I wake on my back staring at the canvas. It feels far too early but I can’t get back to sleep. I try to read for a while, drawn to Brian’s snoring I consider various elaborate ways of waking him. It is satisfying to see how making the breakfast has transformed from a spectator sport to a communal event.
The groundsheets of Lucy’s tent are leaking and Paul heroically saves the day. Paul’s pastoral ability and good nature causes the Cerbyd ladies to unite in forming the Paul R Jones Appreciation Society.
Cerbyd are aware that they have another mystery surprise and assume it must be the laundrette so contently wash and dry their muddy clothes. We hurry the group to collapse tents and pack bags, this too is becoming a well oiled machine. But neither the luxury of the laundrette nor the dishwasher, that they are yet to discover, is today’s mystery surprise and as if by magic Christine our registered blue badge tour guide arrives.
The group are speechless and genuinely excited by the prospect of discovering a little of secret Wales in the capable hands of Christine. Christine rides shotgun and we’re off again. As we travel through Beddgelert we hear the story of Gelert:
“In the 13th century Llewelyn, prince of North Wales, had a palace at Beddgelert. One day he went hunting without Gelert, “The Faithful Hound”, who was unaccountably absent.
On Llewelyn’s return the truant, stained and smeared with blood, joyfully sprang to meet his master. The prince alarmed hastened to find his son, and saw the infant’s cot empty, the bedclothes and floor covered with blood.
The frantic father plunged his sword into the hound’s side, thinking it had killed his heir. The dog’s dying yell was answered by a child’s cry.
Llewelyn searched and discovered his boy unharmed, but near by lay the body of a mighty wolf which Gelert had slain.
The prince filled with remorse is said never to have smiled again. He buried Gelert here”.
Accompanied by Christine’s voice we drive deep into the heart of Snowdonia round every corner waits a discovery. We visit Llechwedd, Slate mines with the intention of splitting slate. Four times we are assembled together for the slate splitting but each time the slate is not ‘good enough’ for splitting.
I know far less about slate than I thought I did. I make a mental note that I must address this when I return home. I can’t understand why Llechwedd is still waiting for World Heritage status? If the group did notice they didn’t show any disappointment for not being able to split the slate. In fact smiles were a plenty and the happiness swelled as we swilled tea and gobbled down Welsh cakes in the Slate Café.
Happier and rounder we take off on the next leg of Christine’s mystery tour – Plas Newydd, the home of the Ladies of Llangollen. Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby lived together in a romantic friendship from 1780 overhauling the house into the gothic style and adding stunning carved oak arches and interiors.
As a big thank you to Christine for her extraordinary help we pull up some chairs at a rather large table (I think we may have been the largest group ever to eat at the Conwy Falls restaurant) and cram more food into our mouths.
At Christine’s request we drop her at the side of the road and head on. I close my eyes and I sing to myself:
(To the tune of the Littlest Hobo)
Maybe tomorrow, Cerbyd will be driving through your town,
Christine, our blue badge tour guide that we can count upon.
Down this road that never seems to end,
Christine, our friend, waits just around the bend.
So if you’d like her to guide you for a while,
Just pack a bus full to the rafters that is Cerbyd’s style.
Maybe tomorrow, Cerbyd will be driving through your town,
Christine, our blue badge tour guide that we can count upon.
