Steve writes - I go through this page every couple of months and change a few of the links'. Contact me (link at bottom of page) if you spot errors.

Wales-related links

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/ is a 'where I live' website with lots of links to local things. Useful link to our great surfing beaches too.

http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk Attractive photography site showing local mountains and rugged terrain.

http://www.explore-gower.co.uk/ Website published by enthusiastic husband and wife team about our lovely local 'Area of Oustanding Natural Beauty'. The Gower peninsula starts about 10 miles/14km South-West of our home.

http://www.breconbeacons.org Website all about the Brecon Beacons national park, about 15 minutes drive north of Tonna.

http://www.mbwales.com/ Mountain bike website featuring one of the best MTB destinations in the world - Wales!

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/ a site run by Western Mail newspaper with many Wales -related links.

http://www.tourism.wales.gov.uk/ official tourism website.

http://www.cimlariding.co.uk/ - Our excellent local riding stables (also mentioned below under 'hobbies').

http://www.neath-porttalbot.gov.uk/ - website for Neath Port Talbot council, includes links to local leisure facilities.

http://www.wales.gov.uk/index.htm - site for the Welsh Assembly Government (or expensive, power-limited super-council) in Cardiff.

http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit/llanelli/ - link to the excellent wetland bird sanctuary near Llanelli.

http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/jim.shead/Neath-and-Tennant-Canals.html - interesting website about our local canal - we cycle regularly along the towpaths, and soon hope to get a kayak to explore it the wet way!

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g.brian.wagstaffe/canal.htm - locally produced website about the Neath canal but has links to a variety of Neath and Tonna related subjects too.

http://www.cefn-yr-erw.co.uk/ - Our local wildlife rescue sanctuary - home to some beautiful animals cared for by a dedicated family and a bunch of local businesses who contribute food, building materials and so on. Houses chimpanzees, gibbons, a pair of wolves, some lemurs and several other animals, some with terrible histories of past abuse.

http://www.brynbettwslogcabins.co.uk/ - log cabins in Afan Forest Park, ideal if you're staying in the area for a mountain biking or pony trekking holiday.

http://www.swansea-sport-flying.co.uk/index.html - learn to fly at Swansea Airport.

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Hobbies and Interests

My friends and I were riding the hills and forests of the Neath Valley back in the late 70's and early 80's on converted road bikes - then thankfully the Californians invented mountain bikes, and broken wheels, frames and bodies became less of a regularity! With disk brakes you can now even stop ....

Neath Port Talbot boasts one of the top 10 mountain-biking destinations in the world, the Afan Forest Park, which lies just over the hill from our home. There are many miles of tracks snaking through the forests behind our village (also used by the World Rally Championship cars whe nthe pass through once a year) . See http://www.mbwales.com/afan_forest/ and http://www.neath-porttalbot.gov.uk/afanforestpark/mountainbiking.cfm

I'd invite anyone who rides off-road to support my friendly local bike shop - Skyline Cycles at the visitor's centre in Glyncorrwg. They also have a bike-hire centre at Afan Argoed.

For a decade I commuted and rode for leisure on low recumbent bikes and trikes. I only stopped because frankly South Wales is not ideal recumbent territory, especially for the two-wheelers - mountain bikes are better suited to our hilly terrain and narrow roads. However if you're a road-rider or live in a less hilly area see my pages about recumbent bikes and trikes http://www.ydolydd.eclipse.co.uk/hpv.html

Steve's page about mountain biking http://www.ydolydd.eclipse.co.uk/mtb.html

The unsung heroes of cycling in the UK are the Cyclist's Touring Club - quietly campaigning in the background to help ensure access to trains, rights on the roads, better training for drivers, reduced risks to cyclists from other road users etc. See http://www.ctc.org.uk

Link to local surfing beaches - bring a wetsuit! http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/surfing/

Anne prefers a horse to a bike, so here's a link to our excellent local riding stables - great place to go pony trekking, and lovely instructors. Jordan & Rebekah both learned to ride here: http://www.cimlariding.co.uk/

Looking for a web-based FTP upload system for your web pages? Try http://www.net2ftp.com/index.php - I use it and it works very well.

If you want a good free visitor counter and analysis tool for your website try http://www.statcounter.com/

I was honoured to become a Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology in 2007.

I am also a Fellow of the Society for Underwater Technology - gives a clue about the sort of work I do!

My friend David Cromwell is part of the Medialens team, I have great respect for the work they on correcting media bias.

In May 2008 we purchased our first sit-on-top Kayak. It's a Malibu Pro-Explorer, sold to us by Pointbreak Watersports of Aberavon - very impressed so far!

I like watches, and contribute to a couple of forums include Timezone UK and Watchuseek. Click HERE to see my step-by-step guide to replacing a Seiko kinetic capacitor with lithium ion battery upgrade kit.

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Travel links

La Casa di Ruggero - lovely accommodation in Empoli, Italy, owned by our friend Alessia. Good for exploring Tuscany.

Alpha Excelsior guest farm and country winery is owned by a branch of Anne's family in South Africa. Incredible countryside near Clanwilliam. Looking forward to visiting there one day.

Our favourite places for holidays have been the Greek Islands. So far we've stayed on Corfu, Zakynthos, Rhodes, Kos and Samos, and visited Kefalonia, Nissoros, Patmos, Kalymnos, Pserimos plus Athens on the mainland. A nice resource for Greek-o-philes is the http://www.greekofile.co.uk/ website.

If you visit Zakynthos take the lovely country walk from Tsilivi to Adamieion Ceramic Art Studio. On a hot day you may, like us, be greeted with a refreshing glass of ice-cold lemon and then enjoy looking at the goods for sale. See http://www.adamieion.com/index.html

We particularly liked staying near Pythagorion, Samos. It's popular with Danes too and there's a nice website at http://www.pythagorion-club.net/

http://www.hellas.net/ is an attractive site with 360-degree panoramas.

http://www.athensguide.com/index.html - this is an outstanding guide to restaurants and travel in Athens. Anne and I used it extnsively in our own visit there and it's spot on. Also see http://www.greecetravel.com/taxi/ to contact the ever-helpful George the Taxi driver. He was very apologetic back in 2004 for failing to collect us from Athens Airport - but he was stuck in SNOW! Yes, it does snow sometimes in Greece.

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Faith-related Links

See my 'Logos' page. I'm a lapsed Quaker with a longstanding interest in Inter-Faith issues, particularly exploring the common ground between the two great Monotheistic paths of Islam and Christianity.

Not sure what you believe? Try the self-test at http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html

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