During the course of last evening, Mum and Dad had a chat about what to do today. Because of the cottage location, mobile and tv signals were non-existent but they had both checked the weather reports whilst they had a phone signal in Dolgellau. It looked like a fine, dry day was ahead of them and so Dad chose the Mystery Day Out envelope with the codename Choo Choo.
They were pleased to see that the weather was just as dry as promised when they got up this morning. Mum popped out for a moment to look at the hills. The sunshine came out and the sheep looked very content.
Valley 2 looked green and inviting. Lucky sheep!
Some of them looked like they were up to something.
This babbling brook ran right alongside the cottage and down the hill where it met the Afon Cerist. It made a lovely sound and Mum thought it would be lovely to sit in the garden in summer.
After breakfast, Mum and Dad made an early start as the envelope said to be at the postcode for 10.15 prompt. The drive would take about 55 minutes so Mum had booked tickets yesterday to avoid disappointment. They set off down the hill.
Through the first gate. See you later Fron Dirion!
Through the second gate, near the outbuilding without windows or doors.
Down over the fields and through the third and final gate.
They went over Death Mountain and over the two bridges and joined the main road. It took them past Dinas Mawddwy, the nearest village and through Machynlleth with its lovely clock tower. The drive was very nice and the sunshine grew stronger.
They found themselves driving down and down into Aberystwyth, noticing a castle by the sea on the way, and parked in the car park for the Vale of Rheidol Railway.
Before long, they had been to the office where Mum picked up their tickets and they had had a quick browse around the shop. Then Mum and Dad made their way onto the platform where the carriages sat on the track waiting for passengers. Mum asked Dad where he would like to sit and, since they're both a bit bonkers, they chose the open air summer carriage. They were the only ones that did....funny that!
The waiting carriages.
The engine chuffed back and joined onto the carriages and with a pip of the whistle, they were away! They chugged slowly out of Aberystwyth and crossed a road at a level crossing. One of the engineers had to get out and press the plunger to activate the warning lights for cars. Mum told Dad it felt a bit like a pelican crossing, but for trains.
Mum liked the engineer's purple dungarees.
They carried on along the track, journeying over wide, flat countryside. The wind was a bit chilly in the summer carriage and Mum and Dad's eyes watered a fair bit. Dad was sitting behind Mum so that they could both have the best view. When Mum turned round to Dad she had to giggle...his eyes were streaming and he had bits of coal dust on his face.
Mum obviously had her camera at the ready. Taking photographs was quite hard because as soon as she focused on something, the train had moved them along. But she did her best to capture lots of memories.
Geese in a watery field.
Two red kites!
Lots of sheep.
They stopped at a few stations, sometimes to shovel coal into the furnace and another time to take on more water.
Glug, glug, glug.
After a while, the train started to climb and the scenery changed to more hilly surroundings. The little engine had to work quite hard to climb the 700m into the hills to their destination. Up and up they climbed until Mum and Dad were looking down into the valley at all of the interesting things to see. Houses, birds, frightened sheep, a dam, a weir and the meandering river.
And then the train carrying Mum and Dad arrived at Devil's Bridge. They were feeling a little bit chilly from sitting in the summer carriage and were ready for a walk to warm themselves up. They made haste for the road but Mum took a moment to take a picture of the little engine that had carried them all the way into the hills.
The little engine and green too, Mum's favourite!
In the envelope was a map of Devil's Bridge which mentioned two available walks. One took 10 minutes and the other took 45 minutes. Mum and Dad chose the 45 minute walk as they usually walk at a good pace, but they hoped they wouldn't miss the train back to Aberystwyth!
They found the turnstile and popped in their money and entered the walking trail. Straight from the off there was a viewing platform to see the bridge that gave the village its name. The famous bridge is actually three bridges built on top of each other. The first one was built between 1075-1200, the second was built on top of the first in 1753 and then in 1901, an iron bridge was built on top of the second!
Here are the three bridges that make up Devil's Bridge.
Mum and Dad quickly moved on and made their way down the trail. Going down is always easier so they thought they would keep a fast pace in order to have time to ascend at the other side. It was very steep indeed and the trail was quite challenging with roots and leave sand moss and uneven steps.
It wasn't long before the intrepid pair got their first view of the famous waterfalls.
The waterfall fell in stages.
And came out into the valley on the other side.
Mum and Dad moved along with a great pace, despite the roots and wonky steps. Well, that was until they discovered...
Jacob's Ladder!
Jacob's Ladder is a set of 100 continuous steps. And they are not just any steps, oh no. They are steep, uneven, scary steps and even Mum felt a bit perturbed by them. Metal barriers jutted out all the way down from alternating sides, probably to catch falling people! Mum and Dad's pace definitely slowed right down for this bit! Mum stopped on the way down to take a photo of one of the waterfalls.
Holding tightly onto the handrail once more, they carefully picked their way down. The steps seemed to go on forever but finally they found the bottom.
None of Mum's photos managed to show quite how steep the steps were.
Around the corner was an unusual little bridge. It was very curved.
Mum and Dad climbed over the bridge and started making their way up the other side of the gorge. There were plenty of viewing platforms which gave the hyperventilating couple time to catch their breath.
With aching, heavy legs and hearts beating nineteen to the dozen, Mum and Dad were no longer feeling the cold. They'd had quite a hard walk and had time constraints to take into consideration but...they did it! They only took about 30 minutes to do the 45 minute walk and arrived back at the station in plenty of time to buy a sandwich from the station cafe.
It was unanimously decided that sandwiches would taste better whilst tucked away in one of the closed carriages and so our leg-weary pair climbed aboard and settled down to eat. They enjoyed the ride back to Aberystwyth and the sun carried on shining for them all the way.
But the day didn't end there, just this blog post =)
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