Caldey and Carreg Cennen Weatherman Walking


Caldey and Carreg Cennen

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Sea, sand and sunshine. But what's missing?

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A super stroll and somewhere where they make home-made chocolate.

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And that's it for today. I'm off!

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Here we are in sunny west Wales for another two wonderful walks,

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ONE done by the sea - in fact, surrounded by the sea,

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the other up in the hills with an iconic castle as its centrepiece.

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So later in the programme,

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we'll be heading on a circular walk around Carreg Cennen castle

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but first, we're heading for Caldey, a beautiful and very walker-friendly

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little island near the Pembrokeshire seaside town of Tenby.

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And what better way to start a walk than with a relaxing boat trip.

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Just a 20-minute hop across the water, Caldey Island is

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a popular day trip destination. Well-known for its monastery,

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monks and lavender perfume, it's also a super place for a sunny stroll.

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My guide around the island is Jonathan Miller whose family,

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would you believe, run a chocolate factory on the island.

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Jonathan and his brother Matthew grew up on Caldey

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and went to primary school there.

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He's now a third-year medical student and

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though the family all now live on the mainland, he still returns to the island

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to help with the chocolate business during his summer holidays.

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Because of the low tide today,

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the boat leaves from the pontoon on the beach.

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At higher tides, it goes from the harbour.

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-Hi, Jonathan.

-Morning, Derek. How are you doing?

-All right, thanks.

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The trip takes about 20 minutes and during the height of summer,

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eight or nine boats shuttle back

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and forth, carrying up to 40 visitors each journey.

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So what's it like for you, then, going back home?

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It's quite a strange feeling, really. Obviously, Caldey has been...

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You know, I've always considered it home.

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But I've been coming back and forth for a long time now

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obviously had to move off part-time to the mainland for school.

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It closed when I was eight years old.

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But it's always going to be a special place for me and I do love going home, especially on a day like today.

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Well, this is my first ever visit to Caldey, so I'm really looking forward to it.

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Well, this is gorgeous. We could be in the Caribbean.

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Yeah, we certainly could. This is Priory Bay.

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This is sort of low tide now but when the tide comes in,

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all you can see, it covers right up to here.

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So now is probably the best time to be on it.

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Does it ever get busy here?

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To a certain extent, but it's never heaving. It's never busy, busy.

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There's always space and you'll always be able to find somewhere nice and quiet.

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So here we are in sunny South Pembs,

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just three miles across Caldey Sound from Tenby.

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Our figure-of-eight route takes us up from the jetty past the monastery and small village,

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calling in at the old priory on our way to the Lighthouse.

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From there, a new extended section leads to West Beacon Point,

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then back to the village and another loop around the woodland walk,

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returning to the jetty before we miss the last boat back to

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Tenby, having walked a peaceful and easy-going four-and-a-bit miles.

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-Do many people live here, then?

-Yeah, there's a dozen or so monks full-time.

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There's obviously the island community as well. They help out with certain things, running the shops

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and things like that, making the chocolate.

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Um, looking after guests who come to the island.

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-And they live here full-time?

-Yes. Yes, the majority of them do, Yeah.

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-Well, I wasn't expecting this.

-Yeah, this is the monastery.

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Very striking, isn't it?

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Yeah, it was designed by John Coates Carter,

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supposedly a leading light of his time in the Arts and Craft movement.

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The building was finished in 1913 and it wasn't actually intended to be the final monastery.

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It was going to be a boys' prep school and there was going to be a much larger, grander monastery,

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built through the woods. Unfortunately, the Benedictine monks at the time run out of money

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and this was converted to be a full-time monastery.

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It reminds me of some of the buildings you see in Portmeirion in north Wales.

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As well as the abbey, the monks are well-known for their perfume

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and this is the perfume shop just here.

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It started off in the 1950s when they were selling bunches of sort of wild

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flowers, such as lavender and gorse and it went on from there, really.

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-The lavender perfume especially today is well-renowned.

-I'll have to get some for my mum.

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At various points along our walk today,

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we've arranged to meet some of the monks. Pleased to meet you.

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First up to take us to the old priory and St Illtyd's church

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is Brother David.

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The Cistercian monks who live

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permanently on the island have a strict daily routine,

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beginning very early at 3.30am with the first prayer service of the day.

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Monastic life is not a cushy number.

