Tomorrow we set out for a country where ‘w’ is considered a vowel, and where sheep outnumber humans four to one. Our plan involves, among other things, mountain-biking near Machynlleth, wild camping on the shores of Llyn Cau, and climbing Cadair Idris by the Minffordd route.
Cadair Idris literally translates as ‘the chair of Idris’. Idris is a giant of Welsh mythology – a stargazer, philosopher and poet. In olden days, bards would sleep on Cadair Idris in the hope of poetic inspiration. And legend has it that anyone who spends the night on the mountain will either die in the night, or go insane, or wake up as a bard.
It will be interesting to see what lies in store for us.
5 comments:
Assuming that you don't die or go insane, will you be posting esoteric poems on your blog? You may want to reconsider the trip then.
Learn to appreciate variety, Rockshona.
Plus he could go insane. That would be good, wouldn't it, now that grown-up work poses the danger of imposing sanity on him?
-Raktima.
Cadair Idris sounds like something out of a Tolkien book :)
And since I couldn't pronounce a single name, of COURSE the place has got to be worth it :D
But on a serious note- I'm envious. Very.
@Rick: No, just the same boring old posts.
@Karthy: Well LOTR relied heavily for inspiration on Wales and the Welsh tongue.
@Anushka: To make matters worse, the spellings don't reflect the pronunciation at all. The first time I heard a local say 'Machynlleth', I thought he was clearing his throat.
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