Ellie's Adventures in Wonderland

For this weekend's adventure, I was reunited with Brother Dearest - oh, how I didn't miss him on my last adventure.  The first stop on our expedition was to Shobdon Arches , which unsurprisingly is in the village of Shobdon. Accessed by a delightful tree-lined avenue, parking is available alongside the church (watch you don't park in the Rector's space as we nearly did). On the outside of the gated entrance there was a small yellow button, which Max dared me to press. Obviously I couldn't resist, and duly pressed it. However, conclusions came there none as to what it actually did. I pondered whether it was a doorbell to alert the Rector to the presence of parishioners unable to climb the steps (I'm not entirely sure what use the Rector would be to them).  After a nose around the church, which is actually quite nice, we walked up another tree-lined avenue to the arches. With the trees in full autumn mode, the walk up was enchanting, especially as we neared the ar...

    This weekend's adventure took me once again into Wales - this time to Devil's Bridge Falls in Ceredigion. As brother dearest was away, I had no choice but to drag along my long-time chumly Phil. I picked Phil up at 10.20am and was kept waiting around while he fart-knocked about, smoking fags. After a mere 2 minutes on the road Phil started whining like a little girl, wanting to stop for coffee. Realising his incessant whingeing wouldn't stop until he got his caffeine, we pulled over at the Co-op. Finally setting off again on our journey, we managed to drive 20 minutes further down the road before Phil now wanted to stop for a fag to go with his coffee. So we pulled over at Kington Cemetary and admired the graves. It was a lovely day for the dead.  Back on the road again, we were finally able to continue our journey with no more interruptions. However, when we reached our location, Phil now demanded a beer before we walked around the Falls. So after parking up the mot...

    This weekend's adventure was to the Wye Valley, an area I have spent a lot of time in, but thought I'd try out some new places. Brother Beyond once again joined me on the trip. Our first stop was Browns of Llandogo for refreshments. At this point, ever the tight arse, Max grumbled about having to pay (despite never contributing a single penny towards fuel for our trips and slowly destroying my car every time he drives it).  After begrudgingly buying our drinks, we drove on to Tintern . Fun fact - Tintern is where the tinternet was invented. Here we ventured to the abandoned St Mary's Church , the first derelict building on our journey. The church burned down from fire in 1977 and never grew back.  After leaving the church, we attempted to break into the abandoned Abbey Hotel. We failed miserably. The next stop on our journey was to the 365 Steps , a series of steep stone steps built into the hillside. Max attempted to count the steps but gave up at 6, which isn'...

  This weekend's adventure was again on the search of waterfalls, and this time it was a trip for the whole Salsbury family.  On an overcast Sunday morning, my folks, brother and I, jumped in the motor and headed for Merthyr Tydfil, as Father Salsbury wanted to see the stunning scenery Max and I had encountered on our previous waterfall adventure. Our first stop was Abergavenny for coffee (Mother and Father can't go far without stopping for coffee on journeys, I assume it's an age thing), and after fruitlessly searching for a 'free car park' which apparently was a lie designed to trick visitors, we ended up at the Get Together coffee shop and lounge bar. We sat out the front and enjoyed some tasty beverages. After leaving Aber, Max reliably informed us that he could remember the way to our destination. Unsurprisingly, he bungled the directions and we went sailing past our turning, only to end up going to Brecon and nowhere near where we wanted to go. This mishap c...

  This weekend's adventure was to Titterstone Clee Hill in Shropshire. Joining me on this little jaunt was once again brother dearest (who here on in shall be known as Max), and our chumly Emma, who had flown in for the weekend from Northampton. Our first stop was to the abandoned quarry buildings, which were awesome. What's left of the structures stands bleakly against the stunning backdrop, providing you with an almost post apocalyptic feeling. There are some which you can freely roam around, and others which you avoid at all cost as they look like they could fall down at any moment and leave you in a crumpled bone heap. After a full exploration of the abandoned buildings, we headed on up the hill and parked up overlooking an old quarry, where Max once again demonstrated the same dodgy parking we experienced on our first adventure to the waterfalls, and parked the motor perilously close to the cliff edge. Once parked, and gratefully still alive, we set off up to the summit....

  This weekend, me and my brother went chasing waterfalls in Wales - and we weren't disappointed. Not really sure where we were going, we set the satellite navigation system for the Brecon Beacons and left Hereford full of anticipation and excitement.   Our first stop was Talybont on Usk , a quaint little Welsh town with a pretty canal running through it. While I went on search of a toilet, during the 3 minutes that I was gone, I returned to find brother dearest had been mistaken for a canal worker and taken on the job of assisting barge folk to operate the mechanical canal bridge. After dragging him away from his new (unpaid) job, the next leg of our journey took us up the road to Talybont Reservoir. There's not much to say about this place, except it's a vast expanse of water. We parked up the motor and trotted off for a better look. From here, we continued our journey into the Beacons, winding our way up a mountain road. Every car park we came across on our journey was ...