V-log 12: The Ashes 2015

Greetings!

This week's V-log covers a passion of mine that is little discussed on UTM: test cricket. I've been following test cricket for years and can think of no game so completely absorbing from the beginning to the end. The uninitiated may scoff but it is because they don't understand. I'm not knocking football, rugby or other sports; I follow them too, but there is something about test cricket that cannot be equalled.

And the pinnacle of test cricket has to be the fiercely contested Ashes series between England and Australia. Today's v-log is of the first test in this year's series which I was honoured to watch at Cardiff's SWALEC Stadium.

Oh yes, and for those who don't follow the game, we won.

Keep travelling!

Uncle Travelling Matt

Check out all my V-logs!

V-log 1: So Uncle Travelling Matt, how many countries have you visited…?

V-log 2: Llangelynin

V-log 3: A Tour Around Schouwen-Duiveland

V-log 4: Draycott-en-le-Moors

V-log 5: Barmouth Cliff Walk

V-log 6: Walking Pilgrimage to Bardsey Island

V-log 7: Crowland, Lincolnshire

V-log 8: Repton, Derbyshire

V-log 9: East to West Berlin

V-log 10: Berlin

V-log 11: Poznan

V-log 12: The Ashes 2015

Oslo V-log: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

V-log 6: Walking Pilgrimage to Bardsey Island

Greetings!

My computer's in for repairs this week, so no updates on Across Asia With A Lowlander. Instead, here's my latest V-log, an account of the trip I took this week to Wales where Paul and I walked almost 30 miles, (ok, by some people's standards, nothing spectacular, but for a rotund guy like me, incredible), from Clynnog Fawr to Bardsey Island (Ynys Elli) just off the Llyn Peninsular. Absolutely incredible journey, and I suspect it won't be the last walking trip I undertake even if my legs and feet are pleading otherwise.

Keep travelling!

Uncle Travelling Matt

Check out all my V-logs!

V-log 1: So Uncle Travelling Matt, how many countries have you visited…?

V-log 2: Llangelynin

V-log 3: A Tour Around Schouwen-Duiveland

V-log 4: Draycott-en-le-Moors

V-log 5: Barmouth Cliff Walk

V-log 6: Walking Pilgrimage to Bardsey Island

V-log 7: Crowland, Lincolnshire

V-log 8: Repton, Derbyshire

V-log 9: East to West Berlin

V-log 10: Berlin

V-log 11: Poznan

V-log 12: The Ashes 2015

Oslo V-log: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

V-log 5: Barmouth Cliff Walk

Greetings!

We've not had a V-log for a while on UTM and for one very good reason: my camera packed up. However, I've got another now and although the zoom is rather dodgy, the rest is fine and so here we are with the fifth V-log.

This one's taken above the town of Barmouth in Mid Wales. I used to go on holiday to Barmouth every year as a kid and it's an incredible place. A lot of the places you visit when young, you remember as being amazing but then when you revisit them you realise that, actually, they weren't that special at all. Barmouth however, IS special and well worth checking out.

However, if you do go, after walking over the bridge, eating seafood in the harbour and lying on the beach, do not forget to head to the large church on the hillside and then take the clifftop walk that leads up the side of it. Want to know why? This video should explain everything...

And so that is all for now, back to Across Asia With A Lowlander on Friday. As for me, gues where I'm off to this weekend? Indeed, Mid Wales.

Keep travelling!

Uncle Travelling Matt

PS. Wanna know more about the mines? Check out the this website.

Check out all my V-logs!

V-log 1: So Uncle Travelling Matt, how many countries have you visited…?

V-log 2: Llangelynin

V-log 3: A Tour Around Schouwen-Duiveland

V-log 4: Draycott-en-le-Moors

V-log 5: Barmouth Cliff Walk

V-log 6: Walking Pilgrimage to Bardsey Island

V-log 7: Crowland, Lincolnshire

V-log 8: Repton, Derbyshire

V-log 9: East to West Berlin

V-log 10: Berlin

V-log 11: Poznan

V-log 12: The Ashes 2015

Oslo V-log: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

V-log 2: Llangelynin

Greetings!

I took my son on his first-ever camping trip this weekend and whilst romping around the wilds of Snowdonia, we visited Llangelynin, a remote 12th century church found by one St. Celynin, with a holy well in the churchyard.Such wells are a potent feature of the spiritual life of Wales - and many other places - and I always enjoy seeking them out. What I love most is the way in which religion and spirituality have interacted with the local culture to create a spot which is truly incredible. The pre-Christians Pagans in Britain used to say that there were 'thin places' where the fog between our world and the next almost clears, places on the edge of our reality, a halfway house between this realm and the other. Llangelynin, situated at the end of a tiny dead-end lane, the coastal plain and rolling hills below it and the rugged rocky peaks of the Cambrian Mountains above is one such place and being there caused me to make this short video musing on the interaction of religion and culture which so many people deem to be a bad thing, and the joy of seeking out such ancient holy places where prayer impregnates the very stones.

All of which is well and good. However, is it quite so wise to bring a five-year old assistant with you...?

Keep travelling!

Uncle Travelling Matt

Check out all my V-logs!

V-log 1: So Uncle Travelling Matt, how many countries have you visited…?

V-log 2: Llangelynin

V-log 3: A Tour Around Schouwen-Duiveland

V-log 4: Draycott-en-le-Moors

V-log 5: Barmouth Cliff Walk

V-log 6: Walking Pilgrimage to Bardsey Island

V-log 7: Crowland, Lincolnshire

V-log 8: Repton, Derbyshire

V-log 9: East to West Berlin

V-log 10: Berlin

V-log 11: Poznan

V-log 12: The Ashes 2015

Oslo V-log: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3

V-log 1: So Uncle Travelling Matt, how many countries have you visited...?

Greetings!

The first instalment of what I hope will become an occasional, ongoing series in which I deal with odd issues that crop up with travelling, I talk all about those countries that, well... aren't really countries after all...

As always, comments welcome.

Keep travelling!

Uncle Travelling Matt

Check out all my V-logs!

V-log 1: So Uncle Travelling Matt, how many countries have you visited…?

V-log 2: Llangelynin

V-log 3: A Tour Around Schouwen-Duiveland

V-log 4: Draycott-en-le-Moors

V-log 5: Barmouth Cliff Walk

V-log 6: Walking Pilgrimage to Bardsey Island

V-log 7: Crowland, Lincolnshire

V-log 8: Repton, Derbyshire

V-log 9: East to West Berlin

V-log 10: Berlin

V-log 11: Poznan

V-log 12: The Ashes 2015

Oslo V-log: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3