My Walk this Week 256 – Going Up the Uplands

Posted on 07/05/202105/05/2021 by Alastair

My walk this week is up the uplands, or to give them their local name, The Mawr. I love The Mawr! It is an expansive area of moorland occupied by skylarks, pheasants and judging from this walk, badgers and / or foxes. I am sure there are many, many more creatures living there but one creature that is perhaps there in fewer numbers is human beings. That makes me sound anti-social I guess, but I’m not – perhaps I’m just greedy for space!

Twyn Tyle escarpment

For those locals that may be interested and are under the impression that the escarpment shown in the video above is part of Pontarddulais (or Bont) Mountain, I would like to correct the names being used for this element of our landscape. Thanks to a mistake by GoogleMaps, the names of this small mountain and the one next to it are incorrect. The mountain featured in the video is Twyn Tyle and the one becoming known as Bont Mountain is in fact named Cefn Drum. It seems that only the elders of our community know this but it is something GoogleMaps needs to fix – the names are correct on the Ordnance Survey maps. There now, that’s my short rant over.

I am sure you can see from the photos below what it is I love about this landscape. I am sorry there is no soundscape to accompany the images, but trust me, the sound was there – wind, skylarks, more wind, more skylarks . . . and so on 😉

Ascending Further

Posted on 17/08/201611/08/2016 by Alastair

Ascending further along my misty mountain route on my walk this week, the landscape below me may have been obscured but the colours and patterns in the path-side rocks could still clearly be seen, albeit less bright than would have been the case in sunshine.

Almost at the top I sheltered from the wild wind in a hollow at the side of the mountain track and recorded the blustering wind and the plaintive bleats of distant sheep and began to despair at the possibility of getting the views I had hoped for.

Colour and pattern

Mountain Wind

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colourful rock

Colour and pattern

Looking down through the mist

Mountain track

Descending Mist

Posted on 16/08/201611/08/2016 by Alastair

Having started my walk this week in the forest at the foot of Mynydd Rugog, I clambered out of the woods and onto the side of the mountain to find mist slowly descending from the summit. I followed and old fence and wall directly up to the track that zig zags up from a farm down by the road and though as long as I can clearly see the path I’ll carry on.

Mist descended

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old fence wire

rust coloured stone

Descending mist

Thistle

mountain wildflowers

Mountain mist

Mist and grass

Going Slow on a Misty Mountain Road

Posted on 11/11/201411/11/2014 by Alastair

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.

Climbing to the Top

Posted on 09/04/201309/04/2013 by Alastair

Yesterday afternoon I had the need to get on top of things. Without going into details, the answer for me was to climb our local mountain, Graig Fawr.

Even on the lower slopes of the mountain you get a great view over the valley but as I climbed higher this view got better and better. Skylarks twittered above me and I got a good close view of a pair of Red Kites. Up on top the wind was exhilarating and, at least momentarily, my troubles were blown away. Seeing the land and the weather on this scale has a tendency to put other issues into perspective.

Despite its name (fawr means big in Welsh), the mountain is only small but for all that you get a great view over four or five counties in South Wales. I had deliberately not taken my cameras or sound kit as it was the walk and the climb that I needed. However, I couldn’t resist taking one or two shots on my phone. I have not produced a StillWalk on Graig Fawr yet but I think that time is coming soon.