Caerphilly to Cardiff - Gwyddau a chestyll (digaffein)

It's now six and a half years since myself and BAM (Best Aussie Mate) started walking the Chesters of England and it took a long time for us to realise that there were any chesters in Wales at all, because the Welsh prefix Caer- wasn't immediately obvious to us!

Better late than never, I suppose - Caerphilly and Cardiff clocked up our 43rd and 44th Chesters, respectively and, with only 18 more Chesters to go (although we do keep finding new ones!), we're just over two-thirds of the way through our Chester walking project.

It's quite an adventure going to Wales, both because of the distance, but also because of the subtle cultural shift - we've often experienced the difference between regions in England, particularly when we head up north, but Wales is a different country and that, somehow, made it feeling like we were really travelling abroad!

Because of the nature of the journey (and the price of Friday night train tickets to Cardiff), we changed our usual routine of Friday/Saturday walking, leaving on Saturday instead and doing our Chester walk on the Sunday, which may be a first.

Lodging and victuals

It was pouring down with rain, when we arrived at Caerphilly station on a cold and dark Saturday night at the beginning of February.  Most of the local inhabitants were safely indoors, enjoying some Saturday night telly, or in the local pubs and restaurants, oblivious to our arrival, as we walked through the town, past the gloom of Caerphilly castle and the dark brickwork of the cottages on Bedwas Road.

At the end of Bedwas Road, the Premier Inn Caerphilly Crossways shone like a beacon, guiding us to our evening meal and a good night's sleep!  We were absolutely drenched by the time we got there, but the lady on reception was lovely, as the staff at Premier Inn always are and made no comment on our bedraggled state or the reasons we were abroad on such a dank and miserable evening.

The on-site restaurant at the Premier Inn is called Brewers Fayre and served up a passable evening meal, which saw us through until breakfast the following morning.

Caerphilly Crossways to Caerphilly Castle (1.2 miles/1.9 kilometres)

Luckily the weather improved a lot overnight and, although it was quite cold when we set out from the Premier Inn on Sunday morning, it was dry and the distant view of the mountains motivated us to make our way back along the Bedwas Road towards Caerphilly castle.

There was a local race going on, so the first part of our walk involved dodging some rather exhausted-looking men, women and children, who were doing some kind of circular run, involving the Bedwas Road.  BAM loves a good run, but I must admit that I can't think of anything less appealing that getting up early on a cold Sunday morning, to don the skimpy clothes that runners seem to favour and launch myself into the bracing, winter air for an activity that seems to involve a wholly unnatural challenge for the human physique!  Give me a 13-mile walk to Cardiff over that any day!

The castle in Caerphilly is impressive, although it looked very closed and we had it all to ourselves, apart from a couple of Malaysian tourists and a pack of geese, who were engaged in some kind of goosemageddon!  My abiding memory of Caerphilly is the huge goose-fight we witnessed outside the castle.

Caerphilly Castle

Caerphilly Castle and moat

Goosemageddon

I'm more than a little bit vague on the Romans in Wales, but perhaps my knowledge will increase, as we do more of the Welsh Caers?  I used to think the Romans never made it to Wales, as they never conquered Ireland, but Caerphilly Castle and many of the other castles in the Welsh Chesters we'll visit, is built on the site of a Roman fort, later taken over by the Normans and a succession of English and Welsh families.

Wales does have some spectacular castles and we saw three in total during this walk, which I also think is some kind of record for our Chester walking.

Caerphilly Castle to Craig yr Allt (3.4 miles/5.5 kilometres)

Caerphilly looked very closed on a Sunday morning and, as we made our way up the Mountain Road towards Caerphilly Common, I was getting a bit worried about BAM, as she hadn't yet had her morning coffee, which can be a rather dangerous situation!

Caerphilly Common

The lack of coffee was made up by the stupendous views from the top of Caerphilly Common - we got talking to a young Welsh couple who do lots of walking the in the local area and they were able to point out the Brecon Beacons at a distance to the north and the Welsh coast and Somerset, far way to the south.

