Favorite Fotos: Happy Trails

I did a lot of walking during my time in the Old World, but most of it was on city streets, not hiking trails. However, there was some of the latter activity, mostly in Wales and Scotland, and I thought I'd share some of my "unpublished" photos from these pleasing walks.

The picture at the left was taken from near the top of Arthur's Seat, just outside of Edinburgh, the lovely city laid out before you here. The body of water in the distance is, if I'm not mistaken, the Firth of Forth, which I'd love to have seen closer up, but we just didn't have time on this trip.

Geologically remarkably similar-looking, but 'way across on the other side of the island, the photo at the right was taken on our hike up Pen y Fan, the highest point in southern Britain, specifically in Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog) National Park in Wales. The trail up here was well maintained, as were all the trails we hiked. Although not having to worry too much about vegetation encroaching on the path would make trail maintenance easier in some respects. Guarding against erosion from rainwater, however, is a problem not too many Texas trail managers have to contend with. Note the stream-like characteristics of the trail in the background of this photo:


In fact, pretty much all the trails I encountered bore evidence of the wet summer, even by their standards, that the UK had just experienced. And there were wonderful rushing streams everywhere. On the left is a glimpse of the steep, but lovely, trail down to Foyers Falls in Scotland, near Loch Ness. It was one of our serendipitous finds as we drove around the Loch (partly in a futile attempt at a Nessie sighting, but also to take in as much fabulous highland scenery as we could).

And below is a view from the trail we hiked in another area of Bannau Brycheiniog, a completely different hiking experience from the bare summits of Pen y Fan and its fellow Beacons.


This hike in the Park was the most strenuous walking I undertook during my whole trip, as we clambered over shelves and steps of Welsh slate, like you can see at the right here. But we loved seeing the four gorgeous waterfalls along the trail (called, appropriately enough, Wood of the Waterfalls, or Coed y Rhaeadr). Not to mention that the good exercise was both needed and welcome!

One real advantage UK hiking has over its Rockies counterparts, though, is that you don't have to deal with the thin air of extremely high altitude. It's great to have views of fabulous-looking mountains that don't require being at near-stratospheric heights to enjoy.

Another charming sidelight of UK hiking is the occasional random ruin, adding to the picturesque quality of the scenery immensely. Here's an example from the Arthur's Seat hike in Edinburgh:


The fabulous trees nourished by all that moisture are another distinction that I enjoyed. Don't get me wrong, I love walking in the Rockies and would have to pick them as a preferred location over the mountains of the UK—if I had to choose a favorite. But the trees I saw all over the UK were a real treat. At the left is a particularly scenic specimen along the Coed y Rhaeadr hike.

And below is one of the extraordinary trees we saw during an enjoyable, but completely different type of hike. This was in the artificial countryside of the Blenheim Palace grounds. A profoundly weird place, with its artificial lake and manicured, designed landscaping. But, you have to give them this: they planted some really amazing trees there....


I believe I was taken enough with British trees that I have enough pictures to make a separate post on the subject, so that will be my next Favorite Foto collection.

The Beacons are Lit!

Sorry, I couldn't resist the ROTK (movie version) reference, here in Brecon Beacons. Especially given the views we had during our mountain hike on Sunday. (And it's not totally inappropriate Tolkien-wise either; he was a big Welsh language fan and modeled some of his Elvish languages upon it—right, Sally?)

Wow! To paraphrase another movie line, it sure made me proud to be Welsh!

Again, you're fortunate in the trails here, since there are clearly marked starting points, well-maintained surfaces, and easily doable distances (not to mention the lack of altitude, at least from the perspective of hikers used to 9,000+ feet strolls in the Rockies). The whole Beacons Circuit [Cylchdaith y Bannau] is 11 miles but there's a handy loop that catches the two big boys, and that's what we opted for. We started at the the Pont ar Daf lay-by (parking area) and struck out for the highest point in southern Britain, Pen y Fan (886 meters).

The trail's not steep, but you definitely enjoy the lunch break at the saddle leading to Corn Du (at 873 meters, the second-highest point in southern Britain; linguistic note: Google likes Corn Ddu, but the bilingual map we got at the Mountain Centre has only one "d" in the English and Welsh versions). From there, it's a short, mostly level walk to Pen y Fan and we decided to go there first, since the approach looked easier than that of Corn Du. The weather was also very changeable and we saw some clouds moving in. There's a monument up here to a little boy who got lost in the mist and couldn't find his way home, and it's easy to see how that could happen...


We weren't too worried about getting lost, since there were a lot of other people up there with us and many of them sounded like experienced Beacons walkers. But as it turned out, visibility wasn't an issue. As quickly as the mist slid over the saddle where we'd had our lunch (in the picture above), the sun came out and gave us some fabulous views. Here I am walking along the ridge. Sunny, yes, but still pretty cold, hence the bundles of outerwear, and with a gusty wind (although not gale-force, thankfully; I can't imagine what that would be like up here).


The valley below was lovely in the sunlight, and we wandered around the large plateau-like top of Pen y Fan for quite a while taking in the sights from all sides.


Looking at Corn Du from below, I was planning not to try and climb it, since the final approach looked really rocky. The hills around here are capped by hard-to-erode slate; that's why they have flattish tops. In Corn Du's case, a bunch of the slate was jumbled around near the top. But I decided to give it a go and it wasn't too difficult. The lovely Welsh slate formed steps most of the way that made it much easier to climb than expected. At the left here is a view past some of the slate ledges just as we started the climb down.

