The clear landscape didn’t last for long at the top of my walk this week to Penlle’r Castell on the heights of the Mawr above Swansea. As I walked back down to my car it quickly became a very misty descent as the heavy weather set in again.
Tag Archives: Mawr
Reviewing the Week
Whether or not you have been looking at the StillWalks blog over the last week, here is a chance to look through the sequence of images that I have posted on the subject (mostly) of the wild, wet and windy weather that can be experienced at this time of year on the Mawr uplands near Swansea in South Wales.
Driving Rain
Driving through driving rain is not a pleasant thing to do but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any views worth photographing. I took these shots before setting off on my return journey from the Mawr hills and decided not to do anything with the smudge of rain water on the lens which can be seen to the right of the horizon line.
The weather was bad, the atmosphere gloomy and the landscape dark. The grass on the road verges was perhaps not as dark as is shown in these photos, but the presented atmosphere is certainly accurate to my memory of the scene.
Wind and Mist
The blades disappeared into the cloud and it was difficult to see even the nearest of these wind turbines through the wind and rain. Whatever you think of wind turbines, you would have had difficulty seeing the Bettws Wind Farm on top the Mawr in weather conditions like this.
Going Slow on a Misty Mountain Road
This should not be described as a mountain road as the Mawr uplands are not a mountain. Given the conditions at the time, however, there is no way to tell where this road is or where it is going. The only clue is the language on the road – SLOW, or in Welsh ARAF.
Seeing Through the Rainy Season
If last week’s photo series was about changeable weather, this week’s is about the apparent permanence of moisture during one of the rainy seasons in Wales – there is certainly more than one!
I was recently up on the hills of the Mawr ward near Swansea to assess the conditions for a scheduled project production day . . . what a joke. I couldn’t believe the weather on my journey up there but thought “the weather is so changeable these days, you never know, it might clear“. Ha! Wishful thinking indeed.
Having said that, I had my waterproofs with me and decided it would be good to try and capture something of the atmosphere of the place in these wild conditions. So here is a short accurately descriptive sound clip to accompany the first two images of the week.
Downstream
Following the Lliw downstream from its source on the Mawr, the first village the river flows through is Felindre.
Situated below the Lliw Lower and Upper Reservoirs in South Wales, it is not known for year round sunshine. There have been a good number of sunny days in 2014 but, as can be seen in the photos, this was not one of them!
Lonely Road to the Source
The source of the river Lliw lies in the upland area of the Mawr in Swansea. To get there requires a short hike across the hills from a road that feels like it is in the middle of nowhere.
This beautiful environment is not far from civilisation and the ease with which I can get from the hubbub of society to these wonderful areas is one of the good aspects of Wales.
