Llyn Craigypistyll.

A cloudy day to begin with but then at the coast it turned into a lovely sunny day while up in the hills ..... it didn't.

When I looked up the meeting point for this afternoon's walk I realised that I'd been to that car park before which was reassuring. Even so the long drive on the forestry tracks, very good ones, had me wondering if I was going the right way but yes there was the car park in the trees. And so too was a light drizzle which had me putting on my waterproof overtrousers. The cloud lifted a little as we set off and we had dry conditions for the rest of our walk.

We started off going through a plantation which is currently being logged, the logs ending up on a special freight train that runs through the village. Not too surprising seeing as Aber is the end of the rail line. (To get to south Wales by train you have to go due east into England, then due south and finally due west, three sides of a very large rectangle.)

Once out of the mature plantation we had great views to the coast and of the hills which run in lines, like fingers pointing at the sea.

From there we slithered down some very muddy tracks into the next valley. If you look closely at the photo above you may spot a small white cottage right in the centre which was where we were heading.

And there it is nestled beside the trees. It's a rental holiday cottage and we all thought what a peaceful place it would be to stay in, that is until 18 noisy walkers march past.

We had a choice of bridges to cross the stream which is the River Leri. Tiny here it meanders its way down to Tal Y Bont (last week's walk ) then across the bog to Borth where it has been diverted to run parallell to the coast and eventually empties into the River Dyfi at Ynyslas.

This was where we stopped for lunch by the Leri.

Then it was up the hill to a path less than a foot wide taking us across the face of Craigypistyll. (Red spot on the left to red spot on the right.) 

Across the gorge was a spectacular waterfall and turning round we could see right down to the little bridge and our lunch spot.

Then looking forward again only the bright green cube of part of the pumping mechanism showed where the reservoir wall was disguised by a grassy bank.

Once we got there I recognised Llyn Craigypistyll from an earlier walk. 

The yellowed winter grass contrasted dramatically against the grey of the reservoir and the clouds above.

Especially when the sun shone like a spotlight through a break in the clouds. All this beauty only half an hour from home.

From there we swung round back up a wide track to the forest and eventually returned to the car park.

I gave two of the group a lift back to Borth where hey presto the sun was shining and had been doing so ever since I left. A quick visit to the shop and then in shorts and vest top I sat on the terrace garden planning. It's only by lots of sitting and looking that I work out the next stages of the garden design. I'm beginning to get an idea of how to arrange things around the small pond I'm going to have and also how the main path will wind around down to the gate.