Tenby, Wales to Builth Wells, Wales

Friday, June 13

Another glorious warm, sunny day greeted us this morning. We had packed last night so after breakfast, we were ready to head off. The owners of the next B&B we are staying in had emailed us yesterday to give us a suggested route to follow from Tenby to Builth Wells that took us through one of Wales' favourite son's - poet Dylan Thomas' hometown - Laugharne. We decided to follow their suggestion.

Dylan Thomas' Boathouse in Laughharne

The "garage" where he did much of his writing

The view across the estuary

We drove through more beautiful Welsh countryside and more pretty stone villages and soon were in Laugharne. The Welsh are great with all their signposts but, of course, they are written in Welsh first then English. The Welsh names take up about three lines so by the time you have found where the English begins, the car is up to or past the sign! We finally found a sign pointing to Dylan Thomas' boathouse where he had lived for a number of years and used the garage - more like a pretty boathouse - for his writing. The area is absolutely gorgeous and situated on a wide estuary that is very tidal, and true to form for us, the tide was out! There was a sign in the car park warning that in very high tides the car park is covered by water and tomorrow is one of those high tides. The views were lovely and certainly inspirational although, after reading some of Dylan's poems, we were not sure just what was inspiring him! We walked along the edge of the estuary and enjoyed the beautiful views as well as the warm sun until we got back to the car then it was off to Builth Wells.

Quaint villages and beautiful rural views

The countryside we passed through was really sensational - we thought even prettier than Cornwall - and the roads were mostly normal width!! Builth Wells is in the centre of Wales so we really enjoyed the change from seaside to the rural views. We arrived a little ahead of our schedule and too early for the 4.00 pm check-in time so took the opportunity to drive around Builth Wells town centre. It was bigger than we had expected and very attractive with more stone houses, churches, pubs and shops. A number of the streets in the town centre are one-way so our Sat Nav had a hissy fit. Thankfully, Smithfield Farm B&B was well sign-posted and we found it despite being constantly told "when possible do a U-turn". The B&B is situated about 3 miles out of town and is actually on a working farm. They were busy harvesting the hay hoping the forecast for possible light showers during the night was wrong.

Inside The Meadow Suite

Glen, the owner met us as we arrived and took us to The Meadow Suite. She had contacted us before we left Australia to tell us she had upgraded us to this suite and we were thrilled when we saw it. It is truly a home away from home and all the little extras provided will ensure we have a great stay. The views from the suite are amazing so we were anxious to get unpacked so that we could just sit and take it in. We are really looking forward to the next four days.

Harvesting the hay outside The Meadow Suite

We had a great meal in one of the pubs in town but were disappointed to find it had started to spit with rain as we left so we hope this won't negatively affect the hay baling planned for tomorrow at Smithfield Farm.

Our view after the light shower

 

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