devils_bridge

Devil's Bridge

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May 24

The Lion Rock proved to be a wonderful place to stay and we were tempted to stay another night since the following night had not been booked, but I knew that we had too far to go to get to Snowdonia to try to make it in one day. We drove through Fishguard and past it's beautiful harbor and then onto stopped at Cilgerran Castle . We seemed to have taken on the castle a day plan. This one is a bit of a ruin with rivers running well below it on two sides. It no doubt provide a fine outlook over the lands for it's former lord but is certainly no place to live now.

The Devil's Bridge area’s main attractions are the Mynach waterfalls far up the Rheidol River which flows into the Irish Sea at Aberystwyth. There are two ways to get there and we ended up taking both. After becoming briefly lost in Aberystwyth, we got some directions from a local that even he admitted were confusing but we somehow retained them and found our way to the Vale of Rheidol Train Station. This is a cute little train that has one open air car that we were thrilled to get a seat on. It is a relaxing option to driving. It chugs along at about 11 MPH and offers up some fine views on the way. Once at the top, the visitor has an hour to wander around and perhaps hike down and back up the Devils Bridge Falls . Well, we dallied around the train for a few minutes to try to get a decent picture and then walked towards the falls. We realized that we still didn't have a room booked for the night and thought that it would be nice if we walked around the corner and there was a lovely B&B waiting for us. SHAZAM! There it was, the Hafod Arms Hotel. We rang the bell and were met at the door by .... I'll call him Mini-Lurch. A spooky looking old man, hunched over who when we asked if a room was available replied that he would check and then closed the door, locking us out. He returned to say that space was available and that he would hold a room for us. We departed, thrilled with our discovery and wondering if there were other the rest of the Adams Family would appear on our return.

We found the entrance to the walk which, of course, has an entrance fee. We paid the £2.50 pp and realized that we had quite a challenge ahead of us. The walk was advertised as a 30 minute hike and we had 40 minutes to get back to the train or hike 11 miles back to town. The Welsh, like the Scots and the Irish, have a rather loose sense of travel times and a 30 minute trip here would require a pretty well trained athlete to complete. We went bounding down the trail which turned into rocky steps which turned into the VERY steep 99 steps of Jacobs Ladder. Though the literature I had read told me that the best view was at the bottom of the steps, the author of that brochure turned out to be a big fat liar. Felicity looked at her watch and decided to turn around and head back up the evil steps. I wandered around the bottom and then climbed up a bit in search of a better view. What neither of us realized was that the trail was a loop and brought us back to a more convenient exit using a trail that was a bit less perilous. I stopped and turned around just short of a spectacular view (which I would find out the next day) and at a point that was probably 2/3 to 3/4 of the way around the trail. At this point, I was running out of time and had to fly down to the bottom and then sprint to the top of the steepest steps I had ever seen and then scream through the woods to the exit and back to the train. By the time I arrived, I was able to look cool and collected with about 3 minutes to spare. The sweat had been wiped off my brow and Felicity (who had gotten back a few minutes before me) was frantic asking what to do if I didn't return in time. The breeze in the train for the ride back down was brisk, but felt great to me.

Back in Aberystwyth, we located the car and headed back up. A quick note: There is a free lot for train passengers right next to the cheap Pay and Display lot while the P&D lot is only .60p, the train lot is clearly a better idea and a few steps closer. The Hafod Hotel was £30 pp which we figured wasn't a bad deal for a hotel and less expensive than at least one B&B we had stayed in. It turned out that Mini-Lurch wasn't as spooky as we thought and was watching over the place on a slow week for his son and daughter. There was plenty of room for us as there were only 3 other guests that evening. He gave us a room on the 3rd floor which had a spectacular view over the valley that we would have enjoyed much more if it weren't for the serious pain that had developed in our legs from the sprint up the steps. Each trip up to our room brought increasing agony which was only slightly lessened by the presence of spirits (the liquid kind) in the attached pub. Dinner was also available in the restaurant for a higher price but our love of pub food had made it the food of choice everywhere we went. In this case, we figured the food was prepared by the same chef so the difference could not be that great. We were the only ones in the pub for most of the time we were there but eventually a local stepped in and chatted with the bar tender in Welsh. We dragged our near lifeless bodies up the stairs and collapsed.

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Fishguard Harbor	View from the train	View from the train	View from the train
More of the view from the train

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