Wye Valley - Wales vs England

The super pretty ruins of Tintern Abbey

We visited the Wye valley, mainly to run in the Forest of Dean 10km race. The Forest of Dean runs along the very southern border of Wales and England. We drove there from Bristol, so over the Severn bridge. There are two of them, we went over the first, which has Grade I listing and is 1.6km long. I had no idea it was there, or was that impressive. You see it in the distance as you drive along, and you're thinking, what the hell is that. And then you realise it's a bridge. 

But apart from the bridge, the Wye valley is actually beautiful in it's own right. We didn't really know what to expect visiting the area. English forests are generally pretty tame, not much undergrowth, and have obviously been felled throughout their life. But this area was really thick and quite large. True it still had a bunch of villages and roads throughout it. But it also had the ruined Tintern Abbey. That was really pretty, and in such a great location. Surrounded by forests and on the banks of the Wye river. It was huge too, again I did not expect something that large.

How many stories is that?

What I found most strange about this area is that it rivalled the Cotswolds in terms of natural beauty. And all along the English side there would be these charming little villages, just really pretty and quaint. Then the road would cross into the Welsh side, and the same villages would be super ugly. You would have the foot on the accelerator to get through as fast as you could. What have the English done to the Welsh, you really have to wonder. Why would two sides of the same river be so different. There were no tourists on the Welsh side, there was nothing for them there, no cafes, no forest parks or anything. It was really weird. Because there were obviously a lot of tourists around, and a lot of money, but it just wasn't going to be spent in Wales.

Hungry caterpillar at a pretty old mill

Anyway the race was pretty good, I took it easy, and felt really good at the end. Poor Dave got massive blisters on his feet, which was weird. We had to plead with one of the tourist sites to get some bandaids for him. Not sure I'd go back for the race, but I think I would definitely investigate that area of Wales more.