Psalm in Welsh and English

View towards the Brecon Beacons

In my mission to find coffee for BAM, I got us a little bit lost, convincing myself that a distant roadside cafe was the direction we were meant to be going in, rather than completely the wrong direction.  As a result, we spent quite a bit more time wandering around the top of Caerphilly Common than we'd meant to, witnessed some dog-walker rage and eventually found our way onto the Glamorgan Ridgeway, which was the path we wanted to follow across to Craig yr Allt.

View from the top of Caerphilly Common

Countryside around Caerphilly

The views from the top of Craig yr Allt were equally stunning and, as we drifted along the ridge in contemplative (and decaffeinated) silence, I marvelled, not for the first time, at the fact that so few of our Chester walks have brought us anywhere near the mountains.  I can see how attractive the Rhymney Valley must have been to the Romans - close enough to the coast, but hidden behind hills like Craig yr Allt, that separate Cardiff from the Valleys.

BAM on Craig yr Allt

View towards the Bristol Channel and Somerset

Craig yr Allt to Castle Coch (4.8 miles/7.7 kilometres)

I felt quite sorry for the River Taff, squeezed in between industrial estates, as it made its way slowly south towards the sea.  From our vantage point at the top of Craig yr Allt, we also slowly made our way down into the Taff valley, following the river for most of the rest of our route all the way to Cardiff.

Bridge at Taff's Well

BAM revived somewhat, as we sat on a bench on the Taff trail, munching chocolate.  We were a bit behind schedule at this stage, so we resolved to bomb it along the trail, which was now quite clearly signposted and took us into the Fforest Fawr, through a gap in the hills and down to the wonderful Castell Coch. The well-maintained trail made it easy for us to regain some time.

BAM on the Taff Trail

Although the Normans were the first to build a castle on this site, just outside the (difficult to pronounce) village called Tongwynlais, the current castle is very much 19th century, in its Gothic revival style, reminiscent of something from a Hollywood movie.  We didn't go inside the castle, but walked around the grounds a bit, before making our way down to the village below.

Castell Coch front entrance

Castell Coch

Castle Coch to Gabalfa (4.4 miles/7.1 kilometres)

At Tongwynlais, we followed the Iron Bridge road down to the river and then the surprisingly busy path, alongside the river Taff, through Cardiff's outlying suburbs, Whitchurch and Llandaff, all the way to the high-rise apartments in working-class Gabalfa.

The Lewis Arms at Tongwynlais

The river looked like it was in more of a hurry at this point and we passed lots of families with kids, enjoying the late afternoon sunshine and a chance to take the dog for a walk.

The Taff Snail

Attractive building at Whitchurch

Gabalfa to Cardiff Castle (2.5 miles/4 kilometres)

By the time we got to the far end of Bute Park, we were completely mucked up to the eyeballs and in no fit state to stop in at a restaurant in Cardiff city centre.  So we made a pit-stop at the National Express bus station in Sophia Gardens where we got a code for the station toilets, so we could change out of our muddy boots and hiking trousers, into clean shoes and jeans.

High rise buildings at Gabalfa

Footbridge over the river Taff

Unfortunately the men's toilets were out of action, so BAM had to smuggle me into the ladies' loo, where the lights weren't working, so I found myself changing in the dark.  BAM being BAM was very organised and had a head torch to facilitate the transformation from muddy hill-walker to respectable citizen.

The River Taff at Taff Castle (aka Cardiff)

I'm very fond of Cardiff, having been there quite a few times before for work and as a tourist, so it's always lovely to go back and they've done a lot of work to the city centre, making it very attractive to visitors and residents alike.  I have a favourite restaurant there, Giovanni's, so I was able to introduce BAM to the Giovanni experience and their quatro staggioni pizza went down a treat after a cold day in the outdoors!

Cardiff Castle

Cardiff Church Street

Access for wheelchair users

The first part of this walk, on higher ground was pretty inaccessible for wheelchair users, however, the Taff trail looked fairly accessible and it runs all the way from Cardiff to Brecon which, at 55 miles, would make for good multi-day wheelchairing!

