I didn't notice last time I posted, but I have posted 600 blog posts! This is the 601st. I kept meaning to write about my weekend in Wales (last weekend), so I will put a few things down now before I forget...

Friday morning we set off for Pennant, in Wales. Although this looks like an English word, 'Pen' means 'top' and 'Nant' means 'stream'. So presumably it's the top of the stream, rather than being a top stream in the 'really good' sense. We arrived at The Old Kiln and had a drink. The place was good, very smart. It had underfloor heating and everything!

We then decided to go to a nearby town to get some milk. This was at about 4.30 in the afternoon. Unfortunately, we managed to have a sidewall explosion on the front left tyre on our mini, and ended up stuck in the middle of nowhere! New Minis don't come with a spare wheel as standard, you see - they come with a foam inflating kit. Which is no good if most of your tyre is no longer there. D'oh! The good news was that it was one of the few places in Wales we had a mobile phone signal. The bad news was we didn't know who to call to help us. So in the end we phoned the RAC and joined up, after which (for an extra charge) they did all they could to find a tyre and help us.

We were stuck there for some time. But an amazing thing happened - a nice lady had driven past us a couple of times, the second time stopping to see if she could help. Then she came back a third time, bringing supplies to make tea or coffee. She made proper tea, in a teapot, by the roadside. And she gave us jam tarts she'd made that afternoon. It was the best cup of tea I'd ever had...

Eventually we managed to get back to our holiday home, with some milk, and had dinner. Hooray! The next day was a bit less eventful. On Saturday we went to The Centre for Alternative Technology, which wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. It had a sort of hippy feel to it - I'd hoped it would be useful for 'normal' people. Rob didn't want to eat there, since it was all vegetarian, so we went back into Machynlleth to get some lunch. Then we went to Ynis-hir nature reserve.

The nature reserve was somewhere else something fairly unlikely (like the tea/jam tart lady) happened. The lady there asked if we'd like to join the RSPB, so we did. When Rob filled in the form she noticed where we'd come from. She was born in Leicester and lived on our road for many years, before going to uni in Aberystwyth and ending up in Wales. I thought that was a fairly unlikely event, really!

On Sunday we went to Hafod, which was fascinating. Everywhere was picturesque - mossy with streams and interesting rock formations. We walked a lot, it was tiring since we're not used to hills. We made it to the Cascade Caverns, which were well worth the walk. Probably the best waterfall I've ever seen. You have to go through a tunnel in the rock to get to it.

Monday was our last day, so we packed everything up then went to Lake Vyrnwy, which is another RSPB nature reserve. After another walk to a waterfall, we went to a tea room and had a Welsh Cream Tea (basically a scone, cream, jam and tea, as you'd expect, with two Welsh cakes and some Bara Brith). Yum... Then we set off home...

So that was it. It was a lovely weekend (though the tyre adventure added expense); it would have been nice to stay longer. I have put some photos on Facebook, if anyone wants to see them. :)