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It was relatively recently in the 1920s that the Cistercian order

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took over from the Benedictines, whose old priory and St Illtyd's church next door,

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with its leaning spire, date back to the 14th century.

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-It does feel very old but very beautiful as well, here.

-Yes.

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This is the sanctuary of the church we are coming to now.

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Amazing floor made of pebbles.

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-Yes, they would be pebbles from the beach.

-What's this old stone here?

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This is the Ogham stone.

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Ogham was a very early form of writing in Ireland,

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with an alphabet of simple strokes along a line.

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You see here, a Latin inscription. Here you see the Ogham markings.

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It's faded now and broken away.

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But you can see from the markings, perhaps you can see one line,

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two lines, three lines, they formed an alphabet.

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Ogham stones are mostly found in Ireland

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but also on the west coast of Britain,

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carved by Celtic tribes,

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who settled on both sides of the Irish Sea about 1,500 years ago.

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Whilst we now head off towards the lighthouse,

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we leave Brother David to attend a prayer service

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and to get on with his gardening and librarian duties.

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Most people who visit Caldey manage to get as far as the lighthouse and

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even if you don't go any further, it really is worth a stroll up here.

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This is the lighthouse just above Chapel Point here.

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It's been here since the early 1800s.

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This is where the original lighthouse was built,

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on the site of a chapel.

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It works in conjunction with the lighthouse over on Lundy.

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Together they guide the shipping in the Bristol Channel.

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Either side of the light tower are two identical old lighthouse

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keepers' cottages where Jonathan and his family lived for a while.

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I remember the noise made by the windows.

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It's a howling noise whenever the wind came up so yeah, it's a

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-lovely place to be.

-And you can see for miles from here, can't you?

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You can see what, across to Gower?

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Yeah, that's the Gower over there and Worm's Head.

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And even the North Devon Coast, a little bit hazy and Lundy Island.

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-Yeah, that's Lundy Island over there.

-Fantastic.

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-Shall we carry on?

-Yeah, let's go for it.

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# We could be lifted

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# Lifted

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# Lifted

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# We could be lifted

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# From the shadows

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# Lifted... #

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Waiting for us at a junction with the cliff-top path

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is Father Daniel, abbot of the monastery,

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the main man here on Caldey, head of the household.

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Originally from Belgium, he was a monk in Germany

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before coming here 23 years ago.

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-Absolutely gorgeous today.

-It's beautiful.

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-But, of course, it's not always like this.

-You are lucky today, Derek.

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It's exceptional but the weather can be quite different here.

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Some very severe weather

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but, actually, I don't mind too much, severe weather.

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I like it, it energises me.

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Then I really go out for a brisk walk.

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-You like walking in a force 10, do you?

-Yes, I do.

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How do you feel about the number of visitors that come to the island?

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Do you think there's a conflict between the peace and tranquillity

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that you have here?

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No, not really.

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It may appear as a conflict

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but they come from 10:30 in a morning,

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until about 5:30, 5:15 in the evening.

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There's also a part of the island, the visitors see not everything.

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There is a substantial part that we keep for ourselves.

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Erm...

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Apart from that, I think it's very important that we meet visitors

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and listen to their story, their experience in life.

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Because, otherwise, there's always a danger to take things for granted

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and we should not do that.

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We're now at West Beacon point, the southwestern tip of the island,

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which, until recently, was out of bounds to the general public.

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I'm so glad that, at last,

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the visitors are able to experience Caldey as an island.

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Before that it was only from the jetty to the lighthouse and back.

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Now they really can experience and breathe in

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the healthy, fresh, sea air.

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-And these wonderful views.

-Definitely. I'm delighted.

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And I'm so delighted that you took time to come and see us, Derek,

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but, I'm afraid, I have to go.

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It's only half an hour away that I have to go to my prayers.

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-Take care, bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

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Wow, what a beautiful beach.

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-Yeah, this is Sandtop Bay.

-And there's no-one on it, not a soul.

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No, unfortunately, this part of the island isn't accessible to visitors.

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Why is that, the tide?

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Yeah, unfortunately there have been one or two tragic incidents

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here over the years.

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There's a very strong undercurrent and rip tide.

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There's a few caves over there, isn't there?

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Yeah, a lot of them were explored by the monks in the 1960s

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and found remains and tools, and things like that,

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that they think might date back as far as 5,000 years ago, something like that.

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-What is that island called over there?

-That's St Margaret's Island.

