Before the floodgates opened

Tuesday 5^th June 2012

Our Aberdyfi bungalow was set amongst others on a zig zaggy trail road up a hill.  The car journey upwards required the foot on first gear and lots of gas from driver Jan.

We arrived after tea time and were keen to start making the boy’s tea.  While putting on the bed covers, I heard the words, I least like to hear on arriving at a holiday base: ‘Mike - We have a problem’.  Returning to the kitchen, there was smoke coming from the oven.  The smoke alarm was unmoved or unworking not adding any shrill noise to the undesirable kitchen scenario.

Jan likes problems to be immediately identified with words that broadly mean ‘can resolve’.  My face emerging from the smoke, possibly a bit darker than before, and none the wiser, initially infuriated. However as some smoke dispersed, I could see that there was an uncleaned tray of oil at the bottom of the oven. It looked like some previous occupants had cooked some roast meat.  I removed this, poured the oil away and we used up our one sponge to give the tray a clean.

We opened the door and windows, letting in some cool June evening air.  Our surroundings , when we were able to take stock of them, were great, as good as any view I can recall.  Our hill view looked down to an estuary surrounded by great landscape and the tide was coming in.

The water in our toilet bowl was yellow.  I pulled the flush but the bowl refilled with more of the same coloured water.  Our bath also filled up with this.  Jan reminded me that the bungalow literature said that there might be some colouring of the water but it’s perfectly good to use.  Perhaps it’s like the Donegal soil tainted water that is said to have health enhancing properties.  None the less, we weren’t ready to drop the boys into a bath full of this coloured water.  We wouldn’t forgive ourselves if this generated slow moving soupy ripples outwards.  We showered the boys instead where the colour wasn’t so apparent to the trained eye.

Wednesday 6^th June 2012

Using the coastal road route, we headed north to take a ride on the famous Blaenau Ffestiniog steam train.  We planned to call at Portmerion afterwards.  The coast road was great with its scenery and ruins (or perhaps remnants from the burnt holiday homes era) but it wasn’t the quickest. Waiting at some temporary traffic lights, we realised we would miss our scheduled train, leaving a two hour gap until the next one was due to depart.  We headed to the Portmerion tourist village instead.  Here there was a visible amount of classic cars and a rally was taking place.  I first became aware of the existence of the village during the screening of Prisoner repeats in the early nineties on Channel Four.  This ushered in a brief vogue for the sixties drama and those penny farthing stickers turned up on the walls of my college with the accompanying words I am a free man.  Today, I fulfilled a twenty year old wish to visit the place but instead of striding around, chin up, in modish gear or driving a classic car, I ill humouredly chased the boys around as they ran their separate ways.  ‘Ed is too far away from you…by the colonnades’ yelled Jan on a bench before rejoining a mobile phone conversation with  Mum.

With the next train ride from Porthmadog looming, we left after an hour.  It became quite a dash. Actually there was a train stop close to where we were at Portmerion that would have been ideal and allowed us more time at the village.  I’ve read some travel writer’s accounts on this railway service.  It doesn’t get warm write ups – the likes of Bill Bryson and Paul Theroux are usually several weeks into their UK journey and  weary of steam train enthusiasts ('Lets play at trains' the former said).  Having seen it featured on CBeebies, we were coming at it from a different tack, something that the children may enjoy.  Dolphin shows and steam train excursions seem to have become our away day outing of choice.

The train had first class and third class carriages.  We used the latter, small habitable benches that faced each other.  I had a look through the windows of a first class carriage.  There were detachable chairs positioned around tables for a more pub snug feel and, indeed, drinks could be ordered.  Our hour long ride revealed a picturesque panorama of greenness and Sam, two, remarked ‘the ride is bumpy’.  Coming up to Bleaneau Ffestiniog we went into a darkened tunnel for quite a period.  Our talk halted but perhaps we should have seen how long we could hold a conversation in such pitch blackness.  I enjoyed the expressions  on the boy’s faces when we emerged back in brightness.   

The TV tonight was wall to wall Jubilee hideousness.  We didn’t come to Mid Wales to get away from it but feel glad that we did at this time of the year.

