Aberfan memorial

9th Dec

Up and away towards Aberfan and the memorial. After a nice journey, the main roads were fantastic, we arrived in Aberfan and parked in the road as we couldn't fit in the car park. Trailer locked, van secure, we headed up the hill to the church where the graves of the 116 children and 28 adults who lost their lives in the 'accident' were. It was very emotional to walk up the steep hill and see the white stone memorial. Some of the children were only 7 years old when they died and some of the graves had their photos on them too. It was also very moving to see that the children's parents and other members of their families had been buried with them when their time had come, years later. 

We spent about half an hour reading the epitaphs and then walked back down to the site of the old school where the 'accident' happened which was now a memorial garden. There were trees there which had been planted by the Queen, Prince Charles and the children of the nearby school in memory of the children and adults who lost their lives in that spot.

We were very quiet as we walked back to the van and set off to Crick Howell nr Abergavenny and a motorhome safe car park for the night. 

10th Dec

We had a quiet night and a peaceful sleep at the motorhome friendly car park in Crick howel but it was freezing. Andy woke up at 4am and put the gas heating on. There was Ice on the outside of the windows. We put another couple of hours in the car park machine at 8am and had coffee. We walked around the town and checked the castle ruins before getting back to the van and making tracks for todays' visit to the Penderyn distillery.