These three photos were taken at the end of my recce walk in the Lledr Valley in Snowdonia, North Wales. They were all taken on my iPhone but I can’t remember why! I processed the second shot in monochrome because it seemed to better represent the wildness of the place as I perceived it in the worsening weather.
As I climbed above the valley floor along a moss-lined lane, it would have been good to get a better view of the distant mountains around Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales. Alas, on a day such as this, that was never going to be possible.
Before climbing to a higher position on my walk this week in the Lledr Valley in North wales, I called into Pont-y-Pant station. This was prompted by the shot below and a sense of wonder at the effort and engineering that is required to create a tunnel through such solid material.
Close to the start of my wet recce walk in the Lledr Valley in North Wales, I met this curious pair. They were probably wondering what on earth I was doing out in the damp weather if I had a choice not to be.
They were very friendly and allowed me to take several photos, though there was clearly a sense of the bigger protecting the smaller.
My walk this week is from my second recent recce walk in North Wales, specifically the Lledr valley south of Blaenau Ffestiniog – there’s a name for you to have fun with if you’re not Welsh 🙂 The beautiful evening of the day before in Colwyn Bay did not follow through to this walk and the result was that I got very wet.
My walk across Colwyn Bay beach was fairly brief but gave me some sense of the place in favourable conditions. The low sun revealed classic line patterns in the sand and it seemed to me that these were reflected in the patterns of the encrusted fence that surrounded the old pier.
My walk this week has been taken in two ways – the exploration of Llansteffan Castle and the migration of the StillWalks blog and website. I hope that you have both enjoyed this walk and will continue to enjoy both the weekly walks and other developing aspects of StillWalks.
The sound clip below is a re-posting of the clip I included earlier in the week as I did not have the material to produce a soundscape for this walk. That will have to remain for a full production walk later in the year. In the meantime you can view the images in sequence and listen to the clip at the same time.
Llansteffan Castle Sound Clip
If you are viewing this in an email, you will need to click the post title to see the sound player on the post itself.
These are the rocks on top of which stands Llansteffan Castle in Carmarthenshire, South Wales, where my walk this week has taken place.
The weight of the rock is the first thing that impressed me, and the way they appeared to tumble onto the beach in front of me. It may be obvious that rocks have huge weight, but I find there are times when looking at natural objects like this, that the full extent of their nature strikes me with awe and I wonder at the unbelievable depth of time that has gone into forming the environment around me.
The colours and patterns to be found in this rocky edge to the beach are also amazing. Fortunately my companions on this walk seemed happy enough for me to lag behind from time to time in order to take my photos.
