Forget New England, go to Wales! posted 11/5/2007 6:53:48 AM | 0 kudos what's this?     report abuse tagged: travel, wales, colours

jelltex

Well, here we are back from our travels; 1540 miles in 6 days. Not bad on an island as small as this. We went to Wales first of all, for a concert (more of that in another blog perhaps?) and last Tuesday headed out of Cardiff and its errant goats into the valleys that used to be the powerhouse of the worlds most dynamic economy. Let me tell you, coupled with an azzure blue sky, the autumn colours were just stunning. Trees and woods as far as the eye can see, and thanks to the lack of a good autumn storm, all with their leaves still in place. I got some great pictures, and am currently uploading some of them onto my Flickr page (details on request!).
One thought that did occur to me was that what was the workshop of the world is now just a large museum. At the end of the tour around Big Pit I said something along those lines to our guide. I replied that it was a horrible and dangerous job down the pits, and life was better now. Although he was one of the lucky ones with a job. It is odd to stand at the pithead and look at the hills around and realise they were all slagheaps back in the day, and now green and reclaimed by nature. The brickworks that mark the site of the ironworks at Blanavon are more like the gravestone of a giant, long since departed. My point is this; jobs dwn the mine and in the ironworks were tough and dangerous, but paid well and employed thousands; now where entire towns used to go to work, a few 'industrial units' employ a handfull, the rest have to commut to the latger towns to work in retail to sell other lands goods at minimum wage. Those who risked their lives daily to bring up lumps of black gold should and must not be forgotten, and were heroes and people of which this land should be pround and be ashamed of now they are are on the scrapheap. Hopefully such places will rise again to have the prosperity its people deserve.

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Blogs by jelltex: Last week: part 2 Last week: part 1 Travels on a Small Island #11: Thou Shall Not have Blood Transfusions. One Year On.... Forget New England, go to Wales! Tessie Further to my cheesecake recipe: digestive biscuits, everything you need to know Cornish Safron Buns Baked Vanilla Cheesecake (for foodies)