So ...... we have been spending quality time with family - Bristol, Cardiff, Lampeter and tomorrow we will venture to Carmarthen for our final Welsh link. We are staying in ‘Garden Cottage’ which is on an estate which boasts Britain’s most impressive ruin. It is pretty special, but you’ll have to put yourself through the tedium of all our photos to find out what it looks like..... Ross has managed to ride on 3 of the last 4 mornings, and today I met him at a place called Bronwydd which sounded appropriate. From there we went to Aberdulais Tin works and waterfall, which was very interesting. Tin was brought in from Cornwall through Bristol, and then it was melted so that sheets of iron could be dipped in it, and when it cooled the tin covering prevented the iron from rusting, generating an amazing industry of food preservation, beer receptacles, toys and packaging. The incredible thing about this tin works, was that the dipping was done by hand. The waterfall was the source of hydro-electric power for the iron rollers. The workers sweated away within a work place at 100 degrees F. It was a huge industry - 200 such works throughout Wales. And then America put tariffs on tin imports and finally banned them altogether, destroying the Welsh markets, so that there is only one tin works still in operation in Wales.

Then we skirted around the edge of Swansea, past The Mumbles, and with a bit of instruction manipulation, found our accommodation without difficulty. Glorious afternoon: pockets of forest, crochet festooned bikes left over from the first day of the tour of Britain, which came through here last week, green fields, the cheeky fellow in this picture, revelling in the last days of summery conditions, curious cows, ...... beautiful!