well hello and welcome and today we're going for a little drive
yes we're putting the drive back into Fly Drive Explore
and guess who's joining me today my trusty sidekick
MRS W, Mellissa
so we're going for a little valley's drive we're going to head out of Porthcawl
join the m4 one junction to Bridgend
then up the Ogmore Valley on the A4061
through Ogmore Vale and Nant y moel are you taking me up the valley?
your relatives are from up there aren't they, yeah.
we're then going to go over the Bwlch which is Welsh for gap or pass
over to the Afan Valley then back down the Afan Valley
down the coast back to Porthcawl are we going past Pontrhydyfen, yeah
is that the birthplace of Richard Burton, yeah in the Afan Valley we'll be
going past Pontrhydyfen which is the birthplace of Richard Burton
and the total distance is going to be
about 45 miles and it's looking a bit gray today so we
may get some rain and up on the Bwlch
are we going to have the highlights yeah the highlight of the Bwlch, it's a
beautiful area and that's the idea of the trip.
we hope to show this former industrial area is now really beautiful and the
landscape is really dramatic and up on the top of the mountains
there's usually an ice cream van and lots of sheep i hope you're going to
see it in this weather though yeah anyway we'll see, let's go.
we've got some rain Mel we have it's unusual because i've never thought
it rained in Wales it's normally tropical
Are you're going to keep a welcome in it in the hillside
Am I going to keep a welcome in the hillside?
yeah of course i am
just bring out any more Welsh cliches now shall we
Let's start the male voice choir now Marcus
Max Boyce and his giant leek. Any more Marcus anymore? Rugby songs we all have doctor's papers
by the way for those of you that aren't Welsh that means nothing to you.
Does this area mean anything to you?
no i tell a lie, it does it is my granddad and dad are from Pant Yr Awel
around this area and my granddad's house used to be on the
left on the left you're up a hill you can't
really see it so i won't move the camera to show you anything
there's trees in the way yes so this is where my dad lived for years
Look at the mountains over there look how green they are very
green aren't they the Ogmore Valley only had a population
of about 100 people up until the 1850s
then in 1860 the coal mines arrived and it just boomed and all these towns
towns sprung up.
what do you think of this area Mel it is very beautiful this is just past Naty y moel
yeah i honestly forgot how beautiful
this area is yeah behind you there's a sign
Nany y moel forest yeah considering it's only about 20
minutes from Porthcawl yeah and the motorway
it's really quiet and the landscapes remind me of you know it could be
even parts of Iceland.
so we've now reached the the Bwlch the top of the Bwlch yeah the originally
the road didn't stretch as far as this, the Ogmore
Valley was a dead end but after the first world war they
extended it to Treorchy and they cut through the top of
the mountain, that what Bwlch means it's Welsh for
gap or pass, i didn't know that.
these sheep aren't bothered by us at all look how close they are
not bothered at all are you.
and like other sheep these sheep look they're not bothered by anything
look how tame they are
they're scrounging food
so that's where we are on the map at the top of the Bwlch
and
that is the actual view
welcome to the valleys
look at all these sheep hey it is in Wales
they're not bothered by anything though they're really tame, they see a lot of
people up here here comes some trouble
well the sheep's trouble there having a scratch, scratching his head
oh we've got sheep in the road sheep in the road
i think you're gonna have a few comments here about welsh people and sheep
there we go, out of the way, they saw welsh man and he ran out of the way Marcus
there, well I'll made the comment before anyone else does
the car was just flashing us because there was sheep in the road
so we're in Abergwynfi
and where's your family from Marcus this area
Blaengwynfi that's the my grans family on my mother's side
of the family.
So there's the sign, Pontrhydyfen.
Did I say that correctly?
So now we've reached Pontrhydyfen and we're on the old aqueduct and just
below it, down there, number two
Dan y Bont on the 10th of November 1925 Richard Burton was born.
and there's a famous photograph of him crossing the aqueduct
and we'll try to recreate it, yes try and recreate that photograph
Richard Burton crossing the aqueduct
but with us instead
So our last stop in Pontrhydyfen is Richard Burton's birthplace which is
still just a normal house so
someone actually lives there so we're not gonna hang around too much and it's
number 2 Dan y Bont which means under the bridge
so let's go
so it's this one, coming up on the corner that one there
you can't see inside, we've got a reflection but they've got a little sign inside but
that's all nothing else and it's a private house so
we'll leave them to it.
so it's that little house at the end of the terrace
that's where Richard Burton was born November 1925.
so I hope you enjoyed a little drive through the Welsh Valleys
but that's not the end if you want to see more videos
of us driving, road trips around Wales as well as the rest of the world
where else have we been, Route 66 don't forget to check out the videos below
so that's a bye from me and a bye from the sheep
not really bothered are they