow, we stopped off in Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. The weather was threatening snow and when we discovered the tiny roads that lead to Malham, we thought we might be spending longer than just the night. The little roads lined with stone walls and the glacially formed landscape are scenes from times past. Malham is a small village with many trails that lead into the countryside and is on the Pennine Way. We stayed at the River House Hotel run by a really friendly couple and ate at the Lister Arms which has the best food I've had in a pub yet and a good selection of beers. We went out walking from the village the next day but the wind beat us. After a walk to the limestone pavement formed by a glacial outburst flood from a lake upstream at the end of the last glacial maximum. We also went to see the Gordale Scar which is a small limestone canyon containing 2 waterfalls. I wish the weather had been more cooperative, but we had fun anyway. One thing about walking in Great Britain: there is usually a pub with a fire going at the end of the trail. It snowed overnight when we got back to Aberystwyth and the light dusting closed down the country for 3 days. We were glad to be back even though our boiler at the Dairy Cottage failed us again.

What's for Breakfast

I should begin this post with a few notes about my own breakfast preferences. My usual morning fare is coffee and plain quick oatmeal cooked, or yogurt and some kind of bran cereal, and berries or bananas. When I’m in a hurry, I fold a slice of wheat bread around spoonful of peanut butter and a banana. On the weekends, I make migas, omelets, quiches, breakfast burritos, etc. I love eggs and don’t restrict them to morning meals. I never skip breakfast, especially the coffee.

Traditional “cooked breakfast” is hugely popular in Britain, and they’ve exported it to most of the colonies. In most cases, you will be offered tea and coffee, a variety of cold cereals, yogurt, and fruit and then the cooked breakfast: eggs, bacon (more like US ham, nice and thick, but not smoked), British sausages (under-spiced pork link sausages), sautéed small button mushrooms, half a tomato set on a griddle until it is soggy, bland baked beans straight from the starch laden can, and brown or white toast slathered in margarine. In northern England and Scotland you can expect blood sausage to show up as well. Often you can opt for porridge. While many accommodations boast breakfast awards, I’ve found little variation in content and quality in my travel in the UK, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. This breakfast is available at B & B’s throughout the UK for an additional cost charged to your room of about £7-10. If it is a larger hotel, you might also find yogurt, cold cereal, and fruit. Breakfast is like most food in Britain, bland. It’s as if the predisposition to apathy has taken over the taste buds.

In a recent trip back home to the States, I found quite different fare. I stayed in a Courtyard by Marriot, in a relatively small town, at a cost of about $90 per night. A buffet breakfast was an optional charge of $8. A buffet is when food is all laid out and you take just whatever portion suits you. In this breakfast were scrambled eggs, breakfast sausage (slices of ground spiced meat—not links), bacon (streaky bacon to the Brits), American biscuits and gravy (American biscuits are essentially the same as English buttermilk scones. Brit's "biscuits" are America’s "cookies"), pancakes, waffles you can make on the spot, fruit, yogurt, cold cereal, oatmeal (porridge to the Brits), toast, bagels, and so on. A lot of options, and potentially a lot of waste: it’s the American way. In these situations, I usually have breakfast and pack a bagel with cream cheese and a few pieces of fruit so I don’t have to buy lunch. If you are staying at a lesser hotel the way I usually do, they will serve “free continental breakfast.” This is usually instant coffee (Nescafe to some of you) along with packaged pastries and Tang (instant orange juice). If you are lucky, you might get a banana and toast.

A real continental breakfast, meaning in continental Europe, is different. I’ve travelled only in Germany, Austria, Italy, and France, so these observations are limited. Nonetheless, breakfast in all of those places is generally the same. There are espresso types of coffee, tea, and a selection of juices. Cold cereal, yogurt, fruit, toast, a selection of cold cuts and cheeses, boiled eggs, and a selection of pastries—of course croissants!

In Chile, there is only instant coffee—Nescafe. In a grocery store, I saw coffee from Haiti, but decided to pass. I’ve only travelled north of Santiago, mostly in the Atacama. Breakfast there was usually something like thin cold cut slices of chopped and formed ham, bland white cheese, toast and jam. The best bet is to head to the open market and buy avocados, fresh goat cheese, and bread (photo below). I’ll have to do some more legwork in South America to find out if this is consistent with other locales.

My favorite breakfast is the rooster bullet at the Gilbert General Store after a long weekend of canoeing and camping on the Buffalo River in Arkansas. The best homemade buttermilk biscuits split open and topped with breakfast sausage or bacon, eggs over easy, and then smothered in sausage gravy. Followed by coffee and a spell in a rocking chair on the porch, it can't be beat.

Glasgow

In Glasgow, Konah and I stayed near the Kelvingrove Park in the West End. It is a nice area near Glasgow University with lots of restaurants and cafes. We stayed at The Kelvingrove located just around the corner from the Kelvingrove Museum. They offer ensuite rooms and standard British cooked breakfast for about 70 GBP. The location is ideal for visiting the museums and university, and downtown shopping is a short 20 minute walk away. After some research online, we decided to go to Two Fat Ladies at 88 Dumbarton. Two Fats (named for the Bingo call, not the cooking show) has several locations in Glasgow. The Dumbarton dining room is small and cozy and the food is fantastic. We had a few of their fish specialties. The scallops with pancetta and in a buttery cream sauce were fantastic! The highlight of our short Glasgow trip was a tour of the Glasgow School of Art designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Reservations for the tour are recommended, especially on the weekends, and are easily arranged with a phone call or email to the school. We finished off our Mackintosh tour of Glasgow with a trip to the Willow Tea Room for lunch before heading back south.

