Sunday 18th May Out in the Brecon countryside

In Brecon

We took a look at the area near the village, and drove over a bridge to get a park, as there were so many people doing breakfast outside in the warmer weather.  To our surprise when we were at the approach to the bridge, it was lifting, to allow a canal boat through!  Very interesting indeed. 

The locals just took it in their stride

Our first priority was to top up the phone and internet plan.  Pretty amazing, you go into a shop, they punch the name of the provider into a machine, and then viola your update is printed out.  Took a while to work out how to load it onto the phone, but eventually I succeeded, cause my almost smart old phone is not quite up to the state of the art of my new one.

I read an article in the local paper about the Brecon Cathedral, hosting some memorabilia from the Zulu War.  It took us a while to find the Cathedral, because unlike many of the cathedrals we have visited, it has not huge spire, or tower, and is tucked away up a hill.  The building is rather large and sprawled out.  I asked some people coming to the 11.00am service where I might find the display, and he told us we had 10 minutes to go to the chapel in the back of the church.  We did, and they hold a display of the flags taken from the battlefield.

Originally in 1880 the flags were brought home to Queen Victoria, but then in 1923 King George returned them to the Military Barracks here, and in 1924 they were housed inside the cathedral.  Torn and batted, but there they stood.  The cathedral has a restaurant that does breakfast, morning tea and lunch!  Good prices for the Sunday roast.  We had a scone and cup of tea, and then left for the canal boat cruise.

The canals were made in 1794, and were extended in 1800 to run from Brecon to Monmouth.  At one stage there were 50000 men working on the canals, hence the term, navvie.  The trip leads through some pretty countryside, alongside homes, and into a lock.  The lock master is 80 years old, and all he does the opening on a voluntary basis.

Passing a boat in the narrow canal

Fishing canal style

At the head of the waterway, our boat turned while we got off to photo one of the very old bridges along the route.  Meanwhile we had passed a lot of men fishing with long poles.  They had a contraption on wheels, and a seat to sit on while they fished.  Turns out they were in a competition for and we later saw the whole lot packed up as they left after another unsuccessful day of fishing.  Sounds familiar!

Back in the canal

Then armed with the handout, and a bit of information, we drove back trying to find some of the points of interest on the brochure. We found the lock, and this time one of the ladies of one of the boats was opening the lock.

We followed another one car lane, and found some more old bridges, and up the road from where we live, some of the Limekilns, which used to consist of a vertical tunnel with a fire pit at the base. 

The front yard of our B&B note the carving!

  Nothing is left now but we discovered two of the old kilns.  Further along there was the Ashford Tunnel, 343 metres long and what used to happen is that they unhitched the horses, walked them to the end, and the boatmen had to push the barge through by feel.  We were lucky to find a canal boat coming through!

All in all, an interesting day, in an interesting area.  

We chose to have dinner at the B&B, and we had the roast, and we thought it was a 5 star meal everything was so perfect, and even had leeks with our carrots.  Really the best roast dinner combined with presentation that we have had.  We shared fresh smoked trout for entree, and had room for dessert.  Found a new drink elderberry!  Quite nice.