Walking through Wales

Okay, so this is coming a little later than I had hoped. I got home from Wales on a Saturday, on Monday I had a presentation for work and on Wednesday I had Young Women in Excellence, in which I was in charge of the special musical number. So I couldn't really rest after I got home. After YW in E, my body protested doing anything else and became a gooey puddle of mucus. I've been coughing and sniffling ever since. BUT, this morning I felt hungry. I haven't felt hungry in days, so I think that's a good sign.

Anywho, back to Wales.

We did a lot of walking in Wales. I don't know if it was because we were in a National Park, or if this is just something that appears in Britain, but there were little walking signs all over. An official path would have either a little hiking man pointing the way, or just a yellow arrow. And the paths don't look like the paths in the U.S.'s National Parks either. There were no neatly paved trails or well kept dirt paths. A lot of the time you just had to watch for the trodden down grass. Sometimes we didn't even have that to go by. And the paths went everywhere. Through fields, over streets, across backyards. One said it was a trail but I suspect it was actually a small stream. Our feet certainly got wet enough. If it weren't for the turn by turn directions we got at the resort reception office, we might still be wandering in the hills of Wales. Not that that would be a bad thing.

We did 4 trails. Three in Machynlleth and 1 in Pennal. Machynlleth, or Mach as we quickly learned to call it, was the main town we in and out of to catch buses and trains. Pennal, the little village where our resort was, was about 4 kilometers away from Mach.

Here's the view from the top of hills looking down into Mach:

Very picturesque, no?

Another of our walks took us through Mach's golf course:

Can you see the sheep? I wonder how much of a penalty it is to hit a sheep?

Kirtsen points out the way:

Notice all the ferns. Ferns were everywhere. On this walk we went through a fern forest.

And this is the view from the top of the hills; okay, okay, I'll call them mountains (baby mountains), in Pennal:

The resort is in one of those valleys.

This is a horse we met on the way up the mountain. I think he's used to getting food from people when they walk by, because he was very attentive. I took this picture especially for my nieces D and A, who love horses.

I don't know where he went, but he was gone by the time we came back.

One thing I really liked about Wales was how green it was. These pictures really don't do it justice. Even when you have the contrast of changing leaves.


They say its very green in Ireland as well. I think I'll have go there to compare.