A Walk In the Mountains.

We've had a reasonable summer's day with sun and clouds. Warm for most of the time though the wind in exposed areas of the mountains was much cooler.

Today's walk was up in the Cambrian mountains starting at Lyn Pendam, through forestry land to Llyn Craig Y Pistill and back through the forest. It's only half an hour away and is a lovely drive to get there. Leaving a small village you take the road which is helpfully signposted as 'The Mountain Road', and drive along the spine of the land with magnificent views into the valleys on either side.

The first part of the walk was through forestry land, silent under the rows of conifers which block out the sun allowing no plants to grow. No plants, no insects and no birds.

Then we came to a section which had been felled since we were last up here. The path by the fence remained so that was fine until we came to another block also recently felled. There the path that had once gone between the trees had been obliterated and we were forced to pick our way over piles of brushwood, brambles and bracken until we found ourselves walking past a sign that said 'Footpath Closed.'

Back onto a steep, overgrown, muddy and very slippery path which brought us down to the next valley.

We skirted the holiday cottage that sits nestled in the valley and sat ourselves down by the stream to eat our lunch.

From there we crossed the stream by a handy wooden footbridge and made our way to the path which begins about halfway up the hillside and continues uphill along the side of the gorge.

It was a very narrow path but worth the effort for the views of the waterfalls and across the mountains.

Eventually we made it to the top where after a brief rest we crossed the dam holding back the waters of Llyn Craig Y Pistill before swinging back and completing our circular walk.

All of today's photos were taken on my phone since although I had my camera with me I had quickly discovered that I had forgotten to put back its battery which had been on charge. The phone is not ideal for me as I can't really see what is on the screen and it was worse today with the bright sun. I relied on taking lots of photos and then editing them on the pc. Also I had to keep checking that I hadn't dropped the phone from my pocket of my shorts. Still it did the job.