Sunday 13 May 2012

Sunshine!

After weeks of rain finally a sunny weekend! It was with much disapointment I woke up on Saturday feeling pretty crappy. Unusually doing the allotment had given me loads of pulled muscles - I never pull muscles doing allotment stuff so wasn't expecting it. It felt like I'd run a marathon. Wondering if it's all linked to the muscle weakness and numbness I've been having lately. Hopefully I will know more when the test results come back. For now it's carry on regardless...

I was too lazy to make lunch so it was off to Subway to purchase a footlong - Steve was discusted by my chosen combination of Tuna, Olives, onion, lettuce and chilli sauce. He took it all back later when he tried some and enjoyed it. I know Subway is rubbish but it's my guilty pleasure. There's nothing like pulling out a huge sandwhich on a mountain summit and making everyone else jealous :) that's not it really it's more the joy of having something other than cheese and pickle to restore the depleated energy levels!

It took us about an hour to drive to our start point in Trefil. I was a bit worried about the parking situation as there were a few houses/farm vehicles about. Steve had a chat with the farmers stood about and they said the car would be okay there. Afterwards we realised they probably thought we were asking if it would be broken into, so we'd probably insulted their neighbourhood - good thing we weren't lynched!

We were starting our walking having a nose in Trefil Quarry -part of it is still a working quarry but the upper half is disused. It is aparently Wale's largest scheduled monument. I also thought it was where they had filmed Clash of the Titans/Doctor Who and various other things, but further investigation afterwards suggests they were filmed in the Cefn Y Ystrad quarries (Cwar yr Ystrad) it gets confusing as they refer to the filming locations as Trefil Quarries, but looking at photos it is definately the other ones!














We spent a while in the quarries taking photos, looking at the precarious rock stacks (probably wouldn't want to spend a long time at the bottom of any of them..) and listening to the nesting birds flying about.



It was a very peaceful place. I think though judging by some of the signs and marks on the ground they have a serious problem with offroaders there. I could see why they liked the terrain, but it would be a shame to have the peace spoiled in such a nice location.

We then headed up to the burial cairn on Garn Fawr following various sheep tracks and admiring the views of the main Brecon Beacons massif - Pen Y Fan et al. The sun was shining, the skies blue and the sky larks were in insessant song. As we reached the cairn we saw three other people and said hello. It sort of shattered the remote illusion. We headed straight off to find a geocache and to give them some peace. It's been a while since I've searched for a cache in boulders so I struggled a bit esp as I was feeling bad with the aches. Steve quickly found it and we signed the log and took a swap for Emma (leaving something behind)

Sugar loaf in the Distance


We then headed off to find Llyn Y Garn-Fawr - a lake we wanted to see if we could swim in. We passed the people again and explained to them what we'd been up to. They hadn't heard of geocaching before so we told them a bit about it. We passed them again not long after trying to find the lake - I think they probably thought we were lost and being a bit rubbish - ah well! Arriving at the lake the sun promtly went in and the wind picked up. The lake was pretty shallow in most places accept the far end. We scoffed our Subways as it was past lunch time (we'd not set off walking till about 12!) I opted to wait whilst Steve swam in case he got stuck in the mud. Steve enjoyed a short swim, but commented on the mud banks surrounding the perimiter and how the temp of the water really varried from shore to middle.





It was my turn and I managed to do some comedy falls trying to get up and down the banks. It was very refreshing and I'd like to visit again on a warmer (less windy!) day.

Our next stop was Chartist Cave. Read about it here:
Chartist Cave

We had a hunt for a geocache just  by it - I got frustrated again and sat down in huff, and spotted it as soon as I sat down. We then went to the cave and I uhmed and ahed as to whether I wanted to explore. Normally I'm like a rabbit straight down into any cave I see, but everything in my body was crying out in pain ( painkillers having worn off). I figured it would be a long time till I got back there again so decided to make myself have an explore. In the entrance there was unusually and edible plant called Wood Sorrel and the cave was very prehistoric and ferny looking. We explored a few of the chambers - there is a bit more to explore but we decided it would be best left to another day- I didn't like the look of some of the rocks and knew we hadn't told anyone where we were going (bad caver!)






After leaving the cave we headed over (very) rough tussocky/boggy ground to Nant Milgatw Waterfall. There is a path somewhere but we opted to follow the sheep tracks and the GPS to our destination. We probably would have been better off on the path - we did however see some amazing shake holes - one of which I sent Steve down to see if there was a cave there, we were somewhat hoping we'd discover something amazing but it was just a pile of rocks... 






I stopped to rest every 500 metres or so as I was seriously lacking in energy. It was a relief to reach the falls as it meant we were only 1 km from the car. There was also a geocache there too - what a great location for one. We left the golf ball Steve had mysteriously found earlier in the trip (and a few other bits) and took a war craft model for Emma (who wasn't impressed with it when we got home!)


Steve had a shower under the falls whilst I enjoyed some shortbread and some scrambling/ambling about taking photos. Then we headed onto a tram road, and a disused rail line to take us back to the car. 


Nant Milgatw Waterfall




Such an interesting area, and so peaceful. Would be a great area to take children walking in as so many things to keep them occupied. There was also tons of billbery plants so you could have a right royal feast come summer!

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