* You may have already guessed this last bit…
June 6th is a bit of a special day in the life of Yours Truly as it’s my birthday and Mrs ABS had planned a 3-night break for us (+ Ruby our dog) in an airbnb ‘Shepherds Hut’ in West Wales.
We were planning to leave on the Friday, but as my brother surprised us with a [welcome] evening meal for us on the Saturday, we didn’t leave until the Sunday which actually worked out well with the weather.
Driving westwards on the M4/A48. Meh, easy. It was once we left these roads that getting to the site got ‘interesting’. And slower.
A lot slower.
Driving on Welsh country roads isn’t a fast pastime at the best of times and once we crossed into Ceredigion, where just about every bloody village is cursed by The Idiot Drakeford and restricted to 20mph, time went away to bother someone else.
At such slow speeds, one could at least (once it stopped raining) admire the scenery, and being early June, the roads were quiet.
Our Sat-Nav would have sent us into a cul-de-sac about a mile from the farmhouse – luckily this was a known problem and the farm owner had rather helpfully given us ‘three little words’ which got us where we needed to be.
Not having stayed in a shepherd’s hut before we weren’t really sure what to expect.
It was more ‘compact’, less ‘bijou’ but it would do for the few nights we were staying – plus there was a ‘Mrs ABS must-have’ – a hot tub!
The Hut ‘n’ Tub
One of the neighbours
.. and another one
Aberaeron
After a pleasant, if slightly chilly end to Sunday, we woke on the Monday to low clouds and rain showers, so we delayed our start hoping it would brighten later.
By late morning, the sky had lifted enough for us to pile into the car and head off to Aberaeron about 30 min drive away.
Aberaeron (Taffspeak: ‘mouth of the Aeron’) is a rather pretty Georgian seaside town (its development began around 1805) facing Cardigan Bay half-way between Cardigan and Aberystwyth and is known for the Regency style terraced houses being painted in bright colours.
With a population of around 1300, there is an almost sleepy-seaside feel to the town and it would have been nice to have wandered around more, but the promise of brighter weather faded; a rather chilly breeze sprung up and the sky threatened rain. So, after some lunch in a café, and a quick wander around some shops we headed back, mostly at 20mph, to our site for a BBQ and, ignoring the drizzle, a plunge into the hot tub.
The next morning it was lashing down, but the old adage ‘rain before 7, clear by 11’ held true and by late morning there were hints of blueness in the sky.
Poppit Sands
This beach was recommended to us by the farm owner as it is dog friendly all year round.
Not far from Cardigan, the Eastern side of the beach borders the mouth of the Teifi River so currents there can, at times, be a bit lively for smaller dogs and with the beach being very flat, one has to keep an eye on an incoming tide but today, the tide was still on the ebb when we arrived and it was all calm.
It was about an hour away by the slow roads and, whisper it quietly, the sun actually came out!
There is a café called ‘Crwst’ (‘Crust’ in Taffspeak) in the car park, so Mrs ABS decided to sit there with a latte and a bun and catch up with the world news (we had no internet at the hut), and I took our four-legged family member for a walk on the beach.
Ruby doesn’t go to a beach very often, so she made the most of it and didn’t stop running around, splashing through the shallows and chasing off the occasional seagull.
We were tempted to stop off in Cardigan, but rush hour was approaching and the thought of a warm evening with another BBQ and hot tub proved too much of a magnet.
Final Day
As a birthday treat for me (as I’m a rather keen bird spotter), Mrs ABS had booked an afternoon at Gigrin Farm in Rhayader
Ever since we were dive bombed by a Kite as we were driving along the M4 – it flew out over the trees on our left, turned and then swooped down across in front of us and picked something up off the hard shoulder so we got a really good look at it – we have both admired these rather striking looking raptors.
The sun shone and it was lovely warm day with the Powys hills giving a very nice setting.
We settled into hide about 45mins before feeding time and waited.
(The farm allows dogs into the hides, although they have to be quiet! J )
Now, some (most?) of you will be familiar with the scene in ‘The Birds’ when Tipi Hedren is sitting on a bench and the playground behind her ominously fills with crows.
Well, this was [sort of] similar:
OK, so the birds didn’t attack us, but…
The numbers increased steadily leading up to feeding time.
Then a man in a tractor arrived
…. and started to scatter the food (the farm gets through ½ ton of beef a week feeding Kites!)
Kites are opportunistic feeders – they don’t really hunt preferring carrion and roadkill and although they are known to take small mammals and birds (especially young or wounded) and even worms during the Spring, they prefer to scavenge and rather than land and forage, they will ‘swoop and grab’ flying on into clearer space to eat.
They have been known to steal food from humans – notably in a park in Buckinghamshire where Kites swooped in and stole sandwiches from people. (Seagulls are bad enough but I‘m not sure if I’d like to be dive-bombed by a bird with a 6ft wingspan and armed with razor talons and a sharp beak…)
And they are fast.
As a result, I had my camera busily taking many of pictures of blurs…
Fortunately, some kites did land:
Leucistic Red Kites
Leucism is a mutation that in the animal world causes a reduction in pigment which has the effect of making the animal appear white. It is more common than, and often mistaken for, albinism.
It is thought there are only 10 white Red Kites in the world; at least three such Kites have been seen at Gigrin Farm (Humza Yousaf should look away now):
I was rather amused by the crows waiting patiently on the fence posts – very Hitchcock-like!
The feeding went on for over an hour, and the sky was full of kites throughout – the farm estimates they feed 300 a day during the summer; twice that many in winter.
If any Puffin is ever in this part of the world and has ever admired these rather striking birds, I can recommend searching out a feeding station/farm.
It is well worth it to see so many of these birds up close.
Of course, with so many birds around there was an obvious downside – the overflow car park we used wasn’t far from the feeding area so the car & windscreen was splattered with ka-ka..
Fifteen minutes with a damp cloth had the windscreen cleared and we finally set off for ABS towers.
Sensible road speeds, finally.
© text & images Afghanistan Banana Stand 2025