Image credits:

All photos were taken by me - please feel free to reuse them under the following Creative Commons license:

- Attribution (especially to this blog post)
- Share-alike
- Non-commercial

Reculver - Maponimoes, Marshes and a very Merry Christmas!

Reculver marked our second foray into Kent, although both myself and BAM (Best Aussie Mate) have walked on the Kent coast several times with our walking group 'The Odd Weekenders' and we're about to embark on a separate project to walk the Saxon Shore way, which runs 163 miles around the coast (well, mostly!) from Gravesend to Hastings.

I have a real soft spot for Kent, as it was the part of England I first stayed in, when I was working in the strawberry farms around Maidstone, many moons ago.  I always enjoy going back there, although the changing politics of the past few years has made Kent seem more isolated and further away from London than ever!

Lodging and victuals

But Kent isn't that far from London at all - at least when the trains are working!  I'm quite delayed in writing this blog post, so the walk itself took place just before Christmas, which meant my being accompanied on the train, late on a Friday evening, by a very glamorous BAM, who dropped into her work Christmas party, before hoofing it down to Kent with me.

Dilapidated house in the heart of Brexitland (not our hotel!)

There's very little at Reculver, by way of accommodation, so we decided to overnight in Herne Bay instead, staying at the Premier Inn Canterbury North.  BAM is quite fond of the Premier Inn and our Chester walks have seen her rising through the ranks of the Premier Inn's card-holding customers, so she gets all kinds of discounts and special treatments these days. She's like Premier Inn royalty now!

Not intimidated by Her Premier's royal presence, I enjoyed a couple of celebratory Christmas drinks at the hotel's on site restaurant, as we exchanged Christmas gifts and played maponimoes, spreading our European map and flag cards all over the table, in what could only be described as an act of open rebellion in that heart of Brexitland.

Premier Inn Canterbury North to Reculver (3.1 miles/5 kilometres)

We started out bright and early the next day, crossing over the railway line, before turning right onto the Reculver Road, leading all the way down to the coast.

It's an easy walk from Herne Bay to Reculver, along the cliff top at Reculver Country park, you get a wonderful view of Reculver's main attraction, the remains of St Mary's Church, its twin towers rising dramatically above the surrounding landscape, with the waves crashing on the seashore just below.

BAM walking towards Reculver

I feel that Reculver is pushing it a bit, as far as chesters go and it's fair to say that the chester connection is barely noticeable in the modern toponym that the village has carried into the 21st century.  But I can vouch for Reculver's chester credentials, as it was the site of a Roman castrum, which they called Regulbium, which became Raculfcaester and eventually, Reculver.

The twin towers of St Mary's, Reculver

Ruins of St Mary's at Reculver

The current ruins of St Mary's date back to the 12th century and the original Anglo-Saxon church on this site was built in the 7th century, being constructed from stone in the ruins of the Roman castrum. Reculver was an important place, once upon a time and I can't help wondering if it could have ended up being the capital of England, if history had dealt it different cards.

Map of the Kentish coast in Roman times

One of my favourite things at the site is a map which shows what Kent looked like in Roman times. Reculver was surrounded by the sea on several sides, being a port on the Wantsum Channel, an ancient body of water that separated the Isle of Thanet from the rest of England.  The land underneath the Wantsum Channel has now been reclaimed, which explains why the Saxon Shore way, which we were following for the first half of this walk, suddenly turns inland, as it follows the original shoreline, known to Romans and Saxons alike.

All of this got me thinking about the fact that there aren't many European capitals that are on the sea - London, Paris, Berlin, Rome - they're all a safe distance from invading armies!  Reculver would have been a seaside capital, in the tradition of Dublin, Venice, Barcelona and, as we gazed across the empty landscape towards Thanet, I tried to imagine a city of millions spread out in front of me - a kind of, London-by-the-Sea!

Reculver to Grays Farm (1.7 miles/2.8 kilometres)

So far, so familiar territory.  The real adventure was leaving the coast at Reculver and following the Saxon Shore way along the former Wantsum Channel, passing under the railway again and coming up to the road at Grays Farm.

