Glyndŵr's Way - Day 11, Sunday 2nd April, 2017

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...

Glyndŵr's Way - Day 10, Thursday 26th January, 2017

Day 10 - Machynlleth to Glantwymyn (Cemmaes Road)

We have had a few false starts to get day 10 under our belts, mostly due to the weather as we haven't wanted to travel in early morning when fog or ice have been possible. So the forecast looked promising for today and whilst it wasn't quite as brilliant as the last walk, it was a lovely day.

We left the car at Cemmaes Road and Mach Taxis duly returned us to Machynlleth once more. We "posed" at Glyyndŵr's Parliament House where he had himself crowned as King of free Wales in 1404.

 It was quite a chilly East breeze and a little misty as we set off leaving the town and crossing its golf course,

but the sun was never quite out of sight and the breeze had more or less stopped - for now at least.

We soon passed through the village of Forge, in a little steep valley, a small river, Afon Dulas running through its middle and therefore in its industrial times it was home to 5 fulling mills - or as they are known in Wales, Pandys! The last mill closed in 1937 and it is now a peaceful but quite large hamlet. With the village behind us, we soon left the road to turn onto one of our lovely tracks - it's wonderful to imagine all those footsteps before us! And to accompany us a lot of the walk again were many Kerry Hill sheep,

a popular breed in these mid Wales hills...The morning's walk was always much closer to civilisation today, often just walking on the slopes of the Dyfi valley with the road passing through it too. We passed a ruined farmstead, Pen-rhos-bâch, lost amongst the fields

and then dropped down to the next village, Penegoes, a village on the busy A489. More signs of former industrial times here too with its now restored 17th century water mill - really impressive.

It was restored in 1984 along with its adjoining granary building.

No doubt this too was later used for fulling. Leaving Penegoes, heading uphill, we followed a pretty little valley, all in the throes of being refreshed with much old tree pruning, new trees being planted and new chestnut fences installed.

 It was lovely views all around after the steep climb though. Back to the Dyfi valley, and to the hills around Llyn Clywedog; Cadair Idris and his friends though were hiding in the mist today. Really spectacular though.

We headed off then with the Dyfi valley beneath us on another old track, looking across the valley to the village of Llanwrin -

Originally the church was set up here by Saints Ust and Dyfrig who arrived from Brittany in around AD 516! And a rector from this village compiled the first Welsh dictionary in 1903!

Soon we dropped down to the village of Abercegir, now following an old miners' track.

These former mill villages now look so picturesque nestling in steep valleys between streams. Another stunning mill has also been restored here - Factory Isaf, another mill which was a fulling mill in more industrial times, now a private home but still with its 20 foot mill wheel in place. Hope you can see it..

And in a tree along the track was - you would never guess....an elephant! It's strange what you see on these walks!

Abercegir is another lovely now peaceful village and in its middle is another old mill, its water wheel not at all in tact but it is an impressive building still, now a B & B, Yr Hen Felin.

Then up we went again onto more old tracks...climbing to the tops.

And it was here that the wind got up making it a bit hard going with an oncoming Easterly! We walked on still looking down on the Dyfi valley passing another ruined farmstead and it was here that we slightly lost our way......had to retrace steps a little, some of which were uphill on the return....oh dear!!

We found the required old, wide, green track and headed off. Had to cross some bogginess in parts but it could have been worse on a wet day. The afternoon walk had been a little more remote than the morning's. There were also lots of old stone walls up here which had fallen in parts as the slate is not quite up to limestone for wall making. Wonder if it has been better value in the end than fencing? Soon we saw the Cemmaes Ridge ahead with its wind farm on top - only 1 going round today...

We could also see the valley stretching ahead with its village of Dinas Mawddy heading to the north. Then the downward walk began. Down another old track - a second coffee stop was enjoyed here and the blue sky behind the winter tree looked so lovely....

Unfortunately we missed seeing an old standing stone in a filed here - Maen Llwyd...a reason to go back! And to the south of this track is the village of Darowen where there is a nearby farm, Pwlliwrch, where it is reputed Owain Glyndŵr may have died....

We crossed fields descending to Cemmaes Road, disturbing a small flock of fieldfares as we walked and with Cemmaes Ridge shining ahead of us in the sinking sunlight.

Before long we could see the village before us - and our car in the car park....

We passed a group of old tractors making a bit of a sorry sight ....