Thursday 7^th June 2012

We took the coast road and modest toll bridge north in anticipation of  kids' entertainments at Barmouth.  We stopped at Aberdyfi, and on the promenade watched some grandparents and kiddies partake in some crabbing activity.  Excitement beckoned when the wind blew a bucket of the said crabs over initiating a chase and netting of the errant crabs.

At Barmouth, we decided to eat at the Pavilion Café.  There was a big sign which warned against outsiders using the toilets with words more or less stipulating that there is eagle eyed monitoring of this.  It looked like that it had been designed by the same people that manufacture army range warnings.  Jan had been in earlier and committed some civil disobedience in not paying the requested 10p.  Service at the till was surly but the place looked well maintained and we heard some people saying of the lunch ‘this is actually ok’ which was about right.

It became very windy and the rain was relentlessly coming down.  We headed to the amusement arcade and filled a plastic tub with twopenny pieces which Jan and Ed fed into the Penny Falls Machines.  I took Sam out towards the rides, got some tokens from to the booth, and led him to the carousels where the lad working them dashed from one ride to the other to pull the lever.  As the rain (and probably chip lunch), lowered our spirits we went back to the car park to decide what to do next.

The list of other options such as castles and dank caves lacked appeal in the weather and we decided, for the second day running, to go on a steam train at Tywyn.  It was actually a children themed day with ‘Duncan’ train, one of Thomas the Train Engine’s clan to be present.  When we got there, however, there was a notice saying Duncan was poorly and wouldn’t be with us today.  This seemed unsatisfactory; we needed some American kid to step forward, look the period uniformed staff member in the eye and say ‘Now tell me the real reason why we can’t ride on it’.  After yesterday’s long journey, we stayed on for a mere one stop from Tywyn, waited in the sheltered train stop for a bit before thumbing down a packed returning train where we were allowed in the guard’s carriage.

In the evening, sitting tired while some exhaustive Royal coverage played out on TV, we heard a gurgling sound from the kitchen which sounded like a lot of water going down the plug hole.  In a way, this is what happened.  While rain water was plentiful outside it had run dry inside. Our tap supply of Amber coloured Cambrian Hills produce was gone. I rang the number on a laminated card and was told that this was a site problem and the water people are looking into it.  Couldn’t say when it was coming back on.  This meant problems for washing up and pulling the flush but we had a bit of bottled water for the kettle.

Friday 8^th June 2012  Exit, pursued by some rainclouds

We managed to pull the flush – just, but, like the previous people who stayed here, left a ‘present’ some dishes, cutlery and mugs that we were unable to wash.  Then we departed an hour early. To put things in perspective, the next day, this part of Mid Wales hit the national headlines  when it was hit by some horrendous flooding with people having to be evacuated from their homes and caravans, leaving a whole lot of damage behind.

Footnote   This was the response from the people with which we rented the bungalow:

Many thanks for your email, apologies for the delay in replying but I have just arrived back from Plas Panteidal due to the problems caused by the weather

If I can answer point 2 first, the water went off I understand between 8 -10pm. The reason being due to weather conditions the water pipes became blocked and caused a disruption to some of the bungalows, the water was back on again around 11 am the following morning, because of the severe rainfall experienced the pipes had to be unblocked several times over the next few days as the debris the water was bringing down was incredible, we are glad to say that all bungalows had water throughout the horrid weekend that Wales has just experienced especially where the bungalow is situated.

We apologise for the loss of water but it was totally beyond their control, we hope that the enjoyment of your holiday was not marred although they can understand the inconvenience encountered.

With regards to the oven this should have been reported immediately to Lesley in housekeeping so she could have come down and sorted the problem out, with regards to the fire/smoke alarm I visited no 8 yesterday to check and all was in working order, so not quite sure what happened with the smoke you encountered. I understand from Lesley that all appliances are checked before new arrivals, could you advise if their silver foil in the grill pan was new or had been used??

In summary we apologise most sincerely about the water situation and the oven problems you encountered,if the oven problem had been reported they would have been able to rectify for you, the water was a little more difficult.

We do hope that you are able to visit Plas panteidal again and hope that we can be of service to you.