I’ve been to Wales, again. It was lovely. I stayed in Penmaenpool near the toll bridge, this is a village(?) close to Dolgellau. I saw many things. There were dolphins, seals, metal birds, trains, boats, canoes, aqueducts, sheep, cows, herons, lakes, rivers, tiny well maintained roads, mountains, and power stations. I even had a guided tour of Rheidol Power Station which was very cool, we saw the generator room and the turbine room. During the tour the guide suggested we visit the dams as one of them could be driven over and they were an important part of the generation system. So, we went there before returning home.
We drove through Gonigan, Pontarfynach [Devil’s Bridge], somewhere called Cymystwyth and then many miles of single track mountain road through the Elan Valley. When I say many miles, it was a loooong way. No phone signal. Just an assuredness that we would somehow get out at the other end. I didn’t know if we would see the dams and reservoirs or even if we were on the correct road. It turns out that the Elan Valley is a “dark skies” park. This makes sense. We definitely felt as though we were in the middle of nowwhere!
On the map look at the yellow road with the green dots. That’s the road we followed hoping to find the dams. We did find the correct dams and drove over the first one!
There was a car park on the east side of the dam. We stopped for a short while and took some pictures. I really liked the texture of the dam and the design of it. Considering it was made in the 1960s it looked a lot older and I liked that. After seeing this we drove home, there was plenty of mountain road left to traverse and then A roads before we got into England and motorways!
The whole energy generation system was pretty impressive including how they built in a large drop for the water before Rheidol power station meaning that more energy could be extracted from the water. The power station wasn’t generating while we were there but there was a controller room which oversees all the water system. I was impressed.