Detour #186: Christmas in Cymru
With satellite navigation instead of a guiding star Detour takes a festive road trip to Bethlehem.
T’was a night or two before Christmas when Googling for topical street names that I remembered the little town of Bethlehem in Wales. Actually, it’s not a town at all, barely even a Chritsmassy conurbation, but we’ll come to that in due course.
Soon the twinkle of an idea began to form for a quick road trip to get me into the Christmas spirit. It would need to be have a festive theme, some cracking roads and, like the upcoming Yule itself be a day of joy.
I contemplated starting at the North Pole Road in London, but opted instead for Bristol’s Christmas Steps to begin a near-100-mile trip into Wales’ wonderful Brecon Beacons.
The narrow, steep shopping street dates back to the 1600s and now forms the centre of an arts quarter, full of galleries, music shops, antique stores, and, er, nail bars. If you’re driving into Bristol the city has introduced a clean air zone, and owners of older, more polluting cars have to pay £9. Good job I elected to go electric for this trip, taking the Kia EV6.
It’s a quick exit out of the city on the M32 to join the M4 towards the Bristol Channel where there is a choice of two suspension bridges to whisk one into Wales. Requiring a quick charge at the Severn View services (having made a rather early start from London) it’s the original 1960s Severn Bridge on the M48 that I take instead of the newer Prince of Wales Bridge on the M4.
Soon I’m turning north on the A449 dual carriageway for a few miles before joining the A40 and then circumventing Abergavenny by taking the charmingly-named Heads of the Valleys Road (A465). Following the signs to Crickhowell I rejoin the A40, which by now has become a far more interesting road. For one thing it leads to The Bear, a pub favoured for decades by car magazine photographers and writers for its proximity to the wonderful roads of the Beacons. The road travels north of the national park, but offers plenty of tempting detours such as the A4067 or the A4069, better known as the Black Mountain Pass.
Given today’s theme I’ve set a course for Christmas Wood, which isn’t on the Kia’s navigation system, but Google Maps seems to know where it is. The A40 continues to provide plenty of entertainment as it leads me on a far-from-staright path past Usk reservoir and into Glasfynydd Forest where I’m quite sure, given the appropriate logging rights of course, I could find a nice tree to bring home.
Out of the forest and over the River Usk what was previously cultivated farmland dramatically turns into a section of quite desolate moorland. To my left I see the distant peaks of the Black Mountains and, tempting as they are, I maintain my festive focus. Christmas Wood is a couple of miles along a tiny track, barely wide enough for one car. It’s a nadgery meander to get to the point where Google maps announces that I have arrived at my destination, but the wood in question (which is somewhere to my left) can’t actually be seen for the trees alongside the road.
More wiggling along narrow lanes takes me to Llangadog and the first signs for Bethlehem. A wise man might have done more research so as not to be disappointed upon arrival at the collection of probably no more than 20 houses that make up the village. It used to have Post Office that would do a roaring trade at this time of year, forwarding Christmas cards with the Bethlehem postmark, but that’s long been converted into a private home. There’s a small chapel, but no sign of an inn, although it is possible one or two of the farmhouses might possess a manger.
As festive destinations go, it is, I confess, a little underwhelming, like receiving yet another pair of socks on Christmas morning. You won’t get a Bah Humbug out of me, though. The Welsh roads have been an absolute gift as always.
ROADBOOK
CLASS: festive drive
NAME: christmas in Cymru
ROUTE: bristol to bethlehem
COUNTRY: england, wales
DISTANCE: 99 miles
For those who find joy in the journey as much as the destination, we've curated a gift guide for the open road.