Gallagher's Travels: Letter From the Editor: August 2007

Letter from the Editor

August 2007

Dear Friends,

The UK is a wonderful place to visit with a vast variety of languages, dialect, flora and fauna, food and scenery plus the nicest people. You can do all the big cities like Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, Cardiff and of course London. Meanwhile the countryside, small towns and villages are wonderful to explore featuring a different style.

I've had the chance to explore all the cities above as well as many others including rural countryside and still haven't come close to seeing it all. Growth, investment capital and immigration is fostering many changes.

Some things are especially noteworthy like the new non-smoking inside restaurants and public buildings in most of the major cities is appealing, although I'm not a zealot on that subject.

It's still impossible for me to figure out pronunciation and spelling in Cymraeg the language of Wales but that is my loss and inadequacy.

Cardiff Bay

Cardiff is turning into quite the cosmopolitan modern place to visit with great dining and night life on the waterfront, loads of history and a highly walk able town. Belfast is growing fast with their peaceful situation and lots of capital pouring into the cities many development projects.

Britain's smallest city, St. David's, Wales, draws thousands of visitors every year to its 12th-century cathedral, tucked in a hollow below the town. Now travelers to Wales have another important reason to visit.

St. David's has embarked on an effort to become the world's first carbon neutral city. The project's goal is for people to reduce the use of fossil fuels (by such means as using solar power to heat water, harvesting rainwater, low-energy light bulbs, filling their cars with biodiesel), and planting trees that absorb carbon dioxide emissions from the energy that is used. Reducing the carbon dioxide in the air will help to fight the greenhouse effect, slowing global warming and reducing the number of violent storms that we now experience.

Preserving a wide range of animal and plant life is another way to help keep nature healthy, and that is an enormous part of the Eco City Project as well. Ultimately, the St. David's Eco City Project's goal is to encourage individuals, as well as other larger cities to take the carbon neutral challenge.

Central to this project is the town's new Eco Trail, offering visitors both a learning experience and an opportunity to appreciate and value nature at its finest. The Trail extends into the surrounding Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, providing a spectacular walk along coastal cliffs, past moors and heaths, and above rock beaches created by centuries of wild ocean weather.

Green Bridge at Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

The The ECO Trail is roughly 4.3-miles and includes abundant opportunities to enjoy plant and animal life. The journey shows how natural areas can be managed to preserve their variation, and gives visitors the chance to see how cutting-edge technology can reduce human impact on the local, and ultimately the global, environment.

Start at the city's Tourist Information Centre, with its eco-friendly turf roof, woodland setting and supply of good information. Then, head due south to Caerfai Bay. Its beach is packed with vacationers on a sunny day. From there, follow the lane to St. Bride's Bay View Point, for a great view of the Pembrokeshire Islands. Seals play and sea birds soar over Ramsey, the largest island. Grassholm is known as a refuge for gannets, while Skomer/Stokholm, its name dating back to Viking times, is one of only two marine nature reserves in Wales.

The View Point, however, is also a window on the impact of dependence on fossil fuels. Distant oil refinery chimneys are visible and on most days a line of crude oil tankers wait to gain berth space. This vista illustrates both the glorious environment, and the dangers to it.

Pen Y Cyfrwy

Skirt the coast to Pen -Y-Cyfrwy, the point that separates Caerfai Bay from St. Non's Bay. Here, local people come to fish for mackerel and bass, and gannets do their own fishing by making soaring dives into the sea. The point's cliff faces are decorated with pink thrift and yellow kidney vetch.

Walking the towering cliffs of the South Coast to Porthclais, you will pass along one of the best areas in Wales for geology and wildlife, so important it has been named a Site of Special Scientific Interest; a Special Protection Area for its choughs, peregrines and cliff-nesting seabirds; and a Special Area of Conservation Under EU Law for its cliff vegetation, heathland, seals and rare floating water plantain. Gorse scents the area. Water churns over the rocks and kelp far below. It is a spectacular—and ecologically very important—place.

Porthclais Harbour, tucked in a valley, is said to have been created when an ice sheet melted. Long ago, lime was brought ashore here, with the idea of improving the farmland. The old lime-kilns covered with ferns, still stand at water's edge.

The Path on to Ponthlysgi is more exposed. You will feel the sharp salt spray hit your face and see the impact of the fierce winds on the vegetation. From the high cliffs above Porthlysgi Bay you may see gray seals on the beach below.

Trefeiddan Moor

Further on the path takes you inland to Trefeiddan Moor, where the land looks as it must have in ancient times, covered with hagbean and horsetail and alive with the sound of the cuckoo. This moor has supported human life for 3,000 years. Today it serves as a treasure house of rare wildlife.

It is only a few steps to the Clegyr Boia Conservation Land, which demonstrates a new project designed to keep people, farming and wildlife in balance. The Wild Berry Wood boasts trees such as elder and dog rose and blackthorn's purple, used in the making of sloe gin. The Heath Field is now covered with purple heather and gorse, which naturally improve the soil.

Finally, head for a bite or a ‘cuppa' at the eco-friendly Whitesands Café at Whitesands Bay. While there, you can learn about the two sorts of solar panels it uses—one to produce electricity and the other hot water. It also has a small electricity-producing wind turbine.

St. David's Cathedral

Cut back into town, to visit the superb St. David's Cathedral that, to the delight of ecologists, really does have bats in its belfry. It's just a short stroll from there back to the Tourist Information Center.

At the end of the day, you will have had a great walk and will have learned a little more about the need to preserve wilderness and keep nature in balance. Ultimately, the goal is for little St. David's to show cities all over the world that it is possible to be gentle on the planet without compromising community.

St. David's Eco City Project

Here are a few Welsh recipes with ingredients easy to find in the US that you might enjoy trying. If you don't have a scale for converting grams and liters the website www.gourmetsleuth.com/gram_calc.htm is the answer.

Courgettes (Zucchini) Gratiné

Courgettes are easy to grow but you can quickly find yourself with a glut and in need of new ways to cook them all! (Serves 4.)

6 organic courgettes (zucchini)
50g organic butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
50g organic mature hard cheese, such as Cheddar
4 tablespoons double cream (optional)

Wipe the courgettes with a clean damp cloth. Trim the stalk. Slice each in half lengthways. Melt the butter in a frying pan. Fry the courgettes (in batches if necessary) cut side down until lightly golden. Turn over and transfer to an ovenproof shallow dish. Season and sprinkle with grated cheese. Cover with a lid or foil. Bake in the centre of a preheated oven at 190ºC/375ºF/Gas Mark 5 for 20 minutes. Heat the cream gently and pour over the courgettes to serve. Ideal as a side dish with fish or chicken.

Moroccan Carrot Soup
Serves 4

30g organic butter
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Half teaspoon cayenne pepper
750g organic carrots, scrubbed and chopped
1 large organic potato, peeled and chopped
1.5 litres vegetable stock
1 teaspoon organic honey
1 tablespoon orange juice
Small bunch of fresh coriander, chopped

Heat the butter in a heavy-based saucepan. Add the onions, garlic, ginger, cumin, ground coriander, cayenne pepper and fry for two minutes. Add the carrots and potato and cook for ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are beginning to soften. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Loosely cover, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes until the potato is cooked. Leave to cool slightly. Stir in the honey and orange juice, and then blend in batches. Return to the pan to heat and serve hot with fresh coriander to garnish.

Go to www.organicwales.com for more recipes and information about organic food in Wales.

Happy Trails!

Mary E. Gallagher

mary@gallagherstravels.com

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