This is probably one of the longer Cardiff Bus routes.  It starts at the bus station and then heads out north taking in Heath Hospital, Birchgrove, Llanishen, Lisvane and Thornhill. I got off on the return journey at the entrance to Cefn Onn Park.

Cefn Onn of a beautiful sliver of hilly land donated to the City by the Prosser family.  It even had its own railway station at one stage, since replaced by Lisvane and Thornhill station. The railway disappears here and heads north through a long tunnel before reappearing on the Carerphilly side. The park has some excellent trees in blossom at this time of year.

I has missed noticing that the last No.86 back to town is just gone 3 o’clock.  It meant therefore that I had just two hours to get to the top of the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway, take in the air and views and scamper back down to give myself enough time for a relaxing beer in the Cottage Inn.  A good workout and good pint of Wainwright Gold – a perfect afternoon.

My book for the day was ‘Ted – Pup Fiction’ written by the dog Ted from the Gone Fishing series with Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse which has become somewhat of the British institution over the years.  Ted has sadly passed away recently but the book is a good reminder of the part he used to play in the gentle fishing series.  

The theme for the day turned out to be geography.  The day started with a chance meeting and entertaining chat with Cardiff poet and psychogeographer Peter Finch.  His books accompany me on some of my travels. Always an entertaining read.

The 64 follows a similar route to the 63 but instead of continuing up to Penryrch it takes a left and terminates on the Morganstown estate.  My stroll for the day involved a bit of map reading and a clockwise circumnavigation of a large geographical feature – the Taffs Well Quarry.  

The path climbs for 15 minutes and then levels out in the woods on the northern lip of the quarry.  Just as you think you are not going to get any views a gap appears and a path to a viewing platform – and what a view you get from up here.  The giant excavators look like miniature Dinky toys down there.  Speak to many Cardiffians and they are unaware this quarry even exists let alone seen it.  It’s well hidden.

The paths down northwards through Garth Woods are steep and indistinct in places but in the end I popped out onto the road.  I pass the vets where we said our farewells to our faithful collie Shadow a year and a half ago.  The rest of my walk passed quickly as I recalled my adventurous hikes with him.

I now had a choice of where to go for a beverage; a crowded garden centre café or the Tafern Ty Nant. You can tell by the picture which won.  My book for the day was by geographer and travel writer Nicholas Crane.  He retraced the steps of eight British travellers through history.  He started with Gerald of Wales.  An interesting historical narrative but I tell you what Finch, you knock spots off him with your prose.

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.

A trip to Rhydlafar doesn’t have anywhere near the scariness it used to have when I was young. It used to be an orthopedic hospital. ‘In fact the hospital started life in The Walk, Cardiff in 1915 and had the descriptive but somewhat horrific title of ‘Hospital for Limbless Soldiers’. ‘After WWII it moved to Rhydlafar, the site of a former American military hospital. The extensive hospital site finally closed in 1998 and is now an up market housing estate.

I caught the No.62 from Cardiff Bus Interchange. Once past Llandaff we pass the ribbon of housing developments continuing to extend north west out of Cardiff. If you look at a map of the county of Cardiff you quickly realize that this is the only option available for expansion of the city.

The bus drops me off at the outskirts of Rhydlafar. I quickly realize that there are no facilities here for picking up food or drink. After a wander around the estate I head east across the undulating meadows for a 40 minute walk on the network of footpaths that fortunately still exist. It was a glorious May day with spring flowers everywhere. The walking route is perfect and I am back at the bus stop to catch the next No.62 back to Cardiff an hour later.

My book for the day was ‘How to make the world add up’ by Tim Harford. He presents the excellent ‘More of Less’ programme on Radio 4, using statistics to back up or refute stories in the news.

Having missed out on sustenance so far I arrange to meet my wife for coffee in Waterstones back in Cardiff. Putting my own book back in my rucksack in Waterstones made me somehow feel I was looking guilty of stealing it. Tim Harford said there was only a 0.35% chance of me being accused of having done so.

Today’s trip on the No.61 took me from the Cardiff Bus Interchange, out through Pontcanna and onto the Fairwater and Pentrebane housing estates. By the time you get to Firs Avenue in Pentrebane you have gained a fair bit of height and get some nice views.

One feature of the area is the golf-ball like water tower.  Nearby is the Ty Bronna trig point.  Being a trig point enthusiast I gave it a visit.  I fear its days may be numbered as the field in which it sits is laid out for housing development. Will it survive?  Will it be destroyed?  Will it be moved?  Who knows.  It is not the best specimen of a trig point now without a spider, flush bracket or sight holes.  It sort of makes me wonder if it is the original trig point or some sort of replica replacement.

As there didn’t seem to be anywhere In Pentrebane to pick up a beverage I headed over to St Fagans.  It really was a lovely walk through the woods to get there.  I can recommend it.

I took a look at the house where the first man to get to the South Pole lived.  I can hear you all shouting at me that Amundsen.  Well, he was the first to get to the geographical South Pole.  The first to get to the magnetic South Pole was Edgeworth David in 1909 who was part of Ernest Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition.  He was son of the Rector in St Fagans and grew up on the old Rectory.

