Are you sitting comfortably? We were

We were welcomed into Derek's fire warmed room, drying out after the Cwmtillery rain.

Mythbusting had taken us back to Derek's farm in Cwmtillery. Mythically Welsh, his wife apologised, "A farm house and I'm not offering you home-made cakes." The pair of them piled us up with photos to go with the stories Derek had recorded earlier.

Flynn, the trainee sheepdog, gave us a demo, Derek working him until he had penned four sheep. Mind you, we weren't so comfortable by then. Our shoes were soaked by the time we were back in the van.

Next came Reverend Patrick, who may have felt that his wish to welcome us was scuppered by his uncooperative espresso machine, but his amazing range of interests and imagination more than made up for the lack of beverage. His welcome was more than food and drink. He fired us up with his visions of vintage buses and potential future support for Mythbusters.

Noting classic Valleys entrepreneurial spirit as we passed, we made ourselves comfortable in a cafe to plan the next few days. Speedily, a man came over to us. We listened carefully as he regaled us with his woes.

"I'm sorry if I was interrupting you on the phone. I'm a bit deaf..... 

I'm so disappointed in the UK. There's no reason we should be in the state we are. 

We're the hardest working nation.....

"I used to want Such a nice man as the epitaph on my tombstone.

Now it'll have to be, I tried my best but I failed."

A tiny titbit

One of the Mythbusters we met today declared, "Blaenau Gwent's the poorest part of the United Kingdom, but there's a smile on everyone's face."

The story so far ......

The wonderful people we met last month gave us lots of material to edit, plenty of food for thought. We'll be back on the road next week, so we thought we'd give you a sample of the wisdom we've encountered so far.

"Every town here is full of beauticians.

I've spray tanned ladies up to 80.

Eyebrows are a massive thing for men at the moment."

"This idea that everywhere's full of drugs – I don't think it's any different from areas of Cardiff or anywhere in the country."

"There's not a lot of hope here. For me anyway, I can't see it.  The way out for me has been just working so hard to get away and I don't plan to come back."

"It would be nice to bring the valleys back to little businesses back in the towns, bring the money back, bring the people back."

"It's all one big party. Nothing's really that serious and it's all about having a good time. Try it sometime, you might like it."

Watch out for more posts next week.