Sun came out so we did too, ha ha! Port Eynon for mussels and traditional Welsh Cawl(soup). Pretty place off the beaten path.
Winding roads to get there and Amazing amounts of locals camping out for a 3 day holiday weekend (which is quite frequent in the UK). Not a lot to do other than beach. This is for sand pales and sun bathing with a few restaurants thrown in and clean beach bathrooms nothing much else. But it was fun and sunny.
Previously however, this area was quite the hot bed of activity with “supposed” smuggler/pirate caves dug under the town under to the sea for quick get aways. WW2 this was a well hidden secret of shipping soldiers to practice storming the beaches before D-Day and Normandy. Not many photos and history as it was all kept very top secret.
Like all of Wales, HUGE tidal shifts from low to high, so before you head off, check the tide charts or you may find it way way out like we did which is great for beach combing.
Our last castle for the day but we saw a total of 8-9, we lost count all in one day! Other than Scotland, I am thinking Wales has the most castles anywhere! If the google search is correct, Wales is THE capital of castles in all of Europe with 600. So I guess we didn’t even begin to see them all!
Its good to plan your trip with the most famous/largest but along the way to those, be on the look out for the road markers that say Castle and be prepared to stop on a turn and find ones that don’t rank for the maps! What a great day of finding all we could but we missed quite a few too! ( 591!)
Cat’s aren’t the only ones with 9 lives, as Bellas has proven over and over, she too has them.
Bella was the healthiest, fastest dog on the beach, great White Hunter until tragedy struck and she was picked up in our backyard, in suburbia San Diego, by an owl. It lacerated her shoulders down to the muscle and emergency surgery was required at 4am. She survived the attack with the torn shoulders and recovered nicely Until…..5 months later when she started losing weight, not eating, having major health issues that went on for 45 days. MULTIPLE trips to 5 different vets trying to find out what was wrong with her and No vet could figure it out. We kept asking about the owl attack and they all said no way. Additionally, we had just given her a chicken jerky treats from Costco that said it was Made in the USA but when we looked super closely at the bag, in the back lable tiny tiny print, Made in China DISTRIBUTED in America!
The only two new things in her life was the owl attack and these jerky treats so we will never know if they contributed or caused her health decline but we think they did. Long story, shorter, Bella pretty much died several times in the course of our discovering what was wrong with her, but managed to survive numerous times. We spent well over $18,000 in the next 3yrs stabilizing her and learning thru trial and error what works for her. Final diagnoses was: Addisons disease (body makes no cortisol), Pancreatitis, Diabetes and later, Anemia and Septic arthritis.
MOST dogs with pancreatitis and Anemia die within 90 – 180 days! Bella has completely beat both those diseases and no longer has them. She still has Addisons which we give daily pill and 1x per month shot. Diabetes is 2x per day insulin shots and it did make her go blind with sugar cataracts. Diabetes also gave her a UTI (urinary tract infection) that led her to have septic arthritis which has made her partially crippled.
And yet, Bella is going strong, loving life and loving us and has now become a World Traveler with her very own Blog to chronicle her journey. We had planned our move to Europe for 3yrs and part of what kept us not leaving, was Bella and her health as we didn’t want to bring her with us. And in fact, our trial move over, we made the heart wrenching decision to leave her with best friends. She did great with them, but we suffered tremendously. Returning to California to sell a house, we decided we were going to bring her with us (see posts about bringing a dog to Europe) and she is actually THRIVING in Europe. In fact, we just came from a new English vet and her diabetes blood insulin levels are the BEST they have ever been in 5yrs. So low in fact, we had to reduce her insulin by 3 units as her body is doing so much better with a wonderful organic food we found here, Lily’s Kitchen. Evidently the ingredients are even better than the wild game meats we cooked for her, each meal.
She loves traveling in the car (her rolling condo) and in her new Range Rover buggy; experiencing all our new adventures. We are so excited to go to Scotland to let this little Highland Terrier return to her family roots, as we return to ours!
Keep in touch to witness the Miracle Dog, Bella’s Travels. We are Blessed to have her with us, and know every day is a gift and we intend for her and us to live it to the Max!
