South Wales Walking

You have a drastic new hairdo planned for your move to Australia, the consultation has been had, the appointment is made… …and then you get a phone call from your brother, saying that he has to take some annual leave so he’s booked a few days off for you to hang out together in the Great Outdoors… What do you do?

A quick phone call and the appointment is cancelled, and you book your train tickets to Swansea where you will meet your brother. No contest.

The original plan was to involve some rock climbing, but the weather is too damp for that, with rain forecast. I vote for us to head out in my brother’s canoe – a wedding present for him and his wife from their gift list, how cool? – but for some reason this doesn’t happen and we head for the hills instead.

Driving to Brecon Beacons National Park, the particular hill we are aiming for is the highest in South Wales and indeed southern Britain, Pen-y-Fan (pronounced Pen-e-Van – in Welsh, ‘f’ represents an English ‘v’ sound, while ‘ff’ is equivalent to the English ‘f’). At 886m, this is no giant, but it’s still a good walk and is often used by the British Army, including their Special Forces, for fitness and navigation training.

Today the weather is pretty gloomy and misty, but we are following a clearly defined track and my brother walks up here regularly. It is very peaceful, being a work day with less-than-great weather there are few other walkers around. I struggle to keep up conversation with my brother as we walk, and it’s only when we whizz past some other walkers that I realise how fast a pace my brother is setting. This pace must be the reason we’re feeling fine in shorts and t-shirt, while other walkers look more appropriately attired for the weather.

The track, and a walker in Gortex

Following this track, we also pass over Corn Du, the second highest point in the Brecon Beacons. We walk over the saddle between the two high points, with Pen-y-Fan shrouded in mist ahead of us.

Then we are soon at the top of Pen-y-Fan. Pen-y-Fan has a relatively large plateau for a summit, and it is worth looking for the rippled rocks on this plateau. These rocks are fossilised sea bed, from when the highest point in southern Britain was once underwater, and you can see the exact same pattern as you notice at the beach in firm sand when the tide is going out. Amazing.

Atop this plateau is a cairn, supporting a summit plaque. I hadn’t known at the time, but apparently this cairn had been a burial chamber in the Bronze Age. If I had known, I would have a) got a better photo of the cairn, and more importantly b) not posed on it for a photo. Having put the summit plaque on top of the cairn though, this is a natural place for walkers to pose and there was even a queue for the photo-op when we were there. It must get really busy there on a popular day.

We don’t hang around for too long at the top, there are no great vistas to take in thanks to the mist, and besides, my brother has a tip for a real ale pub he wants to find: the Ancient Briton. 

We reverse our route for a little way before turning off to vary our route back, following a path down the grassy valley side and back towards the road.

Once back at the car, we set off for a late lunch and some real ale sampling. This has been an excellent day, although perhaps not the best preparation for my evening’s plans of going to a bootcamp fitness class with my sister-in-law!

More walking is on the program for the next day, this time heading to the Gower Peninsula and Worm’s Head. This head belongs not to a little wiggly worm, but rather a big fierce Dragon, or ‘Wurm’ in the Viking invaders ancient language.

This is the most westerly tip of the Gower, and is a strip of land at low tide, while it’s a string of small islands when the tide is high. This means that walking here is only safe a couple of hours either side of low tide. At least if you do get cut off from your return, you can wait it out on one of those tiny islands for the next low tide.

We set off from the village of Rhossili, along a well-maintained level path to the old Coastguard lookout. 

Then we simply pick our own route across the uneven rocks of the causeway. 

We walk to the top of the inner head, which is the first higher ground we come to, and is therefore the first island when the tide comes in.

It's a little steep, but not very high and it gives us some great views of the interesting routes we've just taken and that lie just ahead.

We continue on to follow a mixture of dirt tracks and rocky scrambles to get out across the Devil’s Bridge (the rock bridge just visible in the picture above) and to the outer head. You aren't permitted to go right to the end during the sea bird breeding season, but we are there after the season's end so are free to carry on.

This is a great place for wildlife, and we watch the aerial acrobatic antics of a peregrine falcon; watch a swooping cloud of choughs, the UK’s once-rare coastal members of the crow family, that now seem to be making a comeback; and get watched by a cute and curious seal. I do love seals.

Today’s weather is in stark contrast to yesterday, so out at the outer head we stay a while to enjoy the sunshine. We eat our snacks and watch the wildlife, chat about the future, and only reluctantly drag ourselves away from this peaceful place to make the return journey across the rocky causeways. 

 

Heading back, the view is fantastic and I can't help wishing that I had longer to spend in South Wales, and that I had made more of my time in the years preceding. But Australia beckons, and I leave in less than a week.

Information:

Our route up Pen-y-Fan was pretty much this one: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/article-1356405780951/

Information for walking Worm's Head is here: http://www.explore-gower.co.uk/explore/gower-landmarks/gower-geology/worm-s-head