I caught a train from Swansea to Shrewsbury this afternoon and am due to arrive in several days time. One poor bloke boarded the train at Milford Haven in 2008 and is due to alight at Manchester Piccadilly in time for the first Mars landing. The train – two carriages long – trundles through pretty much every small town in South Wales and the borders. It stops at Cardiff for an extended season to take on board coal, water and cowboys for this is pioneer country with Neath valley taking the part of Wyoming.
Later, out of Wales and into England, we wander into the lost valley of Yosemite, or Church Stretton as settlers will doubtless go on to name it, and it is so beautiful in the rain I almost wish it was 1869. Instead of 1954...