Grey.

I looked out of the window this morning and to my dismay saw that it was raining. Not good walking weather. Fortunately it began to clear up a few hours later which was good, one because I love going on the group walks and two because even though I managed to find my way to emails on my phone following the invitation link to the What's App group got me to a page that neither of us could understand. So I couldn't contact anyone to find out if the walk was still going ahead. That was after 15 minutes of the circle going round and round due to low signal though the phone was happier when we moved it to the other side of the room.

So I set off hoping the weather would continue to improve, which it did and arrived at my destination, Devil's Bridge after a 35 minute drive.

The route of the group walk was not around the bridge and falls but instead we headed along the hills lining a wide valley and from the start it was very wet underfoot. The chap who leads the walks usually wears wellies while the rest of us slithered from tussock to tussock and found out if our walking boots were waterproof or not, mine were.

After walking on footpaths through the fields we came to a small nature reserve. This one was called Coed Y Bobl which translates as A wood for the people.

In what was a conifer plantation  the rows of stumps are now covered in bright green sphagnum moss while between them grow native woodland trees which were planted in 2000.

While the paths were quite wet the bridges over the streams were in good condition.

Leaving the wood, which is on the left in the photo below we worked our way up the hillside and found a good vantage point to have our lunch.

Back in the 12th centuary when the monastery of Strata Florida became an important economic centre for the region with lay brothers running many industries from mining and metal works to breweries, forestry and farming the monks would retreat to isolated dwellings or cells in the little used marshy lands along the valley. 

In the distance we could see the Church of Three Saints, Sts David, Teilo and Padarn. a 19th centuary chapel built on a circular graveyard. This may be an actual sacred site from pre-Christian times or just a tradition that was continued by the first church builders.

Coming back along higher up the hills we could see down into the steep river valleys the nearest of which is the location of the Devil's Bridge.

Not surprisingly this unusually marked breed of sheep is the Badger Faced Welsh Mountain Sheep. Don't know how often you see one with two heads.

Our cars were in the car park up the track on the left of this shop. In  his quest to support local independent businesses Vytas had found this shop on-line and sent me Christmas hampers of the excellent hand made chocolates made here. Naturally I had to go in and tell them how nice their chocolates were and of course bought myself a few to take home. It would be rude not to and I did stick to just three chocolates.

While some of our group went to the hotel for a cuppa after the walk I took myself off for a photo walk to see the bridge. Will share those photos tomorrow.