Britain 2011 - Day 14

Introduction

I first heard about Symonds Yat in a BBC television programme featuring a retired broadcaster driving around Britain in old cars. (Britain's Best Drives with Richard Wilson). He drove up the Wye Valley and finished at the lookout at Symonds Yat. The name fascinated so I found it on the map and decided it needed a visit if we went through the area. So from Tintern it was only a few miles away. After that, we found the M5 and headed north, past Birmingham and on to Stoke-on-Trent.

Symonds Yat

Symonds Yat is a high headland formed by alarge loop in the Wye River. It is a nature reserve with climbing and walking tracks and a good tourist trade in rafting down the Wye.

The road north along the Wye. One had to guess that "TRA BYDD GOLAU" on the sign refers to the traffic light ahead.....	The trees form a tunnel
	At least there was not much traffic.
At Symonds Yat	The walking tracks
A group off for a caving lesson	but we stayed on the track,
past the sign,	past the shop,
past the sign,	to look out over Monmouthshire
The valley side
	The Wye on one side
over the bridge	past the sloe
	and the river on the other side
The lookout	The compass rose at the lookout
The river again
	Them be geese....

After Symonds Yat we took the M5 north to Stoke-on-Trent. We stopped at a service centre on the motorway and had a picnic lunch in fine sunshine, devouring the Cornish pasties and chocolate that we had bought in Lynmouth the day before. We shared a table with a couple whose son had just emigrated to..... New Zealand. And to Otumoetai in Tauranga of all places, just a few blocks away from where my father lives. At Stoke,we visited Moorcroft Pottery (again) and then found the Premier Inn at Newcastle-under-Lyme. Each Premier Inn has a restaurant attached, serving the usual line of pub meals. But N-u-L was different. They had a "Taybarns" restaurant - whatever that was. We soon found out. It was very popular, fortunately we had booked a table as part of our room reservation. The Taybarns concept is an "all you can eat" buffet. It seemed that some people only ate one meal a week..... It was an interesting sight watching it all.

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Last updated: 19/06/2017