#13 - Learn to play the bagpipes

I have become a significantly accomplished guitar player.  I can hokey around on the mandolin.  I can handle a few woodwinds still.  I can pull off being a simple beat man with djembe or congos, but there are a few instruments I have wanted to learn to play.  Accordion is high on my list, but now even higher are the bagpipes - no, not those noisy drive you out the room with your fingers in your ears bagpipes which are made by the Scottish, but these Welsh bagpipes being tuned up by my friend John Glenydd.  Well his real last name is Evans, but they call him Glenydd, because that's his house address in Llanfihangel-ar-Arth - how Welsh.

Cadair Idris on Video #2

Here are the next three video clips.  Climbing/arriving/down the next day.  Unfortunately I could not get my camera to work early in the morning for the sunrise.  It got grumpy and said it too cold.  The first three clips of the climb can be found here.

Cadair Idris on Video #1

I posted pictures of my climb and descent at Cadair Idris here and here before I returned from Wales.  For the reason I wanted to do this sleep over go here.

I am finally getting to posting these video clips I took on the climb.  Most Cadair Idris photos and video shots are taken in the summer so these show harsher winter scenes with their own unique beauty.  Plus it's simple proof I was there and slept on the mountain in the winter.  There are about 6 video clips I will post in two blog postings.  So here it is:








part two of the video series

My trip through Wales so far

I have been in Wales four days now.  It has been a whirlwind of a tour so far.  Pictures will come soon, but until then here's the quick of the story:

Stayed at Llanover chapel and experienced an evening service on Monday night with students from Korea.  Apparently over 500 Koreans a year pilgrimage to Hanover Chapel (English spelling) because Robert Jermain Thomas was martyred in Korea as a missionary, and the Korean Christians come to honor his memory at Llanover chapel.  My friend Stephen Price and his wife Stella purchased the parsonage and are fixing it up for people to be able to stay there.  They could use your help - check them out here.

The next day I was taken on a tour of Cardiff by the recently retired CEO of the Cardiff Council.  Byron Davies is quite proud of his city and gives a great tour with political/historical insights.  That evening we had a Welsh North American Business Chamber meeting at the Cayo Arms Pub in Cardiff with about 50 people.  Byron and I lead the meeting, and Connie Parry from Tomos Watkin Brewery provided free beer.

Yesterday I was in Swansea, and while at Starbucks (never really a good place for internet access) I ran into someone I knew from serving at the Gorlan in the Eisteddfod at Maes B.

I have since the traveled to the brewery,  gone to the Penderyn Distillery in the little village of Penderyn at the foothills of the Brecon Beacons, and I am writing from a pub/coffee-house called The Lounge in the city of Brecon right now.  It is the best place I have found yet for a American to get easy internet access from his Mac.  BTOpen does not always make it easy.  Plus The Lounge is just kinda cool.

I have been all across south Wales so far from Abergavenny (Y Fenni in Welsh) to Swansea, and am headed to the Felinfoel Brewery in Llanelli this afternoon.

I will be here until the 20th, so there are going to be more tales to tell.

#11 - Go to the world's oldest record store

At this point I am not quite sure how high each of the things on my list I want to do really belong.  It is not easy to number them in importance, or interest.  So I will number them as they come to me.  This does belong on my list of 1,000, and I have a chance of fulfilling it in a couple weeks.

Spillers is the world's oldest record store.  It is in Caerdydd (Cardiff), Wales.  In 1894 the store was opened, and it has remained in business since then.  It is not in the original location, but it is just around the corner in a space they had to move to in 1940, because they needed more room.

For me the experience is increased by the fact that it is in Caerdydd, Wales.  This means that the selection of Welsh music will better than anything I can find in the US.

I will be returning with pics from my stop at Spillers, and will post them here.

Update on #1 (Cadair Idris), and #9 - maybe

I have my ticket to Wales.  I will be headed there on February 5th on an American Airlines red-eye flight, and returning on February 22nd at a decent time of day.  I had enough points with a card to have to pay only the taxes, which were over $150, but that still beats any other price.

I will be south Wales for the first week, and then head north.  I will spend sometime with Paul Allen at The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Machynlleth, and my #1 thing to do before I die is very near CAT.  So I am planning on climbing Cadair Idris.  I suppose I might change my mind if the weather is too crazy for climbing and spending the night, but at this point I figure that climbing in the winter is a mad thing to do - that means according to the myth I should come down the next day a poet.  Go up mad, return a poet - not a bad exchange.  Of course, I could simply end up twice as crazy.

