All Fools’
Day! Well we hoped not as we awoke to a lovely, sunny morning and set off once
more heading for the Dyfi (Dovey) estuary walk part 1, the south of the estuary. As we went over the hills, the
mist was hanging in the valleys with blue sky above – a pretty sight.
We drove
in and out of mist patches and arrived at Machynlleth wondering if it would be
a day where the views would be limited. Taxi picked us up at 9.30 and down we
went to Tre’r Ddol – seemed a long way again! Oh dear!
Off we set through the
woods – we have already done a lot of woodland walking, but today’s was particularly
picturesque. Wood anemones were in abundance....
...and they’ll soon be followed by bluebells and foxgloves in abundance. Pheasants
were calling and as we got higher and came out of the thick wood, we had
tantalising views of Aberdovey and its estuary through the trees.....
...and the hills of the Tarren escarpment at the other side of the river..
We then
rose higher and got better, clear views over the estuary. By now the mist had
gone completely and the sun was hot! We thought that there would be great views
of the Lleyn today!
All the time we had really only been walking parallel with
the A487 – Machynlleth to Borth road, we looked down on the settlement of
Furnace Bridge way beneath us as we sat and enjoyed chocolate bars, gazing at
the hills and river across the valley. Furnace Bridge
...we then we passed through more woods and crossed fields. So lovely to see that Spring is springing...
...with lots of flowers all shooting and flowering although the trees are not generally so far forward yet..
We were climbing a little all the while until we crossed a lovely stream rushing down over rocks, the river Einion – a house here is in an idyllic setting!
It was a
lovely walk along this hillside til we dropped down at Melindwr – as its name
suggests, an old watermill....
and here we met Tree – doing the coast walk the
other way to us. She started on
1st March so is doing great and hopes to finish early May. She is
fundraising for Kidney Wales Foundation and has already raised a significant amount - well done Tree! http://trwancy.wordpress.com We climbed out of the valley quite steeply then and had lunch in an old oak
wood – with views over the trees, just, of the coast. It really was a "coast and country" walk today!
It was probably the best lunch
so far – no clouds or rain threatened – it was perfectly quiet with only the
birds to listen to. I wondered if we should stay longer! We climbed again
out of the wood and here the smell of pine was amazing. Earlier we saw a larch
bursting with its pretty pink cones forming....
We then had to watch the views of Aberdovey slowly go from view - until next time...
From this angle, further inland, the river looks quite narrow - but then you can see - I hope - the railway crossing the valley..
Very soon we came to the Lyfnant
valley – a super setting. A house claiming its building date of 1925 was
sitting all alone – wonderful! Wondered if it had maybe belonged to a quarry
owner – there is so much evidence of quarrying on the hills around here. There
was a lovely waterfall rushing down the now quite steep cliffs....
and the sounds
of all the falls on the river Lyfnant rushing over rocks as we climbed out of
the valley was wonderful. And all around more and more signs of spring, heather blooming here and even the moss was flowering...
Soon we heard the chain saw! And the forestry
chaps were indeed felling trees right on to the path! An interesting climb over
the debris was had!
The men were not impressed either with us crossing their
work area or with the coastal path choosing this route – why didn’t it follow
the railway they asked? It does seem to be quite a narrow rail bridge to me
which might be even more exciting than crossing felled trees for the mere
walker! We soon passed what was for us the first Powys CC footpath sign
– not sure exactly where we had crossed the border into our home county! It was
quite another uphill walk first over fields and then up a track for quite
a while! And then of course we came to a downhill track. We soon crossed an uphill field to meet Glyndwr’s path coming
in to join us
and soon the joint paths dropped down into Machynlleth.
We had
good views of the town and out to Dovey
Bridge
It had been
a wonderful, warm, sunny, blue sky walk accompanied by much better views
than we had expected – we kind of thought we would be in the woods most of the
time. 10 more miles along the way! Another 5 and we will have done those 500
miles!
We keep turning the corners – soon we'll be
headed on the road to Dolgellau on the way to Barmouth and beyond, unbelievable!
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