We were all loaded up and ready to roll, we left Moonbase alpha on the dot at 1pm and were back there within 15 minutes when I realised I had the house key and Mrs. Gibbs would need it. So the usual clown show start to the trip...and then were on our way again. we headed over the Brecon Beacons in fine weather. We went though Brecon town and made our way to Talgarth which is on the south eastern border with England. What we were after was the castle Bronllys. one of the more obscure and less known castles. it was a 5 minute hike through the brush and found it. Bronllys castle is a bit of a fairytale castle in the woods. but really more like a tall tower on a mound., quite pretty. It was a a Norman border outpost established circa 1180's after the Normans had taken over Brycheiniog...the Princedom of Brecon. The purpose of our visit was to complete the ebook that Grant is finishing off. You can visit the complete works on Instagram, Grant's Instagram handle thewesternprovince should you so wish.

Dolforwyn Castle was next on the list which was an hour's travel up from Talgarth. This one was on the Montgomeryshire border. I was told that it was a 10 minute hike up a mountain to find it...and it was very steep. This one was quite big and overlooked the marches....it was a Welsh fort and set up for scrapping against a chap called Baldwin who had taken the town of Trefaldwin. Great views and worth a visit. We fiddled for a while there and then it was a 15 minute drive to Castle Montgomery...Baldwin's gaff...a very pretty town and an excellent castle with lots to see. It was designed by Hubert De Burgh....and funnily enough I used to work with one of his Descendants in Hong Kong back in the day. Shoutout to Dominic De Burgh Mound. We then paid the old surprise visit into England en route to Llangollen.

I'd not visited Llangollen before and so I didnt bother to look where it was on a map or read anything about the place. I was expecting Brothels and Casinos, sin city style but it's nothing of the sort. a great place, small and set on the mighty River Dee. A walkers and kayakers paradise. so we had finally arrived. Grant had sorted out a fantastic Airbnb...a superb pad overlooking the river. We did the usual thing, slung the bags in the gaff and headed off to Sin City, which was a 5 minute walk through the backstreets.

A visit to the pub was in order.