What a wonderful hike! And it was short enough that we felt we were able to get started back to London early enough that we might make it before dark. Even with the shorter day that we were facing, and by surprise! We didn't realize British Summer Time went off this morning, a week earlier than in the U.S., which meant a later breakfast than we were expecting, an hour more in Wales, but a much earlier sunset this evening.

As it worked out, it was dark before we got home, but I couldn't blame the darkness for the difficulties we had finding the car rental return office. After much driving about and straining to see familiar territory, a very nice concierge at a Heathrow hotel took pity on us and printed out a map showing us the error of our ways. After that, it was an easy drive to return the car and then an easy tube ride home. Top that off with a delicious Italian dinner at our neighborhood Strada, and we were able to look back fondly on our too-brief trip to Wales. Wish we could go back!

Water, Water, Everywhere

Late afternoon Friday found us in Wales. If you miss the welcome to Wales sign along the M4, you'll know it anyway, as the highway signs immediately become bilingual! Our destination was Merthyr Tydfil, near Brecon Beacons National Park [Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog], where we'd made a hotel reservation (more about this later). Watching a weather forecast for the next day was one of our priorities, since we hoped to climb the highest mountain in the park.

However, the forecast gave us pause: gale-force winds in the mountains! Better move to plan B, although we didn't have one. So we hoped to find some information and suggestions for a different hike at the Park visitor center. And our hopes were more than realized at the friendly Mountain Centre. Although we were there well before their opening time, a friendly employee let us come into the warm and made us tea while we waited for the hiking experts to arrive. And they gave us great advice.

Because of the wind, they suggested we stay low, and it just so happens there's a fantastic hike that would allow us to do that: Wood of the Waterfalls [Coed y Rhaeadr]. A handy, well-marked circuit trail allows you to see the best 4 of these falls, so that's what we did (the picture above is of Henry at #3).

First there was a little detour down to a fantastic underwater cave, that we ventured into only a short distance:


Note the crystal-clear water!

Then off to the main trail. The weather cooperated for the most part during our hike, which lasted most of the day. There was only an occasional drop of rain until we got close to the finish, when a constant drizzle meant that everything required a severe drying out back at the hotel. The mud was something of a problem, though, with periodic patches of trail being nothing but mud and puddles. However, after returning to the hotel for Henry's forgotten boots, we were appropriately shod and just ploughed through the stuff.

Part of the time the trail led along the river (three of the falls were on the Afon Mellte, one on the Afon Hepste—fun fact: Afon/Avon means river in Gaelic-rooted languages, so River Avon means River River!) as you can see above on the right. The main rock in the area is this gorgeous black slate, which makes long flat tables around the streamcuts.

Sometimes, however, the trail led high above, so you could get top-of-the-waterfall views, and appropriate warnings were definitely in order.

The first fall we came to was Sgwd Clun-Gwyn (please don't ask for pronunciations from us, but as awkward-looking as Welsh is, when you hear folks that know what they're doing pronounce these names, they're really beautiful).

Here is a view of it from the top. As you can see, these are real waterfalls, not just sets of rapids, with plenty of water flowing. We learned later that they had a very wet summer and so the falls were all performing at top capacity for us.


On to number 2, Sgwd yr Eira, which we remember the ranger telling us means Falls of the Snow. This one is the most popular to visit because of the attraction that you can go behind it! Here are two views of this powerful falls. The first one I took as we approached. You can see someone about to go behind the falls. The second one Henry took from behind the falls (at great risk of camera lens damage!) after we'd gone through one way. You can see me (with umbrella, which was some protection) heading back out the other side.



We got soaked! Fortunately it wasn't too cold and we were wearing our fast-dry outwear and pants. But what an amazing place! We did talk to some locals there who remarked that you often could go behind the falls and not get wet at all; one gentleman estimated there was 10 times more water coming over than the last time he had visited.

Although we thought nothing could top this experience, we headed on to the remaining waterfalls. And though they were not this spectacular, they were definately worth seeing. Each of the four had different contours and different esthetic attractions. Number 3 (Sgwd y Pannwr) was perhaps my favorite because of the lovely little pre-fall (see left) amid the sheets of slate before the water hits the main drop.

Here is the main falls, which was quite wide, from above.


Number 4 (Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn) was the hardest to get to (we think we might have strayed from the main path) and the hardest to photograph because it has several levels and the river makes a little jog part-way down. But it's another fantastic falls:


A happy surprise greeted us after we left this falls, when we found ourselves right back at the first one, when we'd thought we might have to hunt about for the trail to finish the circuit. It was a good thing that we knew where we were going the last bit of the hike, though, since the drizzle started soon and was continually, awkwardly, misting glasses. It was a ways back to the car, but we made it fine and were happy to see a little pub just off the road back, in Pontneddfechan. We were their first dinner customers, but the warmth, dryness, and sustenance surely was welcome.

We also found out we could have stayed in their inn for less than our hotel, and in much more picturesque surroundings. Merthyr Tydfil, for all its wonderful Welsh name, doesn't have a lot of personality (although it's a large enough town to have plenty of conveniences such as bakeries and grocery stores). It's an old industrial town that hasn't quite transitioned to a recreational gateway, which it's ideally positioned to be. Should we ever be fortunate enough to make a return trip to the Beacons, we'll look for a smaller place further into the mountains.