Tag Archives: walks

My Walk this Week – Street Recce

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My walk this week is along a short street near the centre of town. It could be any street with mostly businesses lining each side in what were once houses. There is plenty of traffic but as I have claimed with StillWalks, there is as much to listen to and hear in an urban setting as there is in a rural one.

The sounds may be different, and it could be argued less attractive, but focusing my attention on different aspects of the soundscape allowed me to hear and see things that I would often pass over unnoticed – colours, patterns, textures to be both seen and heard.

So my walk this week is an exploration of an everyday urban location with the intention of familiarising my self to some of the visual and aural details in preparation for a full StillWalks production walk in the future.

Street Walk-1

The sound clip below is a bit longer than those I normally post through the week but on this occasion it seemed appropriate. There are many layers of of activities, starting  with the sound of me closing the car boot and progressing from the car park onto the street. The sound of a drill as I round a corner is also associated with a smell for me – as I returned to the carpark later on, passing this same spot the pungent smell of sealant was powerful and made me pass by quickly.

Street Walk – Clip 1

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Roof Reflections
Rubbish Collection Day
Shop Fronts
Street Steps
Growing Wall
Wildflower Frontage

 

Barring the Way and Reviewing the Walk

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The sheep that accompanied me on the last stage of my walk were barred from continuing by the effective but simple design of a kissing gate and a cattle grid. My geology walk this week with geographer Geraint Owen and other walkers was both thoroughly enjoyable and informative. The walk was arranged by our local library and I imagine they may be involved again in the arrangements for a second outing to complete the walk route.

gate and route home

gate and route home

Geology Walk Soundscape

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My starting point
Looking for evidence of plants
Bog cotton
Bog cotton detail
Geraint Owen
Foxgloves
Hammer test
conglomerate rock
plant fossil
Loughor Estuary from Cefn Drum
Looking north from Cefn Drum
Looking to Twyn Tyle
Twyn Tyle detail
Foxgloves and footpath
sheep in the way
Buttercups
gate and route home

Simple Peace

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At the foot of the hill on my walk this week, I parted ways with the other walkers on our geology walk up Cefn Drum. They had arrived for the walk by car whereas I had walked. The route by car is beautiful but the walking route is better still if only for the simple peace on a quiet day.

I only had the sheep and the river, the Afon Dulais, for company and looking at these images and listening to the sound clip takes me back to that peace.

I sometimes use my StillWalks videos as a means of relaxation at the end of the day but if I find myself unable to sleep through the night the most effective means of calming my mind is to relive one of my walks in my imagination. Photos such as those below describe a simple everyday aspect of the landscape but they still work as an effective trigger for my memory and when accompanied by the field recording, the sense of being there (at least in mind) is greatly strengthened.

Walking Home

sheep in the way

sheep in the way

Afon Dulais

Afon Dulais

Buttercups

Buttercups

Scratching the Surface

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My walk this week followed the route of one of the geology walks described by Geraint Owen in Scratching the Surface leaflets. Geraint led a group of about 12 of us but we only managed to complete half the distance. The information he delivered at various stopping points along the footpath up Cefn Drum was fascinating and as a result slowed our progress.

Twyn Tile

Twyn Tyle from Cefn Drum

Had we continued on from the summit of Cefn Drum we would have reached the end of Twyn Tyle in the image above. The pattern of scars seen along the slopes of of the hill are old mine workings – closer shots can be seen below.

The full walk is estimated to take about 4 hours but when you take into account the interest of walkers in listening to the walk leader talking about the lie of the land and the make up of the ground beneath your feet, more time needs to be allowed. None of had brought a packed lunch so we decided to descend again and arrange a new date to complete the full circuit.

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Cefn Drum footpath
Looking to Twyn Tyle
Twyn Tile from Cefn Drum
Twyn Tyle detail
walkers descending Cefn Drum
Foxgloves and footpath

Perspective on the Landscape

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Looking across to the Gower Peninsula from Cefn Drum shows the Loughor Estuary and the dip of the rock strata made up of Pennant Sandstone on top with coal measures below, Carboniferous Limestone and lastly Old Red Sandstone. It is the Old Red Sandstone that forms the ridge of Cefn Bryn on the Gower and further north, the upland of Mynydd Du. Being on top of Cefn Drum we are right in between these two.

Loughor Estuary from Cefn Drum

Loughor Estuary from Cefn Drum

The sounds on top of Cefn Drum are typical of this landscape with a warm wind blowing from the south west and the skylarks entertaining us above.

On top of Cefn Drum

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Hillside footpath
Standing on the top
Group discussion
Loughor Estuary from Cefn Drum
Looking north from Cefn Drum

Rocky Details of the Landscape

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My walks up Cefn Drum, Cwm Dulais and Graig Fawr are some of my favourite local routes. The opportunity to find out from an expert about the geology of the area was not one to be missed. The landscape is beautiful at any time of year and just now it is particularly green.

Looking at the landscape as we walked up the side of Cefn Drum the colour of the non native rhododendrons was passed but similar colours were showing themselves in the foxgloves.

Cwm Dulais landscape

Cwm Dulais landscape

Our next stop on the walk allowed Geraint to show us more plant fossils and also a visitor to the area in the form of a rock that had been brought here from the Gower Peninsula not by truck but by glacier.

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Evidence of Plants

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At the next stop on my walk this week the geology walkers took a closer look at the stones that made up the track under our feet. Geraint Owen showed us further examples of stones that revealed evidence of plant life.

Evidence of plant life

Evidence of plant life

Geraint also performed a simple test to prove whether some of the stones were limestone or not – the test was positive as can be seen by the fizzing acid on the surface. From this we were able to deduce that at least some of the stones making up the track had been brought in from elsewhere.

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Geology walkers
Geraint Owen
Evidence of plant life
limestone test
Proof of limestone

My Walk this Week – The Geology of Cwm Dulais

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My walk this week was organised by our local library with Geraint Owen, a geographer from Swansea University (UWTSD). Geraint gave an excellent talk at the library a few months ago and so when the opportunity came up to join him on his geology walk route for Cwm Dulais I didn’t hesitate to sign up.

The image below may not seem to have much to do with geology but there is a relationship here. I first have to admit to loving bog cotton as a plant and so when we came across it there was no way I was going to pass it by. However, in geological terms the plant is there because as its name suggests, the ground was boggy. Now wind back time several million years and consider the fact that bogs make peat which when compressed over millennia turn into coal . . . and that brings me to the starting point of our walk – the old Cefn Drum and Graig Merthyr colliery location in Cwm Dulais.

Bog cotton

Bog cotton

The start of my walk was a solitary one as I walked up the valley to meet the rest of the group near the site of the old colliery. The waste heap is no longer there now but is spread across the hillside of Cefn Drum. We scrambled about on this looking for evidence of ancient plant life in the stones and coal that now makes up a casual track used by motorbikes. It was higher up the hillside that we came a upon the bog cotton.

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My starting point
Meeting the group
Looking for evidence of plants
Bog cotton
Bog cotton 2
Bog cotton detail