I had lunch in the Plymouth Arms; a sausage roll and a pint of Bass. The former was tasty, the later not so good.  My book for the day was ‘Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths around Swansea’, a nicely researched and written book from a local history point of view.

A walk back through the woods to Pentrebane to pick up the 61 back to town made for a good day out.

Back up to St Ederyns but this time on a No.58 which offers better timing options for those wanting to go there and back on a 58.  Come to think of it I can’t imagine anyone else being bothered.

I’ve been looking forward to this journey as it gives me an excuse to do one of my favorite walks, north along the west bank of the River Rhymney, under the M4 and into the Cefn Mably Estate.  It is only a 15 walk from the bus terminus yet not many people seem to do it.  I’m not complaining mind you because I had the area to myself apart from the inquisitive lambs.

I read my book a bit, the Trust, a light hearted murder mystery come mickey-take of the NT. I also checked a geocache of mine hidden nearby. Again, it is rarely visited.

I waved goodbye to the sheep and headed back to St Ederyn and visited the unicorn, something else I haven’t done since it reopened some years back. The pint of Wye Valley Butty Bach was very palatable.

The 54 is a rare bus indeed.  It runs just once a day and only on weekdays and only in one direction.  It starts its journey at 6.25 in Rumney, heads up to St Mellons and does a loop around there before hopping over to Pontprennau, down to Pentwyn and Llanedyrn, up through Cyncoed and then across to Heath Hospital, arriving at 7.40am.

I hopped on an empty bus in Rumney but as we did a circuit of St Mellons it was getting properly light and more people got.  All we had to do heading up to the A48 was stop to let off the odd passenger who had probably got on the 54 by mistake being only half awake. 

Going along the A48 Eastern Avenue was a treat.  Is this the only Cardiff Bus that goes on the Eastern Avenue I wonder?

We travelled down through the housing estates around Pentwyn I read my book about researching army ancestors, another hobby of mine which results in the Roath Virtual War Memorial. The trouble with picking up genealogy books in charity shops is they tend to be out of date as things move on quickly in genealogy research methods. 

A surprising number of passengers alighted in Birchgrove but I stayed on with the hospital staff and went the whole route.

I remember catching another early bus as part of this challenge and going to Heath Park when it was covered in frost.  Today the spring blossom was out. I was too early for the coffee kiosk to be open so wandered around a bit and ended up in the Wetherspoons pub, The Aneurin Bevan.  I joined the other men having their breakfast there.

I got a bit lost getting back to the Heath Hospital and ended up in among Heath Park West buildings which appears to be part of Cardiff University for healthcare training. I thought I was trapped but did eventually find a gate that led back to the hospital and from there walked back to Rumney to collect my car.

This is one of my regular buses but having said that I still saw parts of the route I had never seen before.  The No.52 even goes onto the Cardiff Met University campus at one stage, or twice actually if you ride the bus both ways as I did.  It is regularly served with an orange double decker – a bit like the chocolate bars.  I wonder if they still exist.

The bus was quiet today as both the schools and universities were on their Easter hols. I did the loop at the northern end, seeing roads I’d never been on before, and then got off in Cyncoed village and sought out the Green Door Bakery.  It’s small to say the least, just two tables inside, but luckily it was just about warm enough to sit outside and enjoy my cappuccino and Easter themed cake.

My book for the day was one I picked up in a local book exchange, C.P.Snow’s ‘Corridors of Power’. He claims to have been the first to use the phrase in an earlier book so felt justified using it as a title for this book. I was looking forward to reading it as I had enjoyed reading C.P.Snow when a lot younger.  His science background comes through in his writing.  Unfortunately I don’t think I’m going to get on with it.  The book is lengthy and dense print. Back to the book exchange it goes.

From Cyncoed I walked up Black Oak Road and accessed the reservoirs which are fast becoming a regular walk in this challenge.  The footpath around both reservoirs is now open making it into a longer stroll.

The No.50 has a similar route to the No.49 except that it goes clockwise around Llanrumney rather than anti-clockwise.  As were drove around Llanrumney the driver started making announcements that the bus would terminate at the ‘top shops’ rather than continue back to town.  I never did work out why.  I think there was some driver training going on.  Everybody on the bus seemed to understand the phrase ‘top shops’ and in the end it dawned on me that they were the sops on Countisbury Avenue, where I was heading anyway. That was lucky.

I chose to have my lunch in the lively Ford Café.   Their Spanish Omelette with a cup of tea hit the mark.

 
My book for the day was ‘Why We Get Sick’.  A good scientific read with lots of theories on different topics though not necessarily all taken from peer reviewed publications so some had to be approached with caution. It was a bit of a shock after reading the book to exit the cafe and find a car with a skeleton in the front seat.

I walked from there back down to Llanrumney Hall over the greenery and popped in to have a quick chat about some local history.  The No.50 I then caught luckily took me all the way back into town.