Waterfalls

Mud ... Mud .... Glorious Mud ... oh and a bit more MUD!!

Since last weeks walk to Pen y Fan was all for me, it was only fair that this weekends walk was someone else's choice. So I found myself heading up the A465, off onto the back road between Pontneddfechan and Ystradfellte (B4242) and pulling into a bit of a car park by the track for the Clyngwyn Bunkhouse.  

Now i've no idea why but I always imagined that this walk was fairly onerous! Maybe because when other people had talked about it when I was 'limited' they nearly always added 'It wouldnt be for you' or 'Hmmm I dont think you would have managed it'.  In truth they would have been right! Then at least, today was a different story.  

So we headed off down the track with the Brecon Beacons National Park, Coed y Rhaeadr (Wood of the Waterfalls) leaflet in hand which was really useful (which is a couple of years old now but im sure they will still so a version).  All the waterfalls and car parks are really well sign posted and it was really great to see so many people out and about with children of all ages.  Get them interested now about being outside, regardless of the weather.

Our first waterfall was Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn.  Technically we should have visited this from other otherside of the river but there was a little side path down to a viewing point which we took advantage off. Since it had been raining the falls were in full flow and it was lovely to look down on them.

We walked back up and rejoined the path and continued on to Sgwd Clun-Gwyn.  This time, as we went down to have a look, we took a little path off the track.  We could see that Call of the Wild had a group down there, everyone ready to jump into the water and travel down the river a little way. White water rafting without the raft! (I think called Canyoning - someone correct me if thats wrong). We spent ages watching these guys, it looked an amazing experience. Our daughter has already decided that its now on her 'to do' list.

Just a few images below to show what was going on. 

We actually spoke to the activity leaders after at the end of our walk who said that it wasnt too cold in there because the river was flowing so fast!

Good job it wasn't raining! They may have got REALLY wet!

Not shown here but the first leader in wore a Silver helmet! Brilliant idea.

So then we walked back up to the main path.  Well we say path, its very rocky, covered in roots and to be honest because of the rain it was more like walking up and down streams. Where it wasnt like that was just a mud bath! 

Made a fairly straight forward walk, for most people, quite hard going in places. We crossed a small bridge and made our way down the other side of the river, passing again above the first two waterfalls and then heading on to the turning down to Sgwd yr Eira.

It had developed into a beautiful afternoon so we stopped at the top to take in the view, enjoy the sunshine and have a drink before heading down the the falls.  

As we were going down the path, steps, path that would lead us to the falls it did cross my mind that I was going to have to go back up all of these! Hmmmm, that was going to be interesting!

What I loved about the sign posts were that they would say helpful things like 'Sgwd yr Eira - 8 minutes'.  Ha ha - on the way down maybe! 

 

When we reached the bottom we could see a canoe.  Not sure if it had been carried down to actually go into the river at this point or if they had come over the falls themselves?  

Who knows?

So we had to do it didnt we .... I mean you cant go to a waterfall that you can walk behind and not walk behind it!  

Absolutely amazing! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!

And yes I was one of the idiots that stood as close to the water as possible and got my face and hair absolutely soaked! Well you just have to, don't you.  I have to tell you that standing that close to a waterfall is definitely good for the soul. I cant wait to go back to see this when its all frozen.  

Coming back out from behind the falls everyone that was heading towards us greeted us with huge grins! Oh I cant tell you how much I loved that, really loved that they were either laughing because we looked a complete state, because we were grinning too, or because they were thinking 'Yes, my turn now!'  Actually, they could have been thinking 'You're off your heads' but who cares?  We made people smile and that's got to be a good thing!

One problem though - now I had to walk back up.  It was hard work, I think I stopped three times but it was worth the effort of going down there in the first place! Thank god for walking poles.

We took a different path back, turning right at the top of the path down to Sgwd yr Eira.  It was a nice easy path back and brought us back to the little bridge we had crossed earlier in the day.  

The funniest thing of the day was when my other half was commenting on the fast pace I was setting on the way back! Ha!!! Keep up PJ! 

We made a few new friends along the way too ...

Pink and ...

Spider ... man!

I dont think we will keep in touch though.

One waterfall we didnt do was Sgwd y Pannwr - on my list for next time!