Day 1 had been spent traveling to Hay and day 2 had been spent walking around town and visiting the bookstores. We decided that since day 4 would also be spent wandering around Hay that we'd take day 3 to drive into the country.

Our herding trainer, Robert Kelleher, knows a man called Aled Owen who runs a place called Ewe-Phoria near Corwen in North Wales, about 90 miles from Hay. The site is dedicated to sheep, herding and Border Collies, so we figured, "why not?"

We set off after breakfast for what we thought was going to be no more than a 2 hour drive. It's only 90 miles and the roads in Wales are brilliant. What we didn't count on were people who didn't know how to drive in the rain. Pointedly, tourists*.

* A note to anyone traveling in a foreign country...look in your rearview mirror more often and get the hell off the road if you're holding up traffic. If there are more than 2 cars behind you, if you can't drive in bad weather or if you're causing any kind of hindrance on the road, just get off the road and let others pass. Driving slowly is not helpful to locals. It only annoys them. Pull into a drive way or lay-by and let the traffic pass you. Get back on the road when it's clear, but let those who know what they're doing pass you instead of causing road rage.

<stepping off my soapbox>

Having said that, the 90 mile drive ended up taking over 3 hours to make because of pour weather and bad drivers.

The first main town we drove through was called Ludlow. This is a medieval market town located on the England side of the Marches. When we passed through on the 10th they were having their annual Food and Drink Festival. If we hadn't been pressed for time and if the weather hadn't been so dire we would have stopped. This is a really interesting town with a castle, church and half timber buildings that are traditional in many parts of England.

Ludlow started life in 1086 when the de Lacy's built Ludlow Castle (below), first in timber, later in stone. This castle was one of the first

defensive castles that was built along the Marches. The castle has a rich history that includes "Treachery, Murder, Loyalty and Royalty", or so the castle website says.

One of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Chadwick, wrote a book called Lords of the White Castle, which is a historical tale about Fulk Fitzwarine who laid siege to Ludlow Castle. Even though it's a fictional accounting, Chadwick's stories are based strongly on history and are accurate enough to be used as historical texts.

Following the construction of the castle, a "planned town" was laid out just outside the castle walls at the main gate, and a few years later, in 1199, the Church of St Laurence was built (below).

St Laurence's Church, Ludlow

and age has destroyed many of the motifs some can still be seen along the 3 gables at the front of the building. Ostrich feathers were traditionally used on the badge of the Prince of Wales.

The Feathers was an inn for more than 200 years after its construction. Inns traditionally provided meals, beverages (beer and ale mainly) and a place to sleep. The Feathers occasionally hosted cock fights and prize fighting. As well, the inn was a political venue, and for a time, Ludlow was the effectual capitol of Wales.

It was in 1863 when The Feathers gained proper hotel status and expanded through purchase of neighboring properties. More recently, the hotel has seen further modernization to meet the needs of 21st century travelers.

The town of Ludlow itself still hosts the town market, which takes place on every 2nd Thursday of the month. Stalls sell everything from fruit and veg, to crafts, to plants, to baked goods, and more. Like our town of Macroom, the Ludlow market has been held continually for about 800 years!

We continued up the road towards Shrewsbury. We didn't actually go into Shrewsbury but took the bypass road to Llangollen, which would then take us to Llangwm (Clan-goom) near Corwen to a place called Ewe-Phoria Sheepdog Centre.

Shrewsbury is on the plan for the next trip though as this town is supposed to be one of England's finest Tudor towns. This is also a Marches town with over 660 listed buildings in the town! Of course, anything over in this part of the world that's more than 150 years old automatically gets a grade 1 listing.

Ewe-Phoria is owned by renown farmer, shepherd and trialer Aled Owen (left), a native Welshman. He's been called a master in the art of sheepdog handling, and after watching him work Ben (also left), I'd have to agree. Aled has represented Wales in 22 International herding trials and won the title of Supreme in 1999 with his dog Roy. He

repeated this in 2000 with his now #1 dog Bob. Other credits include (credits borrowed from Aled's site):

World Sheepdog Trials Champion 2002
International Sheepdog Society Supreme Champion 1999 & 2000
7 times winner of Welsh Open Championship
7 times winner of North Wales Sheepdog Society Open Championship
Winner of BBC TV 'One Man and his Dog' doubles title
3 times winner of Welsh National Championship
5 times Welsh Aggregate Champion

No kidding! Wow!!

Sheepdogs and trials are part of Aled's heritage. His uncle (above) won the Llangollen Sheepdog Trial in 1899. Aled won the same show 100 years later to the year, with a dog descended from his uncle's winning dog!

Ewe-Phoria is set up on part of Aled's farm on the northeast side of the Snodonia National Park where he does exhibitions for tourists and those interested in getting into herding and trialing. Part of the program includes the Ram Parade (top and middle left) where he puts rams of different sheep varieties on display and tells you about their heritage and uses in farming. On this day several were on display ranging from a rare and very ancient variety, to a badger faced sheep, to the delicate Blue Faced Leicester to the dramatic Welsh Black, which is what we're talking about getting for our pasture. Their wool is the blackest of the black and fetches ten times more at the market than white.

Aled also brings a sheep in to sheer by hand, talks about wool and hair types and lets guests interact with the sheep. Sheep are either wool type or hair type (right). It's amazing to see and feel the different varieties too. Some are shaggy like a dog and some are tight and nappy like berber carpet!

