Off we go on a much anticipated journey or should I say holiday break to Cardiff. This may not be the romantic break that everyone would see as a holiday but trust me the destination is a cosmopolitan and upbeat city with a very lively and communicative mixed race population. We decided to travel by car as we could take much more stuff with us. We could have used it to travel around locally. By ‘locally’ I mean the south of Wales but in the event it sat there resplendent in the car park of the hotel until our departure five days later. (no parking charges)

Anyway, before arriving in Cardiff we decided to visit the Big Pit feature which is a national site about 30 miles north of the coast. We actually went down a real coal mine and were given a very interesting talk about the history of workers. I never realized that workers were self-employed and were paid solely by the amount of coal that was produced. They had to buy all their own materials. They did not get paid in money but in tokens which they had to spend at the company store.

Waiting for news (of deaths from an accident in the pit)

various types of Davy lamps (light without temperatures sufficient to cause an explosion)

showing where coal and raw materials and steel were exported from

These are names of coal PITS that used to be in Wales in the 19th Century

a drill bit that takes no prisioners

Davy lamps and carbon monoxide detectors

..

girls used to do the heavy work of pulling wagons

general view – and this is in good weather

the huge engines used to operate the lift shafts Some shafts are 3000m deep.

furnaces to repair and create machinery parts

We all had to get kitted up to go down. Each one had to wear a lamp. Also no phones, matches, anything capable of producing a spark.

Everyone kitted out before going down.

in the waiting area before the descent

an old photo of conditions

some of the equipment used.

After a coffee we left to go to our hotel, a car journey of about one hour. The point is that there is so much to do in Cardiff itself. Everything is either within walking distance or a short bus ride and there is lots of history attached to this town. It is always worth checking with AA traffic condition updates because of part of the M4 was shut off so there was unusual amounts of traffic on our route so we ended up by avoiding the blockade and going through Bristol, past Filton where they make air buses and on to the motorway system going west. We love walking  along the bay so I’m going to start by showing  some illustrations of our sunset walk.

A retro radio made out of wood

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