Reclaimed land in the Wantsum Channel

The A299 hurtled beneath us, uninterested in the details of our journey, as these roads rarely are.  It's an impressive road, all the same, and was built in the 1930's as an unemployment relief project, easing the pressure on Canterbury, where previously, all traffic to the Isle of Thanet had to pass through.

The A299 aka The Thanet Way

Grays Farm to Boyden Gate (2.1 miles/3.3 kilometres)

It was a very beautiful walk from Grays Farm to Boyden Gate.  Although it's winter, you could still get a sense of Kent as the Garden of England and we passed through lots of orchards, some of which still had apples on the trees.  Like East Anglia, Kent is surprisingly depopulated and we really felt this in the lonely landscape around the Chislet Marshes, with no sign of human life at all, just the odd farmhouse and lonely trees in the middle of fields.

Lonely road along the edge of Chislet Marshes

Orchard near Boyden Gate

There wasn't much life in Boyden Gate either, but we'll always remember it as the place where we had possibly the most precarious lunch break ever, perched on a collapsed bench at the end of Chapel Lane!  I had a yummy sandwich with turkey and cranberry sauce - a bit extravagant, but in keeping with the Yuletide spirit.

Fallen apples

Bench at Church Lane, Boyden Gate

Boyden Gate to Grove Ferry (1.9 miles/3 kilometres)

From Boyden Gate, we crossed a field leading to the intriguingly named Chitty Lane and continued along the edge of the marshes, over Walmer's Hill, across Island Road and then downhill to the River Stour at Grove Ferry.

Lonely tree on Walmer's Hill

Riverside at Grove Ferry

Grove Ferry looked like a pleasant place, with an attractive riverside pub and we're familiar with the River Stour, having walked along it once before, from Tonbridge to Hever.  There is another Stour in Suffolk, which is where Constable painted the works around Dedham Vale - I've also been there and I can say that Kent's Stour is just as pretty, if not as well-known as its East Anglian cousin.

Swan boat at Grove Ferry

Grove Ferry to Stodmarsh (2.4 miles/3.8 kilometres)

At Grove Ferry we bade farewell to the Saxon Shore way and picked up the Stour Valley way, heading southwest towards the village of Stodmarsh.

This part of the walk was incredibly beautiful and wild - like being in another country really and so far-removed from civilisation.  Stodmarsh is the site of a well-looked after national nature reserve and the bird life was teeming around the marsh and lakes of the Stodmarsh valley.

Stodmarsh valley

Stodmarsh is an incredibly pretty village and there was some kind of service going on in St Mary's Church.  As we sat on a bench in the village green, we watched handsomely dressed young couples, taking their babies and young children for a walk and a break, no doubt, from the tedium of the service.

St Mary's at Stodmarsh

Stodmarsh village sign

Stodmarsh to Fordwich (2.6 miles/4.2 kilometres)

We followed the road from Stodmarsh, all the way to Elbridge Farm, where I bought some apples, depositing my coins in the honesty box.  The path dipped into a field full of cows, which BAM bravely faced, as I stuck to the road, embracing my bovinophobia!

The path through Trenleypark Wood

At Elbridge Farm, we left the road and followed the Stour Valley way through Trenleypark Wood, emerging at the river again, just outside Fordwich, yet another pretty little village.

We had a lovely meal at the George and Dragon in Fordwich, splashing out on mains, drinks and dessert (must have been the Christmas spirit!) before crossing the river to Sturry, where we picked up our early evening train back to London.

Access for Wheelchair users

Country road near Chislet

The way between Herne Bay and Reculver is pretty accessible and a lovely route to follow.  The former Wantsum Channel is pretty inaccessible, however the roads around Grays Farm, Boyden Gate and Chislet would make for very good wheelchairing.

The Stour valley path is pretty inaccessible to wheelchair users on the Grove Ferry side and the Stodmarsh Road is quite busy, so I wouldn't recommend it, although a visit to Stodmarsh would be worthwhile and the Stour Valley path from Stodmarsh is accessible to a certain point - it could make a nice round trip from the village.  