Hadrian's Wall

Because I had a meeting at Glasgow University, Konah and I took the opportunity to see a little more of the UK. We rented a small fuel efficient Nissan Micra from Europcar for about 100 quid and drove through western and northwestern Wales to Chester, then on the M6 north toward Glasgow. The roads in Wales are small, curvy, and lined with hedgerows. The motorway skirts the Wales-England border, only entering the country around Cardiff, increasing the relative isolation of the country from the rest of the UK.

We stopped at Hadrian’s Wall on the way to Glasgow. Hadrian’s Wall, begun in AD 122 was one of three walls used by the Romans to guard against the Scottish tribes and to establish the northern frontier of the Roman Empire in Great Britain. The wall extends 80 miles from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to Carlisle and is followed by the Hadrian’s Wall Path. Much of the wall still exists and ruins of the milecastles, forts, and other sites are preserved. We visited the west end of the wall near Gilsland. With the short winter days, we turned off the main road onto the B619 a bit late. It was getting dark as we got to Housesteads Fort. We drove back to Gilsland, but our room wouldn’t be ready until after 6:00, so we set out in search for a pub. We walked into the Bridge Inn, but they wouldn’t be open until 7:00. We were informed that the only place to get a pint before 6:00 was the Gilsland Spa Hotel. The place was completely empty, but the bartender was friendly and wanted to ask us questions about the States and our new president and the state of the economy. We heard almost polka-esque music coming from another room and were informed that the residents were having their dance time before dinner. We were a bit skeptical, but the food was as tolerable as any other pub food. After dinner and a pint we went to Tantallon House B&B, owned and operated by Ann and Alex Roe. They acquired the house two years ago and are still going through a series of upgrades, but should be finished before spring. We were the rare winter visitor; most people visit the area in summer and on holiday. Tantallon is also home to Hoot the Owl who came with the house. We learned from Alex that in Britain, B&B’s can only host 6 people at a time, if more, it is classified as a guest house or hotel/inn. Hotels are a bit more formal and there is less interaction among guests while guest houses often have some common areas. We had a great night’s sleep in a an ensuite room (has private bathroom) with fantastic new comfy beds. The sunrise was spectacular and we ate breakfast with a view overlooking the wall. We walked around the wall in the village and visited Poltross Burn Milecastle, which is accessible from a parking lot near the school, before heading on to Glasgow.

My Trip to ZA: Part 2

This is part 2 of my travel in South Africa posts.

My travel to ZA was mostly for work. I am working on several rivers and wetlands there for a research project through a university in Wales. Travelling for vacation or holiday is really unlike other types of travel. Vacation travel gives you a different sense of place than travel for other reasons. On vacation travel the objective is enjoyment. Most other types of travel involve some other kind of purpose and require that more specific objectives be met and tasks be accomplished.

My objective was to collect wetland sediment (really sticky mud) and rock samples from my study rivers: The Klip, Schoonspruit, Mooi, Blood, Pienaars, and Vaal and mail them back to the UK to analyze at labs there. I also hoped to make some new contacts to work with in the future. I met several people working in the fantastic geology department at The University of the Witswatersrand (Wits, pronounced “vits,” for short). Through connections with a colleague from the UK who was traveling and working with me, we were able to borrow tools to use in the field and rent a research vehicle at little expense. The Toyota had a straight front axle and leaf springs that combined with miles of bumpy dirt roads would be the source of a lot of back aches during the four weeks of research.

Getting access to the private property along rivers is a challenge in a lot of places. In ZA, many landowners don’t live on-site and have resident operators that don’t always feel comfortable giving permission to trespass. Many are Afrikaans and don’t speak English well. Fortunately, I gained access to most the sites I needed with a little friendly conversation. One site I failed to get access to involved dealing with a local chief, Moratele. Gaining access to the site would involve going through his gate. The advice given by colleagues at Wits was to buy scotch, tea, and cigarettes and tell him how wonderful he would be for granting my group access through his gate. I was looking forward to this cultural experience more than some others in my group and we decided to drive some extra distance to go around the gate.

Sampling in wetlands is never ideal, but particular environmental challenges were burned reed swamps and high winds. At the Blood River site, I sank up past my knees in mud while trying to avoid being stabbed by sharp burned reed ends and keep my equipment in the dry. We augured at least 20 feet down before giving up on reaching bedrock below the wetland. At the Mooi River we stayed at a farm adjacent to the Kamberg KZN wildlife nature reserve. A fire at an adjacent farm spread to the one where we stayed and obscured the valley in smoke, making us wait to perform some measurements. Extremely high winds kept us in another day. All in all, we were lucky not to have more setbacks due to Mother Nature. Another setback was a flat tire that occurred on a Saturday afternoon in the rural town of Vrede. Nothing is open on the weekends in Vrede (and most other rural towns). We took the opportunity to watch South Africa play rugby on television and relax on Sunday. We got the flat fixed relatively quickly on Monday morning.

The final feat was mailing the samples back to the UK. It took about half a day to organize shipment through a courier (I’ve been advised not to use the South African postal service). The forms were numerous and lengthy and I was still charged VAT in the UK for my rocks and dirt. Shipping from ZA is quite expensive, but all arrived on time and intact. The key to being successful and happy working in international locations is to remember that things don’t operate on the same schedule or in the same way as in the States. Patience and a laid back attitude are your best defense against aggravation. Scheduling some extra time for mishaps and uncooperative weather helps too. I plan to post more detailed physiographic and geologic information on my research blog and will link to this post when I do. Click here for more photos from field work.