Judith's camping for a few days in south Wales, and spent last
night at Pencelli where one of the urw expeditions also
stayed. This morning saw her driving down to Pontneddfechan
to meet up with Paul Saunders and me for a shortish stroll
along a river to ogle at some waterfalls.
We met up at around 10:00, and for a change I was actually a
bit early. This is absolutely unheard of, so my first thought
was that I was probably in the wrong place; however it wasn't
long before Judith turned up, then Paul arrived a bit later
and informed us that we had inadvertently parked in a 'patrons
only' car park. Never mind though, there's a parking area
just round the corner, so we moved all of a hundred yards (if
that), re-parked, sorted ourselves out and set off. This is
where Paul will have to take over identifying the various
falls and 'places of interest' along the way, because to my
shame I can't even name the river we walked beside even though
it's only a hefty stone's throw from where I live...
It was a bit drizzly for most of the time we were out; however
it wasn't cold and the autumnal colours around us were
magnificent as we strolled along through natural woodland that
made such a change from the usual unremitting pines that I've
got used to since moving to the Rhondda 5.5 years ago. Some
photos were taken, and when Paul puts in his TR I'll crib from
his notes and add captions to the ones I took. For now
though, you'll have to put up with inane comments or nothing
at all. We walked for a little bit less than 2 hrs before
turning back, with Paul often commenting that the area had
changed since the last time he'd been there. Most of the
changes were deemed by Judith and me to be for the better, as
they involved the addition of helpful bridges to cross holes
in the ground and rivers with. Being totally non-sure footed
I was very glad indeed that someone had seen fit to put
bridges in where the path got tired of being horizontal and
decided to try concave instead; however I shared Paul's
disgust at the blocking up of a perfectly good, if dark
tunnel... I *like* exploring tunnels, grump grump, why have
they (whoever 'they' are) blocked it off? It's only a few
feet long, so really they could have left it, whinge mutter
mutter.
Returning to the cars was timed for about twoish; however in
the event we actually got back earlier and I briefly
contemplated the idea of having lunch in the pub where Judith
and I had parked earlier... but alas, I didn't honestly feel
that I could do justice to anything in about 20 minutes, so I
rather reluctantly headed for home, where I retrieved my
sandals that I'd rather stupidly forgotten to take with me for
driving in and then drove over to the school where I spent a
fun (for some strange values of 'fun'😉 quarter of an hour
cutting round green hand prints to stick onto a 'fir tree'
costume for the infants' Christmas concert. Don't ask.
Photos at:
http://frances.fotopic.net/c344464.html
--
"The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is
probably the day that they start making vacuum cleaners."
--Doc in alt.privacy