I will be lecturing at a castle on the 12th, and am looking forward to that experience.  Atlantic College meets in a castle.  Maybe I can find a way to stay there as well, and then I could fulfill #9 on my list as well.

#9 Sleep Overnight in a Castle

As is obvious to even the most casual observer of this blog - I am Cymrucentric.  The top of my list involves things to do in Cymru (Wales).  Although sleeping overnight in a castle anywhere would be fun, doing it in Wales would be even better.  Wales has more castles than anywhere in the world for its area.  If the English weren't building them to keep the Welsh down, the Welsh were building them to try to keep the English away.  So now there 600 or so castles or remains of castles across a land the size of Massachusetts.  That's almost enough castles for everybody to own one!

I've been to Caernarfon which walls still run through the city, Caerphilly (where there are working siege machines!), Chepstow sitting high above the Wye River, and a host of smaller ruins some of which names I can not remember.  I have yet to sleep in a castle though.

There are some castles in Wales which have become accommodations for tourists.  Craig-y-Nos, which I have driven past a dozen times, and have not been able to stop yet was once the home of famous opera Diva Adelina Patti.  Castell Ruthin (Ruthin Castle) also offers accommodations and fine dining.

I am hoping to go a little more rustic and hang with some students at Atlantic College where I will lecture in February, and stay the night St. Donat's Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan.  Someone's working on that for me - we'll see.

#4 - Coasteering Along the Pembrokeshire Coast

Wild waves crash against the craggy cliffs. In a land known for having some of the world's highest tides, and fastest ocean currents, small neoprene clad bodies scamper along the edge of danger at once swimming, then clinging to rocks, then climbing, then diving into the roiling seas. This is called Coasteering. I have not done it yet, but since I first heard about this strange sport created along the wild coastline of Pembrokeshire, South Wales I have been yearning to dive into the it.

Here is a description from the gang at Preseli Venture: "cliff jumping, climbing, rock gully swimming, cave exploration, rock scrambling, and wave riding...." Okay, who's ready for that really fun sounding sport?

This makes #4 on the list of things I want to do before I die. Maybe I should have placed it further down the list in order to make sure I don't die before I accomplish many of these.

So here are a couple TV personalities doing some coasteering on a calm day:


Here's what it looks like with a few waves. I want the waves when I go!


Here's a place called the toilet:

#3 Nant Gwrtheyrn: Immersion in Welsh

The top three things I want to do lie within a short distance of one another. This third on my list of 1,000 lies along the pilgrimage route to Ynys Enlli. It is the Welsh Language and Heritage Centre at the once abandoned quarry town of Nant Gwrtheyrn now restored as place for immersion in Welsh language learning. Week long lessons in a wide range of levels from rank beginner to fledgling poets can be found at Nant Gwrtheyrn.

This centre lies in the heart of Wales most Welsh speaking area along the North coast of the Llyn Penninsula. Perhaps there is no more magical area in the world to learn a language. Nant Gwrtheryn is also known as Vortigern's Valley, and here as with the rest of the Llyn Penninsula Arthurian legend pulses through the landscape.

#2 Ynys Enlli, Wales: The Pilgrimage to the Isle of 20,000 Saints

My life is turning upside down right now, and I am wondering what comes next. What my future years will be filled with. I guess I am a little lost. One of the things I find myself wanting to do is walk to weird and wonderful places - places filled with magic and romance (truly using the word romance in its classical sense, that is.)

Why do lost people go on long walks into the unknown? Why does the aborigine use the confusing season of the transition into manhood to send young men on walkabouts? Why do religious seekers go on pilgrimages to strange and distant places?

I suppose like lost souls before me, I really am concerned with the "why" right now, and less with the where. My first of the 1,000 things is to go the top of Cadair Idris to spend the night and become a poet. This, my second "where" starts only a couple hours drive away from Cadair Idris at Caernarfon Castle in Caernarfon, North Wales.

Caernarfon Castle breaks my heart. It is a sadly beautiful and haunting place. I cried openly when I visited there 4 years ago.

