EJ and Rhe's World Trip: November 2011

Sunday, 20 November 2011

WALES 11 November – 19 November 2011 (Cardiff, Swansea, Llandovery, Llandeilo)

Hello!

Cardiff: We arrived in Cardiff and spotted the massive Millenium Stadium. We checked in to the lovely NosDa Hostel and went to explore the city centre. We walked to the castle and saw the GB Rally cars rolling in to the finish of their big race. Next day we walked to Cardiff Bay and relaxed at the hostel. We met, and drank with, a lot of lovely people here, heaps of Aussies and Irish too! We got some tickets to see the Cardiff Devils Ice Hockey play so we went and watched it with Reece, our Canadian friend. It was our first Ice Hockey match and we are now officially hooked lol!

Swansea: Swansea is a lovely seaside city and we cannot get over how friendly everyone is in Wales!! Once we were settled into our hostel, which had a very eccentric owner who would have been able to talk underwater with a mouth full of marbles haha, we walked down the esplanade to Mumbles. We had a nice lunch and froze our bottoms off near the pier. The weather has been quite erratic, some days it’s freezing cold and others are quite mild and sunny (they had snow here this time last year!) We took the coach out to Three Cliffs Bay and Rhossili to see the ‘Worm’s Head,’ it was fantastic. The coastline here and really gorgeous, we loved how the sheep farms just go straight to the edge of the cliffs and down to the beach haha. The trees are now a lovely mix of orange, green, pink, red and yellow!

Llandovery, Llandeilo: We caught the scenic train from Swansea to Llandovery to meet our relative Pat Smith. Pat is the mayor of Llandovery and she kindly showed us around the town and the surrounding areas. We enjoyed dinner with her and Rosie, meeting Gwyn and the family and visiting the big dam. Pat made us traditional Welsh food as well! We had cawl for dinner, Barra Brith for afternoon tea and she sent us off on the train with two packets of Welsh cakes J Pat was very hospitable to us and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting her and seeing the area where they live. We hope they visit Australia again so we can show her the same kindness J

Mini!

Millenium

Rally Entertainment

Cardiff Castle

Cardiff Devils (Fight one minute in)

Reece and EJ

Cardiff Castle

Castle near Mumbles

Castles near Three Cliffs Bay

Worms Head (Rhossili)

Tai Chi/ Yoga/ Aerobics on the head land...........Cause thats what we do.

EJ, Amanda, Rosie and Pat :)

Rhossili Bay

Knight in Llandovery (be-headed)

Windy on top of the Dam with Rosie and Pat

Llandovery Town Centre

Castle Ruins in Llandovery

Dam near Llandovery

Oh, and EJ has officially tried Welsh pantry faggots haha! Delicious! ;)

EJnRHE xx

Monday, 14 November 2011

ENGLAND 8 November – 11 November 2011 (Bristol)

Hey!

We rode in style on the coach from London to Bristol. Here we walked all around the city, enjoying the German Christmas market stalls, big shopping centre, the suspension bridge, the pump house and the graffiti that litters the whole area. We strolled along the floating harbour, stopping for coffee and cake all the way haha! The graffiti here was definitely some of the best we have seen, some of which belong to the infamous Banksy! Bristol has a very young vibe with heaps of bars, cafes and students about.

The Pump House

Graffiti!

Bristol Floating Harbour

X-mass lights already...

The SS Great britain

Bye For now..... ; )

Wednesday, 9 November 2011

ENGLAND 1 November – 8 November 2011 (Dartmoor National Park, Eden Project, Stithians Lake, St Ives, Lands End, London)

G’Day!

We have been busy little travellers this week! We made our way from Longleat through the gorgeous Dartmoor National Park and into Looe where we stayed the night. Next day we visited The Eden Project in Cornwall. We spent a day looking around at all the exhibitions, visiting the rainforest and Mediterranean biome’s and ‘The Core,’ yup that’s right, we went to the centre of the earth lol with our special little boots on.. After we made our way to Stithians Lake where we stayed at the Golden Lion Inn, a pub with a campsite out the back! We had an awesome meal here and stayed warm by the fire, meeting the locals and experimenting with new beers and ciders J

Next day we drove to St Ives and wandered around this beautiful little fishing and surfing town. Both of our brother in law’s would have loved it here haha! This place gets absolutely packed in Summer but it was relatively quiet and incredibly windy while we were there lol… All the same, we sampled the traditional Cornish pastie and had yet more coffee, beers and cake haha We stayed just out of St Ives, close to the beach and enjoyed watching the surfers from the massive sand dunes!

On to Land’s End, the most South-Western point of the UK and it was sooo windy haha. Rhe thought she would get windswept off the side of the cliff. It was incredibly gorgeous here, the rugged cliffs look out over the Isles of Scilly and the great Atlantic. Here we sampled the Cornish cream tea as well! We walked to the pub in the afternoon and settled in for Guy Fawkes Night! We watched some football with the locals and they had a huge bonfire out the back, the size of a house, it even had a boat in it haha! They set heaps of fireworks later on and had a pig on the spit for everyone. We had a couple of fireworks in the van so we set them off when we left too J

We got a phone call that night from a couple in London saying that they wanted to buy our van the next day! We packed up the next morning and drove the 6 hours to meet them. They looked through, made us an offer and the deal was done. Our little Thundie was moving onto his 11^th owner and we are now homeless and scared haha! We ended up travelling a total of 13,941km over our trip in the van!! All we did to it was new oil, Fillter, Wiper Blades, Few shelves, 12v Fan....... Happy days

And so the next part of our journey begins….. Backpacker style!