There was no rain over night and we decide to go for a short walk before lunch. A few metres up the valley on the other side of the road is a footpath that descends to river Gwaun. Although poorly signposted from the main road, there is a very substantial footbridge across the very pretty river. The footpath up the valley is very well maintained with many areas of boards keeping walkers above those often muddy sections. Very large clumps of wild iris were scattered in the marshy area between the footpath and the river. They were just coming into bloom and will be glorious over the next few weeks.
As we approached Llanychaer we met a lady tending her immaculate allotment. She lives in Fishguard but used to live in the village and is using land still owned by the family. We had a long chat that ranged from good walks and good pubs in the area and the location of a local brewery owned by a friend, to controlling slugs that eat potatoes by using natural predators discovered by Bristol University! She was praying for rain as she had to bring water from home in large containers in order to water the many plants. The soil was parched as they had not had any substantial rain for nearly two months. We came to an agreement that there should be heavy rain but only at night!
Llanychaer is a very small village but has an unusual feature at its centre. In the front garden and incorporated into the walls are all sorts of old implements, mainly from farms. This has spread across the road to their garage and a small area of land owned by them. The garage is covered with clematis, something that upset our friendly gardener as this used to be her house and she had tried to grow clematis for many years without success and, even more annoying, this was apparently the same clematis that she left when she sold the house! All around the garage are more antiquities – ploughs, scales, bicycle, beehive and a complete milking set up. Great fun!
The pub has a dilapidated water wheel on one side. This was not the original mill, which was elsewhere in the village, but the blacksmith worked here using water power from the wheel. Purely for historical research, we decided to visit the pub. Unfortunately there was no local real ale but the Bass was good. We walked back via the same path having another, but much shorter, chat with the gardener.
The afternoon was spent relaxing, reading and watching the French Open Tennis on the television.
Photos: The Bridge End Inn, Llanychaer with its dilapidated waterwheel on the left; The clematis-covered garage.
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