The Ham Nomads

1 May 2014. <GB-ENG> Arthur's Stone, Heref; <GB-WLS> Cwmbran —

A 5:30am start. We heard bells ourside the van — the Morris Dancers had arrived. Four musicians, 8 dancers, accompanying family and friends — quite a group. They went through about four dances in quick succession, and then they invited the lookers-on to take part. Warren got to take part in his first Morris Dance! John, the leader, was very kind with him, although when they clashed sticks — at first gently, then vigorously — neither of them held back! Great fun. After the dancing, all stood around having hot sausage in bread rolls — one of the group members is the local baker, so the rolls were very worth while — and tea or coffee. Then a few folk songs about the coming of summer. Turns out that most of the group are also in the Village choir, and one is the choir leader, so there's a bit of quality in the singing! If you're interested you can look them up, the choir at www.villagequire.org.uk and the Morris Dancers at foxwhelpmorris.wordpress.com

A couple of our hosts

We then needed to get to a Starbucks or MacDonalds to get internet access and a little computer charging time. The nearest place we found with the Garmin was in Cwmbran, north of Newport, and only about 12 miles away. Got there, and found we could park for up to 3 hours in a Morrissey's (supermarket) car park. Did that, went up to the Starbucks in the main shopping area, did what we wanted, and came back nearly 3 hours later, to find we had left our headlights on. Flat battery. A call to the RAC for roadside help, and the mechanic arrived about 40 minutes latter. In the meantime, we had informed Morrissey's, who waived any overstay penalty for our parking! Turned out that this incident was a blessing in disguise, as our battery failed on testing, so it was better that it was checked (and replaced) now than later on when we were miles from any assistance! The RAC man was most helpful, and checked over our vehicle for any other problems. All was okay, although he did suggest we add a further litre of oil. (We probably hadn't put in quite enough when we topped it up the other day.) He also warned us to check our oil regularly, as an older diesel can use up a bit more than you expect.

Back in business, we set off towards the Sloop Inn. The traffic at the turnoff was absolute chaos, banked up round the roundabout and about three miles beyond. We thought we saw a couple of ambulances in the mix, so who knows what was going on! We decided to park off in a layby, and return to the Sloop Inn tomorrow.

Distance driven — today, 87 miles ( 140 km ); to date, 570 miles ( 918 km )