Five infamous GOC'ers set off for an adventurous day in Llandeilo.
The four on the train --Al, Catherine, John and Robert--were met in
Llandeilo by Eduardo and his laid back spaniel dog, Midi.
First call was the coffee shop as normal and we sat outside in the sun,
chatting, with Eddie bringing us up to date with the local gossip!!
One interestingly annoying bit of news was that the National Trust at
Newton House are now charging for some of the walking paths there
much to the anger of locals and other visitors that such an outrageous
charge could be thought up, let alone enforced.
We wandered alongside the very busy and noisy main road, down to the
lovely bridge with John pointing out where an earlier bridge had
crossed the River Towy.
Eddie pointed out his lovely cottage in the distance and we invited
ourselves to an overnight stay if for some reason we were unfortunate
to miss the train home.
We couldn't quite understand why he didn't seem entirely overjoyed at
that thought!!
We eventually turned off the main road and meandered our way up
through a beautiful wooded area full of primroses and wild garlic and
came to a lovely old church--Llandyfeisant.
Our path then took us up to the impressive remains of Dinefwr Castle
where we had great views in all directions.
We continued through the park ensuring we did not venture near any
"paying" areas, with Newton House nearby.
After waving farewell to Eddie and Midi, the rest of us took another
path back down through the wood, eventually getting back to the main
street in the town via Penlan Park which I hadn't been to before and is
high above the town and makes an excellent viewing platform.
By this time, our rumbling stomachs, insisting we find a suitable
hostelry made our minds up for us that The Angel suited our purpose, so
in we went to enjoy what turned into a very delicious lunch, with
excellent company and good conversation making the experience easy
going and enjoyable.
After lunch we went our separate ways looking for a bargain in the
unique shops that Llandeilo has to offer, meeting up again for John to
show us a quaint well, just off the main street, and he then insisted we
needed a visit to the local bank??!!
Ensuring we didn't need balaclava's we followed him into the bank
where he showed us the ceiling!! which turned out to be a very
beautiful round, skylight.
We continued towards the outskirts of town to a really large antique
shop with garden centre and cafe next door.
We browsed the interesting antiques --no none of us!!!--and plants and
eventually found ourselves in the cafe (now just how did that 'appen!!!)
with some lovely "oldies" music playing in the background.
Very soon it seemed, it was time for the train home so we made our
way to the nearby station.
What a lovely day it had been wandering in and around the lovely
Llandeilo.
Thanks to John for suggesting this and for leading us up the garden path
and various other paths there and thanks too to the members who
came and made this final Heart of Wales train trip, so enjoyable.
Hopefully the concessions will be in force next winter too and we look
forward to many more railway walks/jaunts then.