First of all....a happy birthday to my niece, Jill! And then apologies for it being so long since we walked, and therefore blogged!......I had really intended to finish in 2016, however often things stack against us, don't they? So this "Way" has become somewhat like the Milky Way in that it's turning out to be as endless - particularly bearing in mind that we did start it once before, now several years ago. We have had a crazy winter with some not suitable weather for walking, well for us fair weather walkers anyway, thrown in. We have also enjoyed meeting our new grandson, visited and still visiting new family homes...lots of new beginnings for us to take part in with our family.
So with great pleasure in finding a suitable day - and wow was it! - off we set in the sun to Llanbrynmair. We were duly picked up and returned to our last end point at Cemmaes Road, or Glantwymyn, by Mach Taxis once more. And off we set, safe in the knowledge that now BST is with us, we won't get caught walking in the dark in the unlikely (!) event that we should get lost.....
Hedgerows are burgeoning, daffodils have been blooming for a couple of weeks, primroses are looking pretty, violets and celandine are cheering us and the scent of wild garlic is already filling the air here and there.
Leaving Cemmaes Road behind, we crossed the river Twymyn and headed off up another of our ancient tracks - mid Wales is just riven with them.
Beautiful panoramas unfolded before us all day long. As we were heading uphill, a small group of birds flew over sounding like seaside birds but we couldn't identify them.....can you help?
They really had quite a raucous call for a relatively small bird.
Buzzards, chaffinch, blackbirds, crows and the occasional pheasant accompanied us. They too are enjoying this bright and surprisingly warm spring. We also heard another strange sound as we went over the hills here and we were sure it was dragon's breath.....it really did sound like it!
And the trees are not yet in leaf ...
so the views and the patterns of branches were wonderful today..
And yes we did get slightly lost....the first time as we approached a newly renovated farmstead, now a holiday home.....
This time the reason was weird signage, as as happened before....and yes there was maybe a touch of poor observation skills involved too. However, the bonus was that the detour involved us gaining quite a bit more height which meant we had wondrous views of Cadair Idris!
And as we walked the day really did get hotter and hotter. Another wonderful part of today was seeing so many new lambs frolicking and gambolling in the sunshine. There were Kerry Hill sheep, badger faced and plenty of cute little white cuddly ones!
A new one had just been born in the fields passing the ex farmhouse and was being guarded staunchly by a proud mum. It was still a good track to be walking on with new views opening up as we got higher and rounded more corners.....
..............wind farms are scattered evenly up here. The one on Mynydd Cemmaes was in front of us and as we dropped to the foot of Moel Eiddiew at the Mynydd's south eastern end, we saw a hang glider enjoying the thermals.
And this was a good spot to enjoy a lunch break to minimise the climb we had started once more. And we found another perfect place as we have in the past with such amazing views.....today it was Cadair Idris, just wonderful.
And from our spot at the bottom of the hill, we had no wind turbines to bother us or spoil the view. Here somewhere there are shown on the map some ancient house platforms but we didn't see any sadly.
We headed off uphill and then joined another old track/holloway making the going easy...
and with new vistas now across the Tymwyn valley to the hills we had headed down on the way to Machynlleth and we thought we could maybe see the sea at the end of the Dyfi valley....
Soon we approached Gwern y Bwlch forest, still climbing gently and then emerged looking out across the valley to Mynydd Doed and Mynydd Rhiw Saeson, the latter (the hill on the right below) being in English, Hill of the English or Saxon.
There is also an old house at the foot of the hill, Plas Rhiw Saeson, one of the oldest still inhabited houses in mid Wales, being 11th century.
Chris thinks the locals would have tried to acquiesce the invading Saxons by giving them the hill and its valley to settle in.....why not? With Cemmaes windfarm behind us now ...
and the magnificent views up to southern Snowdonia,
Cadair Idris had dropped from view behind the hill we had just walked up,
we set off down the very boggy fields to a farm where once again the route has changed from the old guide book we have so our second "lost" of the day happened! But luckily the farmer was around to set us straight! Although we had a trudge through his really boggy fields for a little while...We soon dropped down the hill with great views ahead up to Talerddig valley
and to our right to Cwm Pennant and its hanging valley...
Soon we were passing a transmitter being repaired and lots of lambs in the neighbouring fields and then we walked along the road and the river, Afon Rhiw Saeson and into Llanbrynmair! Phew! 8 more miles along the way....
We enjoyed a lovely coffee in the Machinations cafe - interesting wooden models that work are made here! It had been a super day. Much of this "way" is so special as the day starts with its steep climb onto the hills and then the whole walk is more or less on the tops with such wonderful vistas to enjoy - so that when you are once more in the valleys it seems a bit dull! We have also noticed that we haven't had a lot of company on this walk...so far anyway...
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