Newport, Maine?

From Black Mountain

Back to Wales, the trip in celebration of friendship.

We originally planned to use train, coach and local transport during our Wales sojourn.  But as I began my research using GoogleEarth and transport schedules on the internet it became clear to me that this was going to involve some early risings, a lot of hurry up and wait, and, in some cases a response of “you can’t get to there from here”, at least not in October.

So I tentatively broached the subject of renting a vehicle.  Deb, to my surprise, was interested and game for the adventure.  Then came the trepidation—we knew what we were in for.  Deb had been to Britain once already that year and I had spent two weeks the previous year being chauffeured about the back roads of Cornwall by my brother-in-law.  Deb’s friends were aghast at the idea.  Not to be intimidated, we booked a car with Hertz.

The way to Carreg Cennen

Our initial plans were to spend our first night in Newport and so our original booking was with the Newport office, although later changed to the Cardiff outlet.  Deb checked with her insurance company to see if additional coverage would be needed and was advised, no, she was fully covered … until it was discovered late in the planning that the representative thought we were going to Newport Maine … always good to double-check these things!  Because of this miscommunication it became necessary to purchase additional insurance from the Cardiff agent.  First quote—an additional £600 ($1046!)   At our horrified gasps he gave us a better rate of £300 ($523), a bit more acceptable, thank you very much, and why did he give us such a high quote in the first place?  The question was, which one of us was actually going to drive it when it came time to leave the lot …