Last stage and last night in Great Britain

Wednesday, 24th of August. I started in Llangadog with sunshine at 9 A.M., but this sunshine was just at Jane's place and resumed in the region I cycled yesterday, but in the direction I had to cycle now it was overclouded – big, dark and heaving clouds all over there. And you know you have no chance to escape from that…

First I crossed Llandeilo, a nice little town which is placed around a hill – it starts at the hill's bottom and it ends at the bottom on the other side of this hill. And I had the pleasure to cycle this twice, because I overlooked my route branched off immediate at the boundaries. Shortly after that I reached the rain. And what a rain. It rained cats and dogs. And it was extremely cold, too, so for the first time during my tour I needed an extra pullover. It rained really bad. Rain from above (as usual), rain from the side (especially when cars passed), rain from below (because the streets had turned into lakes). Occasionally I thought about hitchhiking, but otherwise this wasn't the best route to do so (once again good ole A40) and also there was no place to stay and ask some truckers. I cycled one hour through this extreme, intensive rain, then another half an hour just through usual rain. Close to Carmarthen the rain stopped and some shafts of sunlight showed up. And in Carmarthen I suddenly realized that I was no longer able to cycle with usual speed. I haven't noticed before this had been really exhausting.

So I had a break and my first fish and chips – and now I finally know, what this actually is. When I was young I imagined it as something like French fries with kind of fish fingers or fish nuggets, served in a paper cone (which is a practice I couldn't understand. In Belgium fries were originally served in a paper cone, but now this changes. Bart told me the paper cone thing was the best, because the grease can accumulate at the bottom). Later I didn't thought about it any more, so I never looked up. My fish and chips looked like these you can see in the photo, but were served on a plate together with different packed sauces.

Then cycling went on and the weather was okay now. The route wasn't as interesting as the day before and it wasn't that hilly, so much more cycling to reach today's goal, the coast. All in all I cycled 125 kilometres this day, and I made a new speed record: 64.5km/h. In the afternoon the weather became really sunny. I had a nice break at a quiet resting place, the lady in a take-away van had closed, but anyway she sold me a cappuccino, we had a nice chat about my tour, and she donated me a small pack of this delicious Welsh cakes. I had a really nice break while sitting in the sun and feeling good.

While approaching the coast I felt exited – so close to the sea, so close to Ireland. The last 20 or 30 kilometres it was once again very hilly – so once again the landscape became very interesting – and I looked forward to see the sea which maybe would appear behind every lift. And then it did.

Fishguard is great, lovely, a real seaside town. First I crossed the town to have a look at the ferry harbour and see how it works. Then I looked for a place to sleep and found a lovely old hotel, that was run by an older lady (Cartref Hotel). Very fair price and even a small water boiler next to a box including some tea bags plus sugar and milk packages in my room – I suppose other guests usually don't use them as much as I did… Later I tasted a Horlicks malt, what seems to be very popular especially in Wales as a night drink (I don't know why). I also went out to enjoy the coast, the town and the sundown and had a tasty Welsh stout and a nice little meal in a pub, where they gave me a wooden spoon so the waiter could find my table.

PS:
Meanwhile I have learned Cartref is Welsh and means home…

Lovely Llangadog

Llangadog, Wales. 22th–24th of August. One day to rest. Get an impression of Walsh people. No diffidence at all. Everything works fine.

During the first night I had an interesting talk with Jane about couchsurfing experiences, especially not so good experiences (which are seldom but do happen). I never had a bad experience (at most weird, non-personal requests), but Jane has had and we talked about how to act with these things and their relation to different (said and unsaid) expectations. Jane didn't wrote negative or even neutral references, in this case she didn't wrote a reference at all, so we talked about the reasons and if it's good to act like this – a negative or a neutral reference doesn't mean the other one is a bad person or I want to inflict damage on somebody. Just try to be fair and tell what didn't work, so others are able to get an own idea of something respectively someone. (Meanwhile I had another talk about this topic, and the other person also decided better not to write a reference then a neutral or negative reference – if you can't say anything positive about someone better say nothing. But this doesn't help the community.)

