There's nothing better than a fingerpost giving you freedom to walk and explore. This one is on the Wye Valley Walk, which Tam and I enjoyed a short stretch of on Sunday. We planned just to walk from The Groe (our daily walk) to Pwll Ddu, just 3 fields upstream. Pwll Ddu translates to Dark Pool. The new header photo is taken from just that place.
This was a bit more like our River Cothi in Carmarthenshire - big rocks and boulders mid-stream (although the Cothi ran through a complete rocky gorge, especially where we used to live). We finally saw a Water Wagtail (the Grey Wagtail by its common name) on the field nearby on our way back. We had them in our garden and on the rooves of the house and outbuildings in our old home. Here they are conspicuous by their absence.
An Alder tree overhangs the river and rocks. Lots of them dipping their toes in the water, which is their natural setting. "Alder Carr woodland" was something which used to turn up in an archaeological context and it means wet boggy land where the Alders grow well.
To begin with we could hear the road, as it runs quite close to the river on the way to Rhayader. That's an area we shall be walking (and puffing!) in the summer. The Elan valley beckons!
We walked about 2 miles upstream, just beyond the railway bridge which takes the Heart of Wales line up to Shrewsbury, ultimately. This bridge over the river takes the line to the railway station for Builth Wells, Builth Road, which is a couple of miles out of the town. I believe that the station in the town here was closed at the behest of Dr Beeching in 1962. It's not a busy line - there are only 4 trains each way during the week, and 2 on a Sunday!
The path through the woodland went through a block of former Forestry Commission pine woodland which had recently been cleared and replanted with hardwoods (lots of Oak).
Back to the fingerpost again, with the hills behind - to be explored in the summer. The walk was about 4 miles and we had sunshine much of the way. In the summer hopefully we can walk a bit further up the Wye, though Rhayader is too much of an ask for me, being 15 miles away.