Image credits:

All photos were taken by me - please feel free to reuse them under the following Creative Commons license:

- Attribution (especially to this blog post)
- Share-alike

- Non-commercial

Winchester - Kings, Watercress and White Campion

"Wintonia" by Zacwill16 

Winchester was one of the original 'chesters' that we had in mind, when we undertook to visit all of the 'chesters' in Britain, almost five years ago!  Since then, we've visited 33 'chesters' and we're just over halfway through our list!  By that reckoning, this project will keep us busy until 2020 at least!

Winchester is a wonderful place and it was with no small amount of excitement that we boarded the busy Weymouth-bound train at Waterloo station, on a Friday evening after work.

Whilst the other passengers loosened their ties and slipped off their high heels, after another busy week in the office, we contemplated the passing greenery of north Hampshire and wondered about the delights that Winchester would have to offer.

Lodgings and Victuals

Our first stop was for dinner at The Chesil Rectory, Winchester's oldest house.  It's a wonderful building, dating back to 1450 and the food is divine! Accommodation is quite expensive in Winchester, so we'd decided to economise by staying at the Premier Inn on Easton Lane.  Not quite as old as the Chesil Rectory(!), but a nice place to stay all the same - as with our Leicester experience, everything went smoothly, the staff were very friendly and we had a good night's sleep.

The Chesil Rectory in Winchester

I've never had to reserve a table for breakfast before, but it was worth it, for the gorgeous breakfast served up by The Corner House on Parchment Street. It's quite a trendy little cafe and soon filled up with hungry tourists looking for Eggs Alresford and home-made waffles!

Breakfast at the Corner House

Bishop's Sutton to New Alresford (1.5 miles/2.4 kilometres)

We decided to start our walk in the countryside and make our way back in to Winchester, as this is an easier way to manage things and make sure we have time for dinner before jumping on the train back to London.  We took bus number 64 from Winchester bus station and this follows the Alresford Road, along the top of Temple Valley, with good views of the South Downs on the way.

We jumped off the bus at Bishop's Sutton and set off up Whitehall Lane for the 1.5 mile walk to New Alresford.  Walking along Whitehall Lane reminded me of a time, many years ago, when I spent six weeks picking apples near a village called Swanmore, in the south of Hampshire.  It was a stark contrast from the damp October days trudging along the Droxford Road, to this pleasant early summer walk along Whitehall Lane.

Bishop's Sutton

Whitehill Lane near Bishop's Sutton

We very quickly found our 'flower of the walk' on Whitehall Lane, as there was an abundance of silene latifolia or white campion named after the Greek satyr Silenus - the flower, like the Greek deity, is a symbol of the forest and, despite the rather cold summer we're having this year, we'll always remember our Winchester walk as a bright green one, with incredibly foliage and trees reaching across the lane ways over our heads!

White campion

I was also quite interested to see a field full of solar panels - a new kind of 'plant' that wasn't around when I first explored the Hampshire countryside!

Solar panels near Whitehill Lane

New Alresford to Ovington (1.2 miles/2 kilometres)

We didn't actually visit New Alresford, but skirted along the bottom of the town on Tichborne Down. New Alresford is famous for its watercress and we walked past several watercress beds on Spring Gardens.

Watercress beds near New Alresford

New Alresford is also the meeting point for the Wayfarer's way, a 70-mile drover's track from Walbury Hill in Berkshire to Emsworth on the Hampshire coast and St Swithun's Way, a 34-mile path from Winchester to Farnham in Surrey.  We were mostly following St Swithun's Way to Winchester, although this overlapped at times with Allan King's Way, the Itchen Way and Pilgrim's Way!

Wayfarer's Walk

We've been on Allan King's way before, as it links Portchester to Winchester and we walked the first ten miles of this path back in November 2010.  It does feel a little bit like assembling a giant jigsaw with these 'Chester' walks, or perhaps we're connecting ley lines together, as part of some noble pre-historic project!

