I am hopeful that I will gradually be able to gather all my old friends around me on this replacement blog. At the moment though, I don't have the heart to start up a second version of BB's Nature Notes, so I will just incorporate them in this.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. I am watching the dawn break as my back was creaking in the wee small hours and sleep denied me. This is the price I have paid for delaying a long-overdue visit to the Chiropractor and then climbing the mile and a half up to Llyn-y-Fan-Fach yesterday.
Younger legs than mine had no trouble with the climb up to the lake and the Carmarthen Fans.
The weather was kind and it stayed dry, with a little sunshine on occasion . . .
As you can see, the scenery is stunning. This bird posed long enough to take his photo but exact ID on him is a little vague - Stonechat or Whinchat I suppose.
Looking back across the path we had just climbed to the stunning view beyond.
It was pretty windy when we finally got to the lake and inside the bothy, used as an emergncy shelter for anyone caught out up there after dark/in bad weather, the wind sounded even stronger. We debated the possibility of the bothy being a safe place to be in case of Zomby invasion, though you would need to keep the fire burning good and hot to stop them getting down the chimney. I blame my 18 year old son for this conversation!
You can just see the bothy to the right of this picture. I believe it may have been the original hut build by/for the consciencious objectors who were abandoned here during WW1 to manage as best they could, whilst working hard on building the retaining walls around the reservoir that you see today. I've been trying to find further details on this, but drawn a blank so far. My memory suggests that they had to grow their own food (in a rather inhospitable area) and were just "dumped" there.The curving stream in the pictures (above and below) is a leat which feeds into the lake.
"And I will raise up mine eyes to the hills . . ." The stern face of Black Mountain, last of the Carmarthan Fans.
Beside the pathway to the lake runs this beautiful river, chuntering over boulders, dropping down little waterfalls, splashing cheerfully downhill all the way.
Hi Jennie,
ReplyDeleteManaged to find you!
MrsL
xx
me too!
ReplyDeleteLeanne x
hi jennie, found you :o) what a lovely area to walk and the views wow :o)
ReplyDeleteThis was a very refreshing post--after I got my wits together and decided to try the new address. I will change the one on my blog sidebar at once.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved that walk in my better days--might do a lot of puffing if I attempted it now.
Looking at a county map of UK this evening and pondering your findings on the BMD--we are surely narrowing in on Gloucestershire as a point of origin for some of my people. And, I see it is adjacent to both Somerset and Wales which you suggested as a starting point. I'm not quite ready to order birth certs at $38 per clip.