Not Easily, that’s how, but it obviously can be done! First of all it depends on where you are coming from? and where you are headed to? in this case of course, From the USA to the UK. The UK has the strictest rules vs Europe, so it would be actually easier to go to France than London. We decided that the best thing to do was go for the hardest that way, we had more than enough credentials when we do go to Europe
NO there is no quarantine any longer or we would have never brought Bella along. Simply in your home before you leave, is the required quarantine period. Dogs are required to have a Rabies shot, Tape worm shot and be approved by a Vet certified to do so, as healthy. Then, with all that documentation you get to drive to your local USDA office, in our case, Los Angeles and wait in line for 2hrs to have a girl in the window look over all your documents and decide if you have done it all right, and if not they send you away! If you are good, then they stamp your papers to authorize that they have approved all and you can leave the country and fly on an airplane within 5 days. They DO NOT guarantee you will get into the country you are flying to, that’s your responsibility. Whew, its hard work and we paid extra to have the vet do ALL the paperwork so we knew it was done right.
Then you have to decide on the best/right crate for your dog because NEVER ever let your dog fly in cargo, you have to get an Airline that allows dogs in cabin in a crate. Norwegian is the new kid on the block in Airlines and the one with best- cheapest dog friendly rules and Bella could fly in the cabin. We decided to bump to first class Just in Case there were any issues, we figured we might be treated better if we were in first class and it did make it much smoother. Norwegian doesn’t have Real First Class its really like Business class but two big wide seats so the under storage was quite wide as you can see here.
Make sure you have dog bowls/water/toys (trusty best friend Pony was there to help with nerves) dog food,treats and weewee pads just in case. (these are puppy training pads that look like a human diaper bigger)
We did a trial run at LAX taking Bella all thru the airport in her cargo crate to get used to the smells/noises and to meet the airline employees to ensure we were doing everything right a week before we flew. I’m a freak for details I know; but I didn’t want anything to go wrong and wanted to ensure we had it all right. I think it really helped and I highly recommend it. We met with the Manager before we flew and when we arrived, luck has it that it was his day off but we had his name to drop and a desk agent remembered us.
Without the long details and delays, because nothing goes that easy right(we did have small hiccups but all resolved out), We made it to the first class lounge in time for a relaxing glass of champagne and time to take Bella to the doggy outdoor pee areas. Note: do NOT bring canned dog food sealed, this was the hiccup at security, they freaked out over a sealed wet dog food canned because it was bigger than the 3 ounces! stick to dried food and maybe put wet food in a baggy Not in a sealed canned, who knew? I thought the sealed canned proved it was nothing security risks but NO not the case!
The big moment arrived and onto the plane we went. Secured Bella under the seat in her crate with her crate shut for takeoffs. Mid flight we were able to let her out at our feet at first and then on our laps after everyone was settled in. We also recommend, and we took, the red eye over night flight so she would just sleep anyway and not have to go to the bathroom; but just in case, we were prepared with weewee pads for dogs and luckily didn’t need them until we got to the airport the next morning. We had an 11 hr flight and she slept/held it the whole way 🙂 LOVE this dog.
Her first steps and pee on British soil!
This is the crate we chose as it rolls just like luggage but lay it down and its a bed. I didn’t want a crate you have to carry them vs wheel them. it was a bit too narrow in width but overall worked out well and now we use it as her car crate flat in the backseat and she likes her little house. so it was money well spent.
We also rented an Air BnB house for 3 weeks to allow for plenty of detox time and getting used to everything for Bella. We brought 2 weeks of food (dog food is really heavy) to ensure no change over food right away. Had already researched similar foods offered as American dog food is not plentiful, so we knew which brand we were looking for soon as we arrived. Bella has special needs and eats only the very best organic,non corn, non chicken food so we were extra prepared. All went well and in fact, we swear, she is doing BETTER here than in California. Pretty sure this Scottish Highland dog loves being in her mother land!
Not Easily, that’s how, but it obviously can be done! First of all it depends on where you are coming from? and where you are headed to? in this case of course, From the USA to the UK. The UK has the strictest rules vs Europe, so it would be actually easier to go to France than London. We decided that the best thing to do was go for the hardest that way, we had more than enough credentials when we do go to Europe
Then you have to decide on the best/right crate for your dog because NEVER ever let your dog fly in cargo, you have to get an Airline that allows dogs in cabin in a crate. Norwegian is the new kid on the block in Airlines and the one with best- cheapest dog friendly rules and Bella could fly in the cabin. We decided to bump to first class Just in Case there were any issues, we figured we might be treated better if we were in first class and it did make it much smoother. Norwegian doesn’t have Real First Class its really like Business class but two big wide seats so the under storage was quite wide as you can see here.
