Only the NCP multi-storey car park threatened to come between us and The Police. As seems to be the way of things, of all the car parks in all the world, ours was the one with the machine that couldn’t recognise money. After swift negotiations with a remote engineer, we had only to fumble a little at the barriers, cause a respectable traffic jam, and we were on our way!
Cardiff, and the Park ‘n’ Ride bus took our £10 before dropping us about fifty feet from the car park and a good half hours walk from the stadium. Although undoubtedly cheated, we were grateful for the opportunity to laugh at how Gain’s shoulders scraped the ceiling of top deck, his head tucked low into his chest.
We paid homage to a few Torchwood landmarks as we galloped through the city towards Kebab Street for our evening meal of pie and chips. 
Fully fuelled, we were punch-pleased to enter the Millennium Stadium by the main entrance and celebrated with the purchase of tour t-shirts. There was opportunity to work off that pie with the high-altitude climb to our seats, which were located near the token drunken fans. This worked out brilliantly as really got us all dancing and singing, with Gain taking up the opportunity to again play air-guitar with Adele’s left leg. We were reportedly part of a 55,000 strong crowd.
A photo had to be taken of Gain enjoying the live performance of Roxanne; After all, that was the reason for us being here!
We drove out of Cardiff that night and headed for Brecon Beacons National Park, coming to rest in a remote lay-by when our eyes refused to stay open. Too exhausted to care for comfort, we slept as we sat and awoke in the morning surrounded by a burger van and its many customers! It transpired that we were in a fishing hotspot, extremely beautiful in the morning mist.
Saturday was to be a day of travel, journeying North and chancing to meet with the occasional local.
As we drove up through the Brecon Beacons we spied a line of men at the roadside, each armed with binoculars. Excitedly thinking we had stumbled upon a spot of birding, we pulled over sharpish and leapt from the car to ask what was about. A suspicious man replied 'hounds' and turned back to his business. 'Hounds?' thought we. Neither of us had ever thought about the possibility of wild hound spotting before. That very moment, a hound appeared on the adjacent mountainside and scampered across the landscape. From his point of appearance came a band of huntsmen on horseback, all dressed in red, white and black. Hounds! a FOX HUNT! Sadistic blood sports being rather low on our list of entertainment, we did not take any images of this parade and left immediately.
The landscape was incredibly beautiful but we were looking for a dark yet safe site, where we could park up and observe for the night. This place was to be overlooking Llyn Clywedog reservoir, near the town of Llanidloes in Powys.
Bearing more than a slight resemblance to Haweswater (a favourite of ours), Llyn Clywedog felt like a home from home.
We whiled away the rest of Saturday and the best of Sunday feeding the birds, cooking on the hill-top, snoozing in the car, reading in the fields and, of course, observing the night skies.
This picture shows Venus, Saturn, and Regulus of Leo in said order from bottom to top.
We cooked our Sunday evening meal on the hill side, awaiting moon rise, holding out for one last observation through the exceptionally well collimated telescope. Once accomplished, we packed everything up and headed home to Huddersfield.
1 comment:
It's been a while since i've read your blog and so it's only now i've realised that Gain's grown hair!!! When did you decide to go for the floppy look? Very nice, very boy band.
Nice photos of Wales too, why didn't you take a photo of Kebab Street though? You want to capture the real Wales, don't you?
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