Cardiff to Newport, Sept 3, 2017

The fifteen-mile walk from Cardiff to Newport wins no prizes for beauty or scenic interest, but it is flat and in the wind a rain, that is not so bad, except when you are walking for miles on top of a dike sort of thing, you really get hit by the wind and feel very much like Jane Eyre or someone who used to go out in blustery rainy weather on the heath or the moors, and they didn't even have proper boots or rain gear or anything, but they just pulled their hooded cloaks close around them and set out with firm purpose to where ever it was they had to go, and you hope a cup of tea is waiting for them at the destination.  

There was industry to see:

I think it may have been a scrap metal yard:

People here add to the urbanscape by throwing their old used things like carpets by the road just like at home:

Guess I am going to miss this gala.  But I found the first shop since Morfa Nefen, way back a long time ago when I smashed the phone, that can repair, while-U-wait, an iPhone 7+ for $120.00.  I will wait until I get home and hope I bought the Applecare plan!

A sad-looking lone horsie in an industrial wasteland:

 Two horsies, one quite small, behind a gate:

Swans never fail to delight.  Here are some in a nature preserve near Newport;

I did this segment today en exchange for a rest day tomorrow so that I might cross the famous Transporter Bridge in Newport, which is open only Wednesday through Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  But I worried that the bridge would be closed due to the badness of the weather, and it almost was because guess who was the only person to have crossed it by 12:30 today?

Looking up at the part you walk on.  Why, that might be called "The Span!"

These are the 270 steps you have to climb, and two heavy metal doors you have to shove open to get up to the part you walk on:

And here is how it looks once you are up there:

Going back, if that is your plan, you can take a gondola, so I did, just for fun.  It has room for six cars, but it held just one lone passenger:

I'd love to say something dramatic about walking across this bridge, but since climbing the stairs and walking across the span took only ten minutes, I cannot, except to say I would have hated to miss doing it!  And, when I returned, they were contemplating closing for the day since customers, even for the gondola ride, were, shall we say not showing up.