Good morning Vagabuddies. Well our
adventure through Wales is taking us,
finally, into the south into Brecon
Beacons National Park. We're staying at
the Coach House, which is a lovely bed
and breakfast here in Brecon, which has
supposedly one of the best breakfast in
all of Wales. It's 7:45 in the morning. We
have an amazing day lined up. We're going go be
doing some mountain biking and exploring
the Brecon Beacons National Park,
potentially some whisky tasting, but
before we get too far down the road,
we're going to start things off how we
always start things off....with coffee.
All right Vagabuddies, we've just arrived
at Talybont Reservoir, which is cascading
over here behind us, and we're meeting
up with Luke.
He is a mountain- biker adventure guide.
We're here in Talybont Reservoir a
little bit above the base of the Usk
Valley. We're going to go and check out
the local area on the mountain bikes.
Brecon Beacons National Park is made up
of diverse mountain areas, forests, lakes
rivers, which means there's a huge
variety of different scenery; there's a
huge variety of different activities on
offer, and there really is something for
everyone.
These roads were actually old
tram ways, like back in the day, there
were mines for limestone up in the
hills ,and these trams would transfer the
limestone all the way down from here to
a canal that would then float the goods
out to Cardiff or to the industrial mills
of Europe.
A lot of people complain about the
weather in this country, but I personally
really enjoy it from a photography
perspective. Obviously there are lots of
clouds, but when the sun breaks through
those clouds, you get some really
beautiful light playing with darkness.
Right as we got down to the river,
it just started pissing down, honestly.
We're completely drenched, probably as
wet as if we had gone swimming back
there, but definitely more dirty and
happier. That was super fun.
We're going to wait for the rain to pass,
and luckily here in the U.K., there are
plenty of rainy day options.
We are showered; we are warm, but the
best way to warm up is of course...
whisky. Whisky is usually associated
with Scotland or Ireland, but Wales makes
whisky too. We're in the town of
Penderyn, and we're at the Penderyn
Distillery, and we're going to find out a
little bit more about Welsh whisky.
You ready? I am.
I'm going to do one for the team.
I'm going to be the designated driver, so
I will be sniffing but not sampling.
In the interest of science, I will be the
guinea pig. I will be the brave one to
test the whisky. It's only fair because
when we were in Bushmills in Northern
Ireland, Mark did the same, and I got to
sample 15 different whiskys........
"Enchante, mon frere.."
I'm David, and we're at
Penderyn Distillery in New South Wales,
and we're going to taste some whisky.
16 years ago now, a couple local people
got together, and they bought this still
and started producing some whisky here.
What we're doing is we're getting
malted barley. We're essentially making
a kind of beer from it at first
we're adding hot water to break down the
starch and sugar. We're fermenting the
sugar with yeast to get some alcohol
and with a purifying alcohol to get a
spirit. It's about 90% alcohol, and we're
putting that into barrels for a couple
of years, and we're finishing it for the
last six months in different types to
give it the different flavors.
That's really nice.
This is a special edition we've done called
The Independence, Penderyn Indepencence
This one was for the American Independence
because 16 of the signers were of
Welsh descent.
It's interesting how the Welsh have
immigrated less than the Irish and
Scottish. The largest population of
immigrants outside Wales is in the
U.S., also New Zealand and Australia, and
even Patagonia, but sometimes you
forget their influence on our own society.
But this whisky is a good way of
remembering them.
Smells like freedom.
See you guys again, and we'll see you
soon, hopefully.
Thank you very much. Peace, guys.
Pretty excited there, Brother? We have
arrived at one of the more Marko places
in the world, Hay on Wye. This is an old
market town, which has become a mecca for
book lovers......
bibliophiles in general. There's a ton of
different used book shops here.
It was formed by a media stunt in the
'70s when a local guy declared an
Independent Kingdom and named his horse
the prime minister and him the king.
We're going to go check out this quirky
little corner of Wales,
and see what we can find.
Apparently Bill Clinton has called
this place Woodstock for the Mind.
There're festivals around books there're
all sorts of book shops,
but the whole thing started with this guy
named Richard Booth.
We're going to go to the store
that he founded right around the corner.
My name is Patricia Thornton, and
we're in Richard Booth's bookshop
secondhand bookshop in Hay on Wye.
What was his fascination with books?
I just think you always love books.
He was up at Oxford reading history.
I think he spent an awful lot of time in
secondhand book shops while he was there,
and at the time when he started, there
were awful lot of big old houses in
Wales. They were so expensive to keep
going, and a lot of them sold their
libraries, and he bought most of them.
He was his own best publicist, you know.
He came up with this idea of making Hay
an independent kingdom... wasn't serious,
but it was fantastic really because
it really did put Hay on the map.
There's something about a used bookshop
that is an intangible loveliness. I think
that it increases your chances of finding a
random book rather than an algorithm
suggesting books it thinks you're going
to like. It shows you stuff that you
probably would never have picked on your
own. Oh my god, there's a book here
According to Mark.
So According to Mark, this is not
staged at all - because we're in the
gospel section here. But According to Mark,
Marko, used book shops should exist.
This is great one, and it's perfect rainy
day activity.
Places like this are super cool because
in the modern age we're just so bombarded
by media and distraction ,whether it's
Instagram posts in social media.
It's really nice to come to a place where
you're just surrounded by books.
Thanks so much. Take it easy. Bye
We got kicked out.
We stayed till closing time. Let's be real.
We only got three books. We would have
gotten 30, but we spent so much time
filming and looking around that by the
time we were done, it was closing time.
We only bought three books. Cycling and
book perusing has kind of got me feeling
pretty hungry. Should we go eat?
Oh my god, you guys. We just got to
LLangoed Hall, which is a five-star hotel
and restaurant, which looks like it's in
this giant old manor. We are about to
have the best meal of the trip.
Let's go.
Getting some Shining vibes in here.
Here's Johnny........
We have been seated and greeted and given a
nice Speyside Scotch, which is made
by the hotel itself. This is the hotel
and a restaurant, but it was originally a
castle. In 560 there was a settlement
here where it hosted one of the
first Welsh Parliaments. It was later
turned into a country manor, restored and
then became a hotel more recently.
My name's Nick Brody.
We're at Llangoed Hall.
We've got an extensive sort of
kitchen garden. It started off with a sort
of bad patch of Victorian garden, and
everything's being replanted with a
smoking house and we've got a lot of
chickens, ducks, so we're always using
those eggs somewhere along the line in
the menus.
For an "Amuse Bouch."
We've just had a beautiful lobster, squid,
prawn bisque, and now we have
hen egg for the starter.
Scallops with caviar.
Oh wow. We've gone from white wine to
a pinot noir, a burgundy.
Well, that was amazing. It was refined.
It was elegant.
it was superlative in all forms.
Honestly, I don't know what was better...
the surroundings, the artwork, the wine
list or the food, but combined it was an
unforgettable experience. And to put it
on top of an epic day here in Brecon
Beacons.... I'm pretty much speechless.
Anyways guys, let us know what your
favorite part of this video was. If you
liked the bookshop, tell us what your
favorite used bookstore is in your
hometown. Let us know in the comment box
below, and we'll see you guys soon. If you
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subscribe, and turn on notifications if
you have not already. And in the meantime,
stay curious, keep exploring, and we'll
see you guys on the road. Peace.