(Click one of these links to see the photos)Friday:
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En-route to Rhayader, Phil and I spent a sunny afternoon wandering over the Malvern Hills. First at the southern end at the Iron Age British Fort, a truly massive earthwork; later at the northern end leading to the Worcestershire Beacon. On returning to the car we found queues of people collecting supplies of Malvern Water from a roadside spring. |
Saturday:
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Plynlimon lies 25 miles NW of Rhayader and upon its heights are found the sources of both the River Wye and the Severn. We started from the road alongside the Nant-y-Moch reservoir (GR 767869) and climbed up the boggy, tussock-strewn Nant-y-Moch valley, over Y Garn to the 2470 ft. summit of Plymlimon. Firm ground took us past the sources of the two rivers, then we turned west to begin the long descent down the Hengwym valley. The latter parts of this became boggy in the extreme and fine cold rain further enriched the experience! |
Sunday:
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Caban Coch is the southernmost of the series of Elan Valley reservoirs completed in 1904 to supply water to Birmingham. Starting near its head (GR 900616), we followed a well-built track up the Marchnant valley to the grassy summit of Gorllwyn at 2010 ft. From here we had a magnificent panorama of the Welsh hills - Radnor Forest, Hay Bluff & the Black Mountains, and the Brecon Beacons. Four miles of surprisingly well-dried heights brought us to the elaborately-built cairns of Drygarn Fawr (2100 ft., from which we made the long descent through the Rhiwnant valley with its tumbling mountain stream. We then drove the tourist trail to visit the series of dams and reservoirs: Claerwen, Carreg ddu, Penygarreg and Craig Goch and return to Rhayader by the mountain road. |
Monday:
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Heading homewards, we stopped at the village of New Radnor to explore the hills and valleys of Radnor Forest. Conditions varied from easy tracks and pleasant sunshine to yomping through deep trackless heather with cold lashing rain, but we enjoyed some seldom-visited views. In fact over the three days in Wales we encountered but a single walker in these remote hills! |
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