This was sure a day of highs and lows if ever there was one. Cardiff Bus No.63 goes out hourly to Pentyrch, a village to the north-west of Cardiff but still within the Cardiff county boundary. But, doh! I’ve just noticed it’s another one of those sneaky services that has a Sunday service that continues out to Creigiau in place of the No.136 which has no Sunday service. I’ll have to return and do that 96 Sunday loop.
And so, onto the high point of the day. It was glorious weather today so I headed up Garth mountain – which before all my hill climbing friends remind me, isn’t a mountain at all, it’s a hill. That’s despite Hugh Grant trying to tell us otherwise in the film ‘The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain’ which was filmed on the hill.
The summit gives good views over the city if you turn around also all the way up to the Beacons. I lay on the grass, aloft a Bronze age burial mound, had a sandwich and read my book, Kate Atkinson’s ‘Case Histories. I had forgotten what a fantastic writer she is.
I timed my descent to coincide with the opening of the village pub at 2pm, or at least that’s what I thought. It remained stoically closed despite me pacing up and down outside with my tongue out. I checked their FB page and the sign outside the pub. Both said 2pm. I gave it another 30mins but there was no sign of anything happening so my beverage for the day was a can of coke from the local convenience store. Even purchasing that wasn’t without its hassle ……. no, you don’t want to know, life’s too short.
The sun was sweltering. The 3.05 bus was 30 mins late. There was another high point though, I got chatting to a man from the village, a keen Cardiff rugby supporter.
Just one more low point to go dear readers. The bus did eventually arrive, went around the village and picked up a cackle of Year 11 very excitable schoolgirls on their last day of term. The volume ratcheted up by the minute. The driver asked them to dial it down as he was having trouble concentrating on driving. That worked for a period of time but then all was forgotten. An elderly man busy making a phone call, sat in front of me, began to loose it, standing up and cursing at them. Another man stood up remonstrating with the first man. I think we were just one finger-jab away from a punch being thrown when the bus driver pulled in and cooled the situation. We seemed to be a million miles away from the peace and tranquility I had experienced on top of the Garth.
Cardiff Capers 