Jane is an interesting, open woman, also somehow weird in a positive sense – easygoing and gridlocked at the same time… ;-) She is very kind and always willing to open her heart and soul. It's very easy to deal with her if you are generally interested in other people's life and character. It's worth it to spar with her.

I spent a very relaxed day together with her, having some walks through the lovely landscape. I also made friendship with her cat and dogs, especially "Fraggle Dog". Thanks for some time to rest without caring about past or future.

I ♥ Wales

Monday, 22th of August. 130 kilometres of great cycling, great unbelievable landscape – I love Wales. The nature, the smell of all this green, the structure, the hills… I think it's the best one can do if one wants to cycle through Ireland to cross Wales first. Just the language is weird, I mean the signs and all these names. I have no idea how they can be spelled, maybe if you have a laryngitis… (to proof my theory, doesn't even this word looks like a Welsh word?). All of a sudden I didn't understand nothing, but fortunately most of the signs and names are bilingual.

It was good to rest at Deborah's place yesterday. It was a really nice garden party with interesting and interested people, all of them so curious to learn more about my tour, the backgrounds of my tour and my life story at all. I think (felt) some of them really liked me, I felt very welcome. It's a good thing to be hugged or patted. During this party I became a chocolate-chilli ice-cream addict but was also able to get over it (it's just a question of how long and how much, and the latest version of the ice cream was definitely too mild – I can't believe I am saying this, but only chocolate without chilli isn't enough).

Today (now it's 2:30 A.M. but I haven't slept, therefore the new day hasn't started…) I was on the road before 10 A.M., still within Forest of Dean (A4136) which means still hilly. I made a 11% uphill (even though I needed one or another rest). I had some problems with my lungs, maybe because of the weather. The hole day it was bright sunshine, best weather for cycling. From Monmouth up to Abergavenny I cycled the B4233 – what a lovely, beautiful little road, nearly an asphaltic path. Very hilly, very green. It even smelled extremely green. You know about the beautiful outlook, but not often you are able to see it, because the road path is lined with high hedge and bushes, all of them so bulky. The good thing when you cycle such a hilly road where only every five or ten minutes a car passes you are able to cycle switchback.

Up from Abergavenny I cycled the A40. I cycled lots of hills! Not only constantly ups and downs but really uphill, so you can feel the height, the wide, the wideness, which is so great to see. Such an interesting landscape… I think I can say I cycled mountains! And it was easy cycling! Definitely a good day. I met two racing cyclists while cycling, Dave and Tom, and had some nice chit-chat, did some slipstreaming (it doesn't really help when the route is just hilly, but I was motivated to do some fast cycling for a while). I saw army men who jogged uphill while carrying a big rucksack. I go on seeing lovely old VW buses. Car drivers still greet me with their hooter, too (and even other cyclists greet). I saw a scooter who surely had some Harley Davidson relatives, as he had loads of extra mirrors on both sides of the front. Never before I have seen so many sheep. And the last ten kilometres up to Llandovery it was all slight downhill, so I was able to do easy cycling with 24 up to 36 km/h.

In Llandovery I had to learn, that my host's place isn't there but in the next village Llangadog, but who cares about another ten kilometres? When I arrived at 7:30 P.M. Jane wasn't at home (she had told me this could happen). But her neighbour David cared for me, first he brought me a hot chocolate while I was sitting at the stairs of Jane's front door, half an hour later he invited me into his flat, Jane later said this was an honour, normally nearly nobody is allowed to come into his place. But we just had a nice chat, another hot chocolate and actually he offered me his couch in case Jane wouldn't come back home, but she did at 9 P.M. I will stay here for another day, so Jane and I can spend some time together.