Ovington to Itchen Abbas (2.2 miles/3.6 kilometres)

Ovington is a sleepy little hamlet, in the middle of a small wood and we got our first real sight of the Itchen river, as we passed an attractive-looking riverside pub called the Bush Inn and crossed a couple of footbridges to reach the neighbouring hamlet of Itchen Stoke.  After Itchen Stoke we crossed the river again and made our way along Lovington Lane until we got to Yavington Farm.

River Itchen near Ovington

At Yavington Farm we left the lane and climbed up a small hill through wheat fields towards Avington Park golf course and a road which took us across the river again to the village of Itchen Abbas.  We got a glimpse of the 16th-century Avington Park House in the distance and there was an interesting breed of sheep in the field below the golf course, which I believe were Black Welsh mountain sheep.

Countryside near Ovington

Black Welsh Mountain Sheep

Itchen Abbas is another pretty village, with a lovely old mill - apparently it was the inspiration for Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies.  

Itchen Abbas to Easton (1.5 miles/2.4 kilometres)

From Itchen Abbas we followed a small lane behind the church and then a pathway along the bottom of the villagers' gardens, across the lane at Chilland and through a meadow leading to Martyr Worthy.

It was interesting to pass through a field with pigs in it, as we haven't seen many pigs on our walks, although we've seen cows, horses and sheep-aplenty!  We also passed through a herd of white bullocks that looked rather picturesque as they cooled off in the Itchen River.

Pig near Itchen Abbas

White bullocks in the River Itchen

At Martyr Worthy, we started seeing the first obvious signs of the Pilgrim's Way, another path that starts at Winchester and follows the ancient Pilgrim's route from Winchester Cathedral to the grave of Thomas Becket in Canterbury.

Pilgrim's Way sign post at Martyr Worthy

From Martyr Worthy, we headed downhill and crossed another footbridge over the River Itchen to get to the village of Easton, a wonderful place full of thatched cottages, where we had a refreshment stop at the village shop, basking in the afternoon heat.

Cottage in Easton

St Mary's church in Easton

Easton to Winchester (2.9 miles/4.6 kilometres)

We zig-zagged through Easton, past the Cricketer's Arms and St Mary's church, before following a path through some fields, leading to the M3 underpass and the dubious outskirts of east Winchester, made up in equal part of industrial estates, homeless camps and teenage drinking spots!

M3 underpass between Easton and Winchester

Arriving in Winchester, we found that the sun was shining gloriously and people were strolling along the High Street and having picnics in the gardens in front of the Guildhall.

Winchester Guidhall

We were quite interested in Hamo Thornycroft's statue of King Aelfrid, that stands in Winchester's Eastgate and it reminded us of the former glory of Winchester, which was once capital of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex.  Actually, Winchester has a very long history and was the capital of the Belgae Celts, even before the Romans came along and made it one of their main settlements.

King Aelfrid by Hamo Thornycroft

Another piece of the jigsaw puzzle, Winchester had strong connections with the Roman fort at Silchester, as well as a couple of 'chesters' we haven't yet visited, Chichester and Dorchester-on-Thames.

Buttercross in Winchester

We continued to contemplate the map of Roman Britain as we treated ourselves to some standard 'pub grub' at the Bishop on the Bridge, before making our way uphill to the station and our train back to London.

63 miles to London

Access for Wheelchair users

BAM on the path from New Alresford to Ovington

The walk, the way that we did it, jumps between country lanes and riverside paths, so would not be completely accessible to wheelchair users.  An alternative, accessible walk could be created by sticking to the country lanes only, although there might be some difficulty getting over the Alresford Road to Ovington.  

By skipping the Itchen Stoke bit and following Lovington Lane out of Ovington, you could pretty much continue all the way to Easton on the left-bank of the River Itchen. Wheelchairing on roads, even quiet ones, can be pretty dangerous, so I would follow this route with care.  

Winchester itself is a very pretty place and I'm sure that there would be enough wheelchair-accessible paths around the city to make a visit worthwhile.  

Image credits:

All photos were taken by me, please feel free to reuse them, according to the Creative Commons license:

- Attribution (especially to this blog post)
- Share alike
- Non-commercial