20 MPH.

It has been raining almost constantly throughout the day here at the coast but for once the weather was slightly better inland and we only had a few light showers on our walk.

Our walk today began at the outskirts of Machynllth, (our cars were parked in the slip road to the right of the roundabout in the foreground.) From the road we headed straight up the hill climbing the 'Roman Steps' a series of steps that have been cut out of the rock with a drainage channel to one side. There is no evidence that they are Roman though there are the remains of a Roman Auxiliary fort at Cefn Caer, just a few miles to the west on the other side of the River Dyfi. More likely is that they were cut by workers at one of the quarries up in the hills. As we climbed the hill we had great views of Machynllth to the east and the river valley to the west.

We hadn't been walking long before we made an early lunch stop to take in the views. As far as I can work out from the OS map we were about 350 ft above the valley.

From there we swung round the back of the hill towards the next valley,

and then through some woods.

It was easy to see why these native woodlands are known as the Welsh rain forest.

We came across this pretty building (which I can't find on the maps) with a flock of black birds in the adjoining field. We were quite bemused as to what these birds were, they looked like pheasants but were such an unusual colour. In the end we decided they must be pheasants especially when I spotted one in the more normal beige. I've since looked them up and they are indeed pheasants, a melanistic variety known as Blue Pheasants. While searching for information I discovered that pheasants were introduced to Britain as ornamental birds by the Romans, had died out by 1700 and were re-introduced by the aristocracy in the 1830s.

We carried on along the glyndwrs-way-national-trail- a 135 mile long route through mid Wales for a bit before heading back down to Machynllth and then home.

Midnight last night the new 20 mph speed limit came into force in Wales. Everywhere that used to have a 30 mph limit ie built up areas (anywhere that has street lights) is now 20 mph unless there are signs saying otherwise. This is to make roads in built up areas safer and to encourage more riding of bikes but oh dear, 20 mph feels like you are crawling along.  I couldn't stop laughing as I tried so hard to stay below 20 mph along the mile long Borth High Street (I was giving three friends a lift home). We reckoned that a bicycle can easily do more than 20mph but most bikes aren't fitted with a speedometer. That's going to be interesting if bikes are overtaking the cars.

I had just parked the car and was talking to a friend who was passing taking a dog for a walk when she spotted dolphins in the bay. I ran inside and stood in the doorway, (it was raining heavily) to take photos of the four dolphins fishing close to shore. One pair looked to be a mother and calf with the calf always keeping close to the adult. A nice end to the day. Oh and we watched the opening programme of Strictly, I think I recognised three of the celebrities. That's how out of touch we are.