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You can see the ruins over there, the old quarrying houses used

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to house the quarry workers.

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The island is out of bounds now, it's a bird sanctuary.

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-It is a gorgeous spot here, though, isn't it?

-It is lovely.

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Looking across to Tenby and you can see the Preseli Hills as well.

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Yeah, it's beautiful.

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And now for the bit I've been looking forward to all day...

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..chocolate.

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The monks started making chocolate here on Caldey in the 1980s

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and the business is now franchised to Jonathan's dad

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and this is where it's made.

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Dad? You've got customers.

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-Hello.

-Shwmae.

-Shwmae.

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-Welcome to Caldey.

-Great to be here.

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-And you brought the sunshine with you, as well.

-Of course.

-Oh, bless..

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Right, can I have some chocolate?

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Spanish Cistercian monks were, in fact, making chocolate

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way back in the 1500s,

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when cocoa beans and a recipe were sent back from Mexico

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to a monastery in Spain

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and so started the 500-year-old custom of chocolate making

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by the Cistercians.

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-Thank you very much.

-Thank YOU very much.

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Well, this lot should keep me going for a while.

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Leading us on the next short section of our walk

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is Brother Teilo who became a monk at the grand old age of 68,

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more than 50 years after a visit to Caldey

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that made a lasting impression on him.

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He finally gave in to the call of monastic life 14 years ago.

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So here we are at the old school,

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which has been closed now for about ten years

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because the pupils went down to two, or even one.

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Yeah, that's right. I was actually the last student here.

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They had to close the school

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because the next year I would have been the only one on the island

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and the council just couldn't afford to fund one-to-one teaching.

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-That's a shame, wasn't it?

-It is a shame. Yes.

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It was sad, very sad, indeed.

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We are heading up to the statue of St Samson now.

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St Samson, the patron saint of the island.

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Very important to us.

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St Samson was the second abbot here back in the 6th century,

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before he left to work as a missionary in Cornwall,

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and later Brittany.

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In Wales we have forgotten about him, to a large extent, except on Caldey.

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But here he is very precious

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and we have our annual holiday on his feast day, 28 July.

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-Do you get a day off?

-We do in the monastery, yes.

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It's a holiday for us.

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St David's, the island's parish church

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stands on a pre-Christian burial ground,

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probably going back as far as 2,000 years.

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Today, the simple wooden crosses mark the graves

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of both monks and islanders,

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but the Celtic burials may have been of people from the mainland,

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in keeping with the Celtic belief

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that islands represented a bridge, or stepping stone

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to the afterlife.

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-What a beautiful little church.

-It is lovely, isn't it? Yes.

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Look at those stained glass windows. They're beautiful, aren't they?

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Absolutely.

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One of the Benedictine monks in the early 1920s,

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Theodore Bailey, was a remarkable stained glass artist.

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If you look up there above,

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you can see the tree of life window which he put in.

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You can see the three trees and the sun above.

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That's symbolic of the three crosses on Calvary.

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-Vivid colours.

-Absolutely vivid.

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We say farewell to Brother Teilo,

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and Jonathan and I head along the last leg of our walk,

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a short loop around Caldey's woodland.

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-How beautiful are the daisies.

-Yeah, they're lovely, aren't they?

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A perfect time of year for them.

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It's a great effect with the sunlight shining through the trees.

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Here we are now at Paul Jones Bay,

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named after the famous 18th-century pirate, Paul Jones.

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Born in Scotland, Paul Jones was a ruthless marauding pirate

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and he often moored up in this sheltered bay,

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hidden from the mainland, to take on a supply of fresh water.

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When it got a bit too hot for him around here,

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he want across the Atlantic, over to America

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and is credited with being one of the people who founded the American Navy.

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An amazing tale of villain to hero, if ever there was.

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Well, I'd love to stay a little longer

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but Jonathan needs to get back to chocolate making

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and I need to catch the last boat back to Tenby.

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-See you again.

-See you again.

-All the best.

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Well, one day on this gorgeous island is just not enough

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to get away from the hustle and bustle of modern day life.

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I'll definitely come back another day.

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And, besides, this won't last long.

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And if you fancy trying this,

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or another one of our walks,

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go to bbc.co.uk/weatherman walking

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and take a look at our website.

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It's got everything you need,

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from detailed route information for each walk,

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to walking maps for you to print off.

