The Welsh Walker

A double walk today, a fairly short circular walk through the woods around Gilfach, followed by a longer walk up Drymmau Mountain. 

There have been oodles of walking festivals recently, and I've wanted to go on all of them - a walking holiday with the creature comforts of home at the end of the day? Yes please! Unfortunately I had to miss out on a lot of them (I need a walking buddy!), but the Gower Walking Festival was perfect, close enough to be an easy drive and, as I've mentioned previously, I love the landscape.

In all honestly I didn't much feel like going out today, and definitely would have ducked out of the later pub meal had I not already confirmed I'd go months ago - if something is booked I'm not going to be a flake.  My sat nav took me on the most awkward route possible, it seems to have a love of sending me down country lanes with blind turns when a trip along the motorway would come out in exactly the same place. That's twice in a row it's done this to me, I'll have to check the settings to see if there is some option that needs tweaking - getting lost down one way lanes is guaranteed to make me stressed and frazzled when I arrive.  I've never been to the Lliw Reservoirs before, so didn't have the slightest idea what I might be in for. I was pleasantly surprised, plenty of free parking, a cafe and toilets, and a paved path between reservoirs for anyone a bit too wary to go off piste. Having seen that the planned walk was only four miles on...

The plan today was to walk from the Dan yr Ogof show caves to Henrhyd Falls. I downloaded a new app, Viewranger, picked a track and was ready to go exploring. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out, though there were still plenty of fantastic views to enjoy. 

After my last weeks disappointment I decided to try a new group for today's walk. I'm getting surprisingly used to walking up to a group of strangers and introducing myself, a year ago when I started joining groups the idea used to make me shaky. Of course I still have my fingers crossed that they'll be friendly and there won't be any weirdos, but I've definitely gained in confidence. This group is focused on walking, which means no ambling. Today's adventure was an expedition along North Gower - I'm definitely more familiar with the south, so this was a new area for me. My sat nav app behaved and took me to Cwm Ivy car park (only £1 for a days parking), and I met up with the group there.

A lot of people across the country have been suffering terribly with the weather over the last couple of weeks, first with the dreaded 'Beast from the East' and now the 'mini' version. Whilst I wouldn't wish the hardships suffered by some on anyone, I love snow and really wanted to see some.  Unfortunately living so close to the coast we had barely more than a flurry, which melted immediately. It did, however, affect the roads, which meant that today's planned walk to Carreg Cennen Castle was cancelled. Or mostly. After much too-ing and fro-ing four us decided to still go, having no idea how deep the snow would be but up for an adventure. It was definitely worth it.

I've always wanted to go up Kilvey Hill, I drive past it regularly but going through the trees on my own seemed a bit iffy. Happily, I was mooching about on one of the websites for local walking groups and discovered one of them was doing an evening walk to the top so I went along.