Today I should be on a day trip to Cardiff. I bought cheap rail tickets back in January, along with cheap returns to Swindon and Plymouth, but Cardiff alas I scheduled too late. So today I thought I'd take a virtual trip to the Welsh capital, imagining how my day might have panned out in more normal times...
Day Trip to Cardiff - virtual live blog
05:00 Sheesh that's early. 05:40 Normally I'd have caught one of the very early trains from Bow Road, but the station's closed today because of engineering works so I have to walk to Mile End instead. Behind me, the sun dawns into a vivid blue sky. 06:47 🚆 London Paddington Yay, window seat. I have a newspaper while everybody else seems to have a screen, a coffee and a pastry. Looking forward to enjoying the view out of the window, and spending a lot of the day on trains. 08:12 Deep in the Severn Tunnel I enter Wales (for the 18th time, if you're counting). 08:38Cardiff Central Hurrah, I'm back in Cardiff. Last time I was here I focused on the city, so this time I intend to use my ten hours to explore the environs of South Wales instead, focusing on places I have never been before. To that end I need to buy an Explore Cardiff & Valleys rail rover for the bargain price of £13.50. Let's see how long it takes to buy one at the ticket office. [map of validity]
08:55 🚆 Cardiff Central Right, let's get going. This first train is heading somewhere I've long wanted to go, but I bet isn't as exotic as it sounds. 09:24Barry Island We've crossed the breakwater and here I am at the Welsh seaside. It's too early in the day (and too early in the season) for the Pleasure Park and Tourist Railway to be open, but the sweep of WhitmoreBay looks alluring. I should have time to scour the peninsula to see what's occurring, then cross back to the mainland and find the street where they film Gavin and Stacey. 10:14 🚆 Barry Well that was fascinating, and a gorgeous sunny morning for it too. Easily enough there to fill a day's post when I get home. Also I love the idea of a station called Barry. 10:43Cardiff Central Back again. Sadly no time to nip out for Welsh cakes. 10:51 🚆 I've switched to the Treherbert train on platform 7. You really have to know where you're going at this station, in particular which finger of the Valleys you're aiming for. As a traveller from London, the age of trains in South Wales is providing a useful reality check. 11:50Tonypandy I'm blaming George Thomas for this. I wanted to see the Rhondda, it being the pre-eminent Welsh valley, and with ten stations to choose from I picked the home of the former Commons speaker. I'm only here briefly to experience what living among terraced streets perched on quarry-topped slopes might be like. The view from the train has already been highly illuminating. 12:03 🚆 OK, so I only really got to see the main road threaded up the valley alongside the railway, plus a chunk of Tonypandy's high street, but the dense backdrop loomed memorably. Looks like it's finally clouding over. 12:12Trehafod I've ridden three stops back down the valley to visit a proper attraction, the Rhondda Heritage Park, formerly Lewis MerthyrColliery, now the Welsh Mining Experience. I don't have time for the Black Gold Underground Guided Tour, led by former miners, although a lot of it is merely electronic recreation (and I suspect I got a much better experience at the National Coal Mining Museum in West Yorkshire). I'll visit the winding houses and exhibitions instead. 13:12 🚆 Getting from one valley to the next is tricky, and often nigh impossible without doubling back. You can see how communities round here became resilient. 13:19Pontypridd One of the joys of a rover ticket is that you can nip out of the station, even if you're only here for a very short time while changing trains. 13:28 🚆 Ok, that was much too brief. I should have skipped Tonypandy and spent an extra half hour here instead, which would have given me time to follow Market Street to the town's museum, then cross the river Taff to admire the National Lido of Wales. Instead I barely made the High Street. Still, that's a lesson learned, should I ever make this journey again. 13:44Merthyr Vale On the other side of the river, across the footbridge, is the one place in the Welsh valleys I've always wanted to visit. An ordinary mining village touched by tragedy. 14:44 🚆 Aberfan touches the heart. A memorialgarden where the primary school used to be before it was swept away by a heap of spoil. A cemetery on the hillside, predating the disaster, where many of the 144 dead lie in graves topped by pearl white granite memorial arches. Terraced streets they never came home to. A new school by the riverside. And, somewhat unexpectedly, the A470 dual carriageway which now skirts above the village on the hillside, crossing the path of the deadly landslide. Should you ever visit, surely unforgettable. 15:01Merthyr TydfilMerthyr is one of the big towns at the heads of the Valleys, built on coal and iron. But it fell fast and hard as the mining industry declined, so let's see how it looks now. 15:33 🚌 One bonus of the Explore Cardiff & Valleys rover is that you can also use local buses. So I've boarded the hourly X4 from the bus station to cross the heads of the valleys to the tip of another railway line. I can't begin to imagine what the scenery is going to look like. 16:15Ebbw Vale The bus skipped Rhymney, and Tredegar doesn't have a station, so I've continued to Ebbw Vale. An unfortunate town, closure of the steelworks saw its unemployment rate skyrocket from the lowest in the UK to one of the highest. I need to head from the town centre down to the regeneration zone, hopefully via the funicular. 16:37 🚆 Nope, the Ebbw ValeCableway is broken at the moment, and even if it had been functional it doesn't run at weekends, so I had to find a different way down to the station. I'm now about to ride the newest stretch of railway in the valleys, extended from Ebbw Vale Parkway five years ago. The line's mostly single track which means trains are only hourly, so I absolutely had to catch this one or miss my connection home. 17:35Cardiff Central That was a long ride, wiggling down a less industrialised valley and almost scraping Newport. Now I have three quarters of an hour to enjoy in central Cardiff, which most of you would likely spend grabbing something to eat or drink... but I'm not wasting the opportunity to roam further on foot.
18:22 🚆 Cardiff Central Yay, window seat again. At least the first part of my two hour journey back to London is in daylight. Where's my thermos? 18:46 Back in England again. I wonder when I'll next return to Wales. 20:11London Paddington And back in London again. About time, it's been a long day. 21:05 Finally home, sixteen hours after setting out. While I put the kettle on I can reflect on a rare and fabulous trip to Wales (and start flicking through some of my photos). Never take for granted your freedom to explore, and enjoy, the unfamiliar heartlands of your nation.