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There are also some photos we took along the way.

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Our next walk is also in West Wales

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but this time we're heading for the hills.

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In Wales, you're never far from a quarry, or a castle,

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and you guessed it, in this walk we have some quarries

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and a very special castle.

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Carreg Cennen in Carmarthenshire, the most dramatic, photogenic

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and romantic castle in Wales.

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I don't know whether Bernard Llewellyn, my guide for the walk,

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is a romantic but true love brought him here from Pembrokeshire

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when he married Margaret, the farmer's daughter.

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Besides the farm, they also happen to own the castle

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and, over the years, they've gradually developed the farm

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and castle as a tourist attraction, with a cafe, shop

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and a place to tie the knot.

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Now there's romantic for you.

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-Good morning, Bernard.

-Good morning.

-Good to meet you.

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Good to meet you, sir.

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Does a farmer really have time to take me on a walk like this?

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Perhaps I don't but I think perhaps we should do it anyway.

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-Shall we get going?

-Absolutely.

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Just a few miles east of Llandeilo,

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at the western end of the Brecon Beacons National Park,

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our circular route takes us up to the castle

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before dropping back down to cross the River Cennen.

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Rising back up the other side through woods

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and fields onto open moorland,

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we follow a short level section of quiet mountain road

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before dropping down to the Cennen again

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and back to the castle having walked a very undulating 5.5 miles.

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This is a very dramatic location for a castle, Bernard,

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and I believe it's been voted the most romantic castle in Wales.

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That's probably due to the fact that an awful lot of people

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come here to get engaged,

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or I should say, for the gentleman to propose.

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-Does it make you a romantic?

-HE LAUGHS

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I don't think my wife would agree!

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# Let's get married

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# I love you!

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# And I want to stay with you... #

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The Llewellyn family are in the rather unique position

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of being the owners of this Scheduled Ancient Monument,

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which they bought by accident!

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When they drew the deeds up

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they put this red line around the outside

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of the circumference of the farm.

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In reality, I suppose, what they should have done was put

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a red line around the castle to exclude it. That was never done.

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As you say, we are the owners of the castle.

0:19:200:19:24

Do you get lots of visitors here?

0:19:240:19:26

Yeah, we get about 100,000 visitors a year

0:19:260:19:29

but only about 40,000 of them actually go to the castle.

0:19:290:19:32

I mean, that's probably what they come for, in reality.

0:19:320:19:34

I think it's just an amazing view.

0:19:340:19:37

The Black Mountain, you can see across the top there,

0:19:370:19:40

with the burial mounds, can you see those little...

0:19:400:19:42

They look like little humps from here, anyway.

0:19:420:19:45

Then it goes all the way round to the Carmarthenshire vans

0:19:450:19:49

and eventually then the Brecon Beacons are beyond it.

0:19:490:19:52

We're going to go down the path there

0:19:520:19:54

-but perhaps we'll have a little look from the castle first. What do you think?

-Good idea.

0:19:540:19:58

MEDIEVAL MUSIC

0:19:580:20:02

Perched on its dramatic cliff top pedestal,

0:20:060:20:09

this striking 12th century fortress,

0:20:090:20:11

which changed hands between the Welsh and the English numerous times,

0:20:110:20:15

seems to have been more of a status symbol than a strategic stronghold.

0:20:150:20:19

The present castle was basically built as a Welsh castle,

0:20:190:20:23

modified quite a bit by the English as time went on.

0:20:230:20:28

Basically, it was a presence as far as they were concerned,

0:20:280:20:31

where the English were in charge.

0:20:310:20:33

Then the English dismantled it, basically to stop the Welsh

0:20:330:20:36

using it as a stronghold.

0:20:360:20:37

We now head downhill through an oak woodland

0:20:400:20:43

that's protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

0:20:430:20:46

More insect species live on oak trees than any other native tree.

0:20:460:20:51

Along with the insects, acorns are a valuable food source

0:20:510:20:55

for a variety of wildlife.

0:20:550:20:57

So we're coming down to the River Cennen now?

0:21:010:21:03

Yeah, that's the Cennen, running down towards the Towy,

0:21:030:21:05

which is the main river in Carmarthenshire.

0:21:050:21:08

We'll go across the bridge here, Derek,

0:21:080:21:11

and out towards the hill.

0:21:110:21:13

-Sturdy bridge.

-The Army built this.

