I’m writing this in the middle of the June 2026 heat-bomb and the highest Wales June temperature has just been smashed with 35.9oC recorded in Bute Park in Cardiff. Last week however when I took the No.92 Cardiff Bus out to Penarth it was very different, heavy drizzly rain all day.
After arriving in the centre of Penarth I stayed onboard whilst it did its route along Stanwell Road and up around Penarth Cemetery area before returning to the town centre. The bus drivers deserve a medal for driving this route with its busy suburban streets and badly parked cars. I hopped off and quickly made the decision that this wasn’t the weather for going down to the Esplanade so instead nipped in for a Subway lunch.
I then walked up to St Augustine’s church on the hill and found the grave of Samuel Arthur Brain. Like many Cardiff business men of the Victorian era he started life in Somerset before coming to Cardiff and starting Brains Brewery with his uncle. His name lives on with his initials being used in the name of the popular Brains S.A. I strolled up to Penarth Head Park and looked down over the seafront and pier looking very grey today.
My beverage for the day was obtained in The Pilot, a fine pint of ‘Believe in Lilt’ from the Bristol Beer Factory. This is a regular CAMRA award winning pub but the first time I have visited and well worth the ten minute walk from the main street.
I sat and read ‘Insufficiently Welsh’ by Gryf Rhys Jones. It’s another great read written presumably off the back of at TV series.
Cardiff Capers 