...and here we put up a merlin in front of us....maybe he had been sitting in the last of today's sunshine.

That was a lovely day - 9 and a half miles more (maybe a mile more that it should have been....). Today was a walk we dedicated to our friend, Gerlinde who died peacefully on Tuesday. Another reason why we are raising money to help at least a little in the fight against cancer.

Glyndŵr's Way - Day 9, Thursday 5th January, 2017

First of all - Happy New Year! Bit disappointed that we didn't complete the end of this walk in 2016 - but not to worry, the end is almost in sight.....

Good news is that Esco's Stores in the village - a great shop! - kindly donated the money raised from the Christmas raffle to this walk and so to our great cause: Velindre Fundraising. Another £160 went to the Justgiving page - thank you very much Esco's!

So our new year walks begin....we were going to do this next section, Aberhosan to Machynlleth yesterday but the taxi advised me that Thursday looked the better day - and he was quite right.......

We left home around 8am, it had been a lovely sunrise and stunning scenery all around as we left, white frost on the grass against the blue sky! It was -3˚ at our house but went up and down on the journey, the minimum being -6˚

We arrived in Mach(ynlleth) and were duly picked up by the driver - a very pleasant lady who even took us right up to the farm at Aberhosan saving us a little extra mileage!

We had a pleasant "Bore Da" greeting with the farmers there - and their friendly dogs!

What a view they have from their home - clear across the valleys to Cadair Idris sitting further north, today with the clear blue sky as a backdrop - remember, we hadn't seen any views at the end of our last walk!

We certainly were going to make up for that today!

Off we set along the icy track

and today was not all up and then down as we were mostly walking along the tops which was so lovely with  such fantastic, panoramic views!

At one point on an uphill section just past a pretty farm, we disturbed a group of sandpipers. At first I thought they were snipe, certainly too small and quiet for curlews, but on reflection, I think they were sandpipers or even dunlins - we weren't so far from the sea today really.

The Dovey estuary was clear to see down below us later on....We also had kites

and buzzards to accompany us as well as stonechat, blackbirds and the ubiquitous robin; often one was showing us which way to go! There were also plenty of sheep today - mostly Kerry Hill sheep with their black noses and black eyes....it was a bit difficult for them to find non crunchy grass but often we smelt the fresh, sweet smell of the hay in their feeders. But, you may note, I didn't mention cows! This time of year they are all indoors so no worries about bulls today! We headed now and then along mountain bike territory but not a bike in sight today either. A few of the tracks were through dark, deep forestry

 - and some other tracks were described in our old, original guide book (2002 when this path opened..) as going through high, dark conifers whereas in fact these are now deforested - which we were glad of with the marvellous views to be had! We could see for a while in the distance the hill we later found was Rhiw Goch (red hill).

It is a very discernibly pointed shape with a treeline on its top and is alongside other smaller hills with "dimples" on the top.

Ultimately, Chris was right in his assumption that we would have to go up this hill.....we did! There was an alternative route on its approach which we assumed would go on a lower route (strange being offered alternative routes ....except on the coast for high water and low water, we haven't seen that before), but we decided to go up!

And what a good idea! The views were amazing. And icicles were hanging in a small quarry -

and the ground heave looked spectacular - like mini columns of ice!

Along the pass leaving Rhiw Goch behind, all the skyline was covered in dimples - we guessed they must be old mine/quarry workings - although I felt sure one at least was a hillfort....

We stayed on the tops then for most of the rest of the walk.

We had seen - well mostly heard - Provost jets streaking overhead quite often today and even saw a Typhoon (apparently it goes faster that a Provost but not at full speed today - he was probably enjoying the views too). And then the Hercules made its appearance!

From these uplands we could see the sea down at Aberdyfi

and across the estuary ....

....we retraced our footsteps in our minds of the coastal walk - it is now almost
3 years since we walked it! Before long we were looking down on Machynlleth

and crossing icy marshland (glad of the ice here to save us from mud) we soon joined the finger post for both Glyndŵr's Way and the Coast Path as they both drop down into the town.

Another circle completed! Just before we dropped down to the so called roman steps into the town, we had a chat with a local chap who had been up to Pwllheli today and he said it had been beautiful along the coast today and a young couple were enjoying a coffee after a walk on the hills. We all agreed how lucky we were to have had such a wonderful day! A perfect walk in a beautiful place....

Another 10 miles along the way....