And if Aled has puppies around he'll bring them in to meet the guests. The day we were there he had 2 from a litter of 6 that were down for the show. They were about 4 weeks old, both black and white and bound to have long coats with the amount of hair on them! Both seemed very keen to work. One of them stuck to Aled's side the whole time no matter where he moved. And the rams on the display took one look and perked their ears up.

When everyone has had their fill of the sheep Aled then takes the group out to a viewing area where he works one of his dogs with a flock in a hill pasture (right).

We'd arrived about half way through the show. Being late in the season the website times were scant, but Aled took us through the first half of the program again on our own then stopped for about half an hour after everyone else had left to have a chat. Our trainer is friends with Aled so we had what the Irish call a "good auld chin wag." Then we were off and running to our next destination. We thought it was back to Hay, but we ended up in Llangollen and the Froncysyllte Aqueducts!

Llangollen (Clan-gock-len) is an ancient market town set on the banks of the River Dee, the date of inhabitancy unknown exactly but sometime around 300 years ago!

In HV Morton's wonderful 1932 travelog called "In Search of Wales", he wrote of Llangollen as he crossed the Marches into Wales -

"Llangollen is nothing of the Border Marches about it. It is definitely a foreign country. The broad Dee flows through meadowland with the majestic leisure of a salmon river. It cascades over rocks and, beneath the lovely old bridge, which Bishop Trevor built five centuries ago, it rushes madly, foaming at the arches....To any with an eye for landscape its charm is in compression. Here is a little masterpiece in mountains; an exercise in the blending of hill against hill, woodland against moorland. The Vale of Llangollen looks as thought Nature had made a scale model for a section of the milder Scottish Highlands, and, liking it very well, had also gained a few ideas for Switzerland and the German Rhine. It's a country that is neat and well-groomed. Every meadow, it seems, has its valet and every tree its lady's maid."

Morton wrote of Bishop Trevor Bridge (bottom left)-

"I could lean for hours over Bishop Trevor's bridge admiring the dark pools, the sudden eddies, the quick shallow channels of the nut-brown Dee. It is a great thing for a town to have a salmon river whispering at its walls day and night..."

Morton spend a few days in Llangollen, and after researching the town on the internet we've decided that this town will also be on our itinerary for the next trip. There's so much history here, including being the setting for Arthurian legend and the Holy Grail, Castle Dinas Bran, Croes Gwenhwyfar (Gueinevere's Cross), Valle Crucis Abbey and more, including Plas Newydd, (New Place) (bottom left), and the Ladies of Llangollen, also known as the Virgin's of Llangollen.

Now here's an interesting story. Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby were 2 Irish women who grew up in County Kilkenny in Ireland, Lady Eleanor of the Butler's of Kilkenny Castle. These ladies made fast friends in 1768, and by 1778 they had decided to run away together to avoid the marriages their parents continually tried to thrust upon them. While the towns people simply referred to the eccentric women as "the ladies, they were quite possibly lesbians. They didn't actively socialize, but spent their time in seclusion studying literature and languages. Even still, their reputation spread across England, attracting notables such as Lord Byron, the Shelley's, William Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott, the Duke of Wellington, Robert Southery and others.

Near Llangollen are the towns of Pontcysyllte and Froncysyllte (Pont-sisi-cult and Fron-sisi-cult...probably...most people have trouble with this one), homes to probably the most famous aqueduct system in Britain. Built by Thomas Telford and William Jessup, the tallest of these architectural wonders is Pontcysyllte (BBC website with a 360 degree view from the top of the aqueduct) which is an amazing 127 feet tall. The first stone was laid in 1795 and the system was completed at a cost of £47,000 and 10 years to complete.

Water flows down from Horseshoe Falls near Llangollen and winds, eventually via a series of canals, into the River Dee below.

Up the valley is Chirk (link to someone else's site but has excellent info) is a pair of aqueducts that connect to Pontcysyllte. One is a water trough and the other carrying a rail line.

The Llangollen Canal, which connects to this aqueduct, is said to be the most beautiful in Britain. Guests on board one of the many canal boats (right) will see Wales's pastoral beauty in the

form of isolated sheep pastures, tree lined canalways, peat bogs and the backdrops of the Vale of Llangollen and the Snodonia Mountains.

Below are a few more photos of the area. We arrived too late to take one of the canal tours but definitely will on the next trip. They go out for 45 minutes, or one can hire canal boats by the week and take in some of the many canals between Wales and England, which were designed to transport goods and people along the 46 miles route to the Mersey at Liverpool.

Once we left Pontcysyllte we drove straight back to Hay for dinner. We took an alternate route back through Welshpool and Newtown. This was a good drive back actually. Once we'd left Ewe-Phoria the weather brightened and stopped raining, though was a bit hazy in areas. We drove through some really lovely countryside. At one point, I think south of Newtown, we past a sign that said "Working Bearded Collies." In all my years of working with dogs I've never known a Beardie to actually perform the job it was bread to do. Again, because of the hour we had to pass this up, but next time we'll make a point of stopping in!

To finish off this page of the travelog, here's a tongue twister. Wales is home to the town with the longest name in the world -

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

In English this translates to "the Church of Mary in a white hollow by a hazel tree near a rapid whirlpool by the church of St. Tisilio by a red cave".

So, based on my explanation of the pronunciations of letter combinations from the homepage, how would YOU pronounce this??

Stumped? Here's the translation.