Within its walls is housed a Prince of Wales exhibition. It begins with the death of the last native born Prince of Wales Llywelyn ap Gruffud on December 11, 1282. After his betrayal, the English crown established their own Prince. The English Prince of Wales was suppose to have spoken no language but Welsh throughout his life, but that never happened, and it is only a side note of the exhibit.

Caernarfon is a fitting beginning for a pilgrimage to one of the holiest sites in Celtic Christendom: Ynys Enlli, or Bardsey Isle. The walk begins in infamy, and ends in the distant memory of ancient glory.

Ynys Enlli lies 1.9 miles off the tip of the Llyn Penninsula. It's name in Welsh means Isle of Currents, but the Viking name given to it (Bardsey) may refer to the place of the bards.

Stretching down the northern coast of the Llyn Penninsula (variant English spelling: Lleyn) a walking trail hugs the rugged coast of the Irish Sea. From the walls of Caernarfon to the town of Aberdaron is 60 miles. At Aberdaron the ferry leaves for Ynys Enlli. This is a walk through the heart of Welsh speaking Wales, and a trip from castle to castle with views of some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in the world.

Ynys Enlli is called the Isle of 20,000 saints, who are said to be buried beneath its soil. In 546 St. Cadfan established a monastery there, and by middle ages it was declared that three pilgrimages to Ynys Enlli was equal to one pilgrimage to Rome. In this mythological and historical mix the legends of King Arthur join the Celtic Age of the Saints. Some believe that the real Arthur and Merlin were here on Ynys Enlli as well. Here Arthur was brought to be healed after the battle at Camlan, and Merlin is supposedly exiled on this same isle until Arthur returns again someday.

The pilgrimage visits the shrine of St Beuno at Clynnog Fawr, and passes through Nant Gwrtheyrn a formerly deserted quarry town on the seashore now developed into a Welsh Language and Heritage Centre. To the east lies views of the Snowdonia mountains. The seaside walk is awash with the mythology of Arthur and Merlin, and stories from the Ancient Celtic Saints.

For these reasons the pilgrimage to Ynys Enlli makes my #2 on the list of 1,000 things to do before I die.

#1 Cadair Idris: One Day to Becoming a Great Poet, or a Madman

There are great romantic adventures in this world, and among them is a mountain climb, and wild camping experience in the southern edge of the Snowdonia mountain range of Northwest Wales.

This is not an amazing adventure because of the great height of the mountain or the danger factor, though steep cliffs don the north side Cadair Idris. Rather, ancient legend says that the mountain was the armchair of a giant: Idris, who was a master of poetry, astronomy, and philosophy. It is said that today those who sleep on Pen y Gadair, the summit of the three mountains which comprise Cadair Idris, will descend the following day insane or as poets - if they live through the night.

The climbs range from easy to difficult. A steep scramble up the Fox Path moves among loose cliff scree, and can become dangerous in difficult weather. The Pony Path is the easiest, but longest climb beginning in nearby Ty Nant. The mountain affords some of the best rock climbing in Wales. When the days are clear you will be able see the Cambrian coast perhaps all the way to Ireland on one side, and on the other side down the sheer cliffs to the dark waters of Llyn Cau, which legend calls a bottomless lake. Of course, it is Wales, and this mountain near the Irish Sea is noted for radical and quickly changing weather, so dress appropriately and be prepared for anything.

There is a hut at the top of Pen y Gadair, which can be used to get away from the cold winds of the mountain top, and a cairn marking the summit. Camping on the mountain is allowed, but one should be considerate in the spring when lambing season is occurring. No permits are required to sleep on the mountain.

Although this is only the 18th highest peak in Wales, it has become the second most trekked mountain in the country. Perhaps this is why the Welsh are noted for their complex and beautiful poetry. It is believed that ancient bards stayed upon the mountain in search of inspiration. Today bards young and old scramble the sides of Cadair Idris in search of their own inspiration.

With four main paths ranging from expert to beginner levels, beautiful views, and most of all for the romance of the mythology Cadair Idris makes the top of my list of 1,000 things to do before I die.


Other information on Cadair Idris:

A great blog post with fabulous photography.
A list of the main Cadair Idris walks
Trekking Cadair Idris from Dolgellau

Where to stay in Dolgellau

Please note: There is a variant spelling to Cadair Idris --> Cader Idris