After the excitement of the last couple of days, we decided to take it easy, catch up on the blog and some laundry and enjoy the quiet, country life. After our laundry was hung up to dry and the blog was complete, we headed out for a walk around the farm. The cottage that we are staying in is dated around 1700 while the main house next door is dated around 1400. How cool is that?!?!? We wandered around the yard and the hills, petted some of the baby sheep, and basked in the sunshine and the amazing beauty of the area.

We needed to go to town to get some groceries so thought that while we were out and about with the car, we would do some exploring. We didn’t have to drive far to arrive at Lake Vyrnwy. This reservoir in the county of Powys, Wales, was built in the 1880s for Liverpool Corporation Waterworks to supply Liverpool with fresh water. It flooded the head of the Vyrnwy valley and submerged the village of Llanwddyn. (much like the Shellmouth Dam and Lake of the Prairies). There is a little convenience store and gas station that is still called Llanwddyn but I’m not sure if this would be on the original site. The dam itself is quite impressive. It was the first large stone-built dam in the United Kingdom, and is built partly out of great blocks of Welsh slate. It is 355 metres (1,165 ft) long and has a road bridge running along the top. It is decorated with over 25 arches and two small towers (each with four corner turrets). We drove across the dam, parked the car and walked along the lake, back across the dam and down into the sculpture park in the valley below the dam. The park is quite beautiful and there are several totems carved into standing trees and re-erected fallen trunks. At the little restaurant near the car park, we had a cream tea (finally!!) and a cider. As we headed out we stopped the car at the straining tower which looks like a miniature castle.  Its purpose is to filter out material in the water with a fine metal mesh, before the water flows along the aqueduct to Liverpool. This whole area is absolutely beautiful and so very peaceful. It is a bird watchers paradise and we enjoyed our walk, listening to the different bird calls and the gentle waterfalls coming through the dam. The peace was only disturbed by six fighter jets zooming through the valley on what I can only assume (and hope) was a training exercise. A pretty awesome first day in Wales!

Tomorrow we are off to meet relatives on my Gran’s side and hopefully track down her childhood home. Can’t wait!!

Our Airbnb…

We even have a wood stove…

Lake Vyrnwy.

The Straining Tower

Wood carvings out of trees…

This one is called the Pecking Order…

Tried some traditional Welsh Cider…

Here is some Welsh for you to learn – all the signs here are in both languages