0:21:150:21:17

They've done quite a lot of work on this footpath as a result

0:21:170:21:22

of them being allowed to use the Black Mountain for training.

0:21:220:21:24

This is the piece of the path that's probably most relevant to me,

0:21:270:21:31

as a farmer, from just back down there.

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It's the way they used to take the sheep to the mountain.

0:21:330:21:37

It was, well, as a lot of these paths are,

0:21:370:21:39

it had a very practical purpose.

0:21:390:21:41

It was an access to the hill.

0:21:410:21:43

Onto the open hillside now?

0:21:510:21:52

That's the last of the farmland for a while.

0:21:520:21:55

We go out onto the hill now.

0:21:550:21:57

For the next section of the walk, we've arranged to meet

0:22:020:22:06

geologist Alan Bowring, who is the Fforest Fawr Geopark officer.

0:22:060:22:10

This area is of particular geological interest.

0:22:100:22:13

If you're into your rocks, then this is the place to come.

0:22:130:22:16

-How are you?

-Good.

0:22:160:22:18

We've come to quite a good spot here.

0:22:210:22:23

I think it's worth just taking a look at the landscape

0:22:230:22:27

and, you know, trying to read it, if you like.

0:22:270:22:30

We have been walking up these slopes

0:22:300:22:33

and we have been on the old red sandstone.

0:22:330:22:35

Here is an outcrop of rock which is clearly quite different,

0:22:350:22:38

it's a sort of grey colour.

0:22:380:22:40

Geologists call it the grey grits, but it what it marks

0:22:400:22:44

is the end of the old red sandstone and we're now into the limestone.

0:22:440:22:47

All of this, this short cropped grass here,

0:22:470:22:50

and there's the remains of a limekiln here, it tells us we're in limestone country

0:22:500:22:53

and, if you look beyond, we're looking up to the sandstone hill.

0:22:530:22:57

It is layer after layer

0:22:570:23:01

and it's all tilted down to the south.

0:23:010:23:03

And these rocks are millions of years old?

0:23:030:23:06

If we had been stood on this spot around about 340 million years ago,

0:23:060:23:10

we would have been up to our necks in tropical seawater.

0:23:100:23:14

That's where the carboniferous limestone started out.

0:23:140:23:17

It was a shallow, tropical sea,

0:23:170:23:19

a little bit like the Florida Keys today.

0:23:190:23:22

Well, it's a shame that this bit of the earth's crust

0:23:220:23:25

migrated north, I'd say.

0:23:250:23:27

A walk in the tropics would suit me just fine!

0:23:270:23:30

We now find ourselves walking through an area

0:23:300:23:33

of small grassy craters.

0:23:330:23:35

This whole landscape is dotted with holes.

0:23:350:23:37

Some of them unnatural

0:23:370:23:39

but these particular ones were made by our ancestors.

0:23:390:23:42

They were looking for limestone.

0:23:420:23:44

They'd work the limestone, put it into kilns, burn it

0:23:440:23:49

-and then spread it on the land.

-OK.

0:23:490:23:52

It's an old industrial landscape,

0:23:520:23:54

if you like but now it's a national park.

0:23:540:23:56

It's quite a change.

0:23:560:23:59

Brrrr! There's nothing tropical about these hailstones.

0:23:590:24:02

A huge crater in the ground here, Alan. What's caused this?

0:24:040:24:07

It's quite something, isn't it, this hole.

0:24:070:24:10

Limestone is a special sort of a rock.

0:24:100:24:13

It dissolves in water, weak acidic water.

0:24:130:24:16

What we're seeing here is the result of limestone

0:24:160:24:20

dissolving underground to form a cave

0:24:200:24:23

and what happens at the surface is, the surface collapses.

0:24:230:24:28

There's a lot of them in this area, sinkholes.

0:24:280:24:31

Lots of these funnel shaped pits in the landscape.

0:24:310:24:34

We have a bit of a stream coming in.

0:24:340:24:36

It's disappearing underground into that cave system

0:24:360:24:39

and who knows where it's heading.

0:24:390:24:42

It amazes me how water, a pretty harmless liquid,

0:24:460:24:50

can actually dissolve solid rock,

0:24:500:24:52

but Alan is about to give us a simple scientific demonstration

0:24:520:24:55

to show how rain water, a weak acidic liquid,

0:24:550:24:58

manages to dissolve limestone.

