Exploring a new walk

[heleninwales]

Yesterday (Sunday) I had a Zoom meeting in the afternoon. It was a Quaker Area Meeting for business. These can drag on, but in fact we got through the agenda promptly for a change and there was nothing controversial, so it only lasted 1.5 hours.

Anyway, knowing that I'd be sitting in front of the computer for a large part of the afternoon, we went for a shortish walk in the morning while it was fine.

There are a number of walks we do regularly, but we're always looking for new ones. One problem is that all our walks have to be circular. We're either starting from our front door, or we've driven somewhere and have to come back to the car. We thought it might be a change to do some A to B walks, and that's what we explored yesterday.

The idea would be to get a bus to a nearby village and then walk back home. It's safer to get the bus out, rather than walk out and hope to get a bus back, because the most frequent routes are only once an hour and some are only every 2 hours. Getting the timing right to catch a bus back might be tricky. If the walk took longer than expected, then we'd miss it and have a very long wait for the next one. If we arrived early, we could have a long wait with no shops or anything around to do.

We are also aware that route finding across country can be tricky. When we were doing the research for G's geology book, there were many public footpaths that existed on the map but, in practice, were impassable. So it would be foolish to travel out and hope to make our way home at the first attempt.

Our plan, therefore, is to walk out to the halfway point and then walk back the same way. We'll then drive to the furthest point of the walk and again walk half way before returning to the car. With luck, if we start to feel a bit lost in the middle (which is always where things get confusing), we'll recognise the place and hence the next time can try the whole walk.

Because of needing to be back in time for the Zoom meeting, we didn't get quite half way, but we did reach a good viewpoint. Some photos...



After leaving the village, the walk begins through woodland.



As we progressed further, the view gradually opens out.



On the opposite side of the valley, near the top of the hill is a barely noticeable, more or less horizontal line. That's the popular Precipice Walk path. From that side you can see right down the estuary as far as the sea, so the view is better than from the side we were walking along.





This was as far as we had time to go that day. The sun was popping in and out behind clouds, but for a moment the valley was beautifully lit and we got a splendid view of Cader Idris.



Here you can see the narrow path we were walking along, plus the view of the mountain.



I'm not sure where we'll walk this week. There's a newly created (or restored?) path in the Abergwynant woods, or a longer version of the walk we did last week. We'll have to see.

Comments

[cmcmck]

It's nice to finally see some blue skies!

[heleninwales]

It is. Sadly it's a case of now you see it, now you don't. We're back to grey today.

[asakiyume]

That is a narrow path, all right! And what magnificent views it leads you through! The shadow of the clouds on the nearby hill, the patchwork valleys, the distant mountains--wow!

[heleninwales]

The light was very changeable. I took a photo of the valley in shadow, then the sun broke through the cloud and I got a better one with the light in the valley.

The path is very narrow and you had to be careful in places where it was rough. It's not a sheer drop, as you can see, but you still wouldn't want to slip off the path.

[kaishin108]

Breathtaking those views! Yes, the sky is lovely, I hope you get more sunny skies in the days to come. :)

[heleninwales]

If it would just stop raining, it would be good. When it's too sunny it gets very hot for walking. But that's the nature of Welsh weather, to be changeable. Looking back at what I was doing this time list year, I was hoping for rain!

[kaishin108]

It has gotten dryer every year here since 2017 when we had a ton of snow. The weather is getting very odd, sigh.

[eve_prime]

That's at a considerable elevation, isn't it? Did you walk uphill that much, or is the village already partway up?

[heleninwales]

My best estimate, looking at the Ordnance Survey map, is that we climbed about 190 metres, or about 620 feet. It was a gradual plod upwards, rather than a steep slope.

[eve_prime]

That's substantial!

[heleninwales]

It's kind of par for the course for walks around here. There's really only one that's flat.

[eve_prime]

I suppose if our walks were several miles long, like yours are, we'd be going up hills a lot more as well. Most of us generally don't walk more than a couple of miles at a time, though, at least not locally.