0:24:580:25:01

So, limestone is calcium carbonate.

0:25:010:25:05

If we put acid onto calcium carbonate,

0:25:050:25:08

then something interesting happens.

0:25:080:25:11

I happen to have with me some acid,

0:25:110:25:14

some lemon juice.

0:25:140:25:16

And if we put a few drops on, if we look very closely,

0:25:190:25:22

you can see bubbles.

0:25:220:25:24

It's the acid reacting with the calcium carbonate.

0:25:240:25:27

We can only just about see the tiny bubbles

0:25:270:25:29

from the reaction with lemon juice.

0:25:290:25:31

So, to make it clearer,

0:25:310:25:34

Alan carefully uses a drop of dilute hydrochloric acid.

0:25:340:25:37

This chemical reaction is taking place all over this landscape,

0:25:390:25:43

with rainwater falling onto the limestone?

0:25:430:25:46

And the caves are developing as a result.

0:25:460:25:49

So weak acid, rainwater, is a weak acid dissolving limestone away.

0:25:490:25:53

Having opened our eyes to the extraordinary changes

0:25:570:26:01

that have taken place in this landscape over millions of years,

0:26:010:26:03

Alan heads off but we've got a few more miles to conquer yet.

0:26:030:26:08

Now remember the small stream that disappeared into that sink hole on the hill?

0:26:130:26:17

Well, on its journey underground, it seems to have joined forces

0:26:170:26:20

with a few other sunken streams to become a fully formed river,

0:26:200:26:25

the Llwchwr, and by the look of it, it's burst out of the darkness

0:26:250:26:29

into daylight right here.

0:26:290:26:30

For me, this is probably one of the highlights of the walk in reality.

0:26:340:26:39

The eye of the Llwchwr, where it comes out of the rock.

0:26:390:26:43

This is not actually the source of the Llwchwr, though, is it?

0:26:430:26:46

No, it probably four or five miles, possibly, back under the mountain.

0:26:460:26:49

This is the first time it really comes out from under the ground.

0:26:490:26:54

The other thing is, and I'm sure you're interested in that,

0:26:550:26:58

that little hole up there, that's part of the cave complex

0:26:580:27:03

that goes on from here back to the other sinkholes as well.

0:27:030:27:06

-Have you been down there?

-Many, many years ago.

0:27:060:27:10

I don't think I fancy it.

0:27:100:27:11

Quite frankly, I regretted it when I went down, anyway.

0:27:110:27:15

These days this is a very popular area for caving

0:27:170:27:20

but amazingly the Llygad Llwchwr caves were first explored,

0:27:200:27:24

way back in 1841, by an adventurous and remarkable young local man

0:27:240:27:30

called Thomas Jenkins.

0:27:300:27:32

We know this because, in fact, it's recorded in his diary,

0:27:320:27:35

which I just happen to have with me.

0:27:350:27:38

Not only was he a caver but also, as far as we're concerned,

0:27:380:27:42

he was a great long-distance walker.

0:27:420:27:44

It's recorded here on May 3 in 1836,

0:27:440:27:48

that he left Llandeilo at a 1:15 in the morning

0:27:480:27:51

and he walked to Haverfordwest.

0:27:510:27:54

This is 30 miles away!

0:27:540:27:56

When he got there he went sightseeing around the churches

0:27:560:27:59

and then he walked home the next day.

0:27:590:28:02

Do you think we're up to that?

0:28:020:28:03

I can't imagine many people doing that these days.

0:28:030:28:06

Well, it does say here that when he returned home

0:28:060:28:09

he had very sore feet at 11 o'clock at night.

0:28:090:28:12

I'm not surprised!

0:28:120:28:14

I've got sore feet and I've only walked about five miles...

0:28:140:28:17

so far.

0:28:170:28:19

Well, we may not have walked as many miles

0:28:220:28:25

as the remarkable Thomas Jenkins

0:28:250:28:27

but we've certainly had an adventurous outing

0:28:270:28:29

in a fascinating and dramatic landscape.

0:28:290:28:32

I think we deserve a cuppa in Bernard's cafe

0:28:320:28:34

and even a Welsh cake.

0:28:340:28:37

# And I would walk 500 miles

0:28:370:28:40

# And I would walk 500 more

0:28:400:28:43

# Just to be the man who walked 1,000 miles

0:28:430:28:48

# To fall down at your door...#

0:28:480:28:51

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