Walk Around Wales - Dai's Blog

A happy new year to you. I headed down the beach for a walk because I hadn't seen the sea for about a month and I was missing it, unfortunately there was nothing to write home about this sunset. The tide was way out and on the turn so I made the effort to get as far as the last light on the Ferry Bend river / sea junction. This was the first time I'd been this far. Not a good idea if you are a worrier about the tide catching you out. I did have to wade a little to get there and a little deeper on the way back. There was something black swimming near the bend, a porpoise or seal maybe, it was only showing it's back for a couple of seconds and then it was gone. I didn't see a head at all and I didn't get a chance to photograph it either, whatever it was. Shame.

The last light on the Ferry Bend with the Mumbles lighthouse in the background

I could not believe how busy it was on Pen y Fan this morning. The car park was full when I got there about 1 hour 20 before sunrise. There were so many people already on the mountain, On the approach I thought they'd put lights on the path. When I got to the top, there were at least 75 people up there and most of the edge facing sunrise was taken up by tripods and photographers. The sunrise was non-existent but the sun did smile a little about 15-20 minutes later. It was a glorious day once I dropped below the cloud line. A bizarre experience indeed.

One hour and ten minutes before sunset and the mountain was choc-a-bloc

15 minutes after sunrise and the sun makes an appearance for the first time

Parking at Kenfig Nature Reserve we headed to Kenfig Pool and the beach, heading down towards the Afan Cynffig (River Kenfig) which forms the boundary between Bridgend County and Neath-Port Talbot. Picking up the coast path we tracked back on the legs route then followed the river to Kenfig Castle. From there we made our way to the road and over the Mawdlam dunes and a stop off for a pint/coffee at the Angel Inn. I forgot my Garmin so no exact distance on the route but Hayley's phone made it about 7 miles.

The outside & inside of Kenfig Castle - there's not a lot to see.

Sherlock has finally aired so I can publish information relating to the production. It was episode three of series 4 that I'm in and I had superb air time with three shots of my top half and the camera remaining focussed on me whilst the action goes on around. My role was a prison guard complete with a Heckler & Kock sub machine gun. I have interaction with Jim Moriarty played by Andrew Scott (Gethin in Pride) where I physically stop him going forward into a restricted area of the prison. The scene is shot from two angles, in front where you can see me front on and from behind where you just see my arm only. A conversation then takes place between Moriarty and the prison governor played by Art Malik. Once Moriarty has finished his intrusion he then eyeballs me as he walks past. The day filming Sherlock at the Bay Studios in sunny Neath-Port Talbot was a fantastic experience, I also met Mark Gatiss (Mycroft Holmes) one of the writers of the series who actually took the time out to introduce himself to all the supporting artists. Nice guy - links to youtube videos, the longer one gives the scene in context and includes Moriarty arriving at the prison in a helicopter.

Moriarty arrives in a helicopter to meet the Governor at the island prison. When he comes out of the lift he is stopped from entering a restricted area by the guard played by Dai Richards.	DAI ON SHERLOCK LONG - YOUTUBE VIDEO - CLICK HERE - TO FOLLOW
Moriarty exits the lift, he is stopped from entering a restricted area by the guard played by Dai Richards.	DAI ON SHERLOCK SHORT - YOUTUBE VIDEO - CLICK HERE - TO FOLLOW

Today's walk started in Pyle and headed through the village to St James' Church, from there we followed the Afan Cynffig along the county border into Cornelly. Winding our way through the estate we crossed over the M4 footbridge into the village of Mawdlam (passing by St Mary Magdalene church) for lunch in the Angel Inn. Post lunch we headed across the dunes within sight of Kenfig Castle following the upper Wales Coast Path back to Pyle. The walk was approximately 5 miles

Spitfire in Pyle

St James Church, Pyle

River path & Wales Coast Path junction at St James Church, Pyle

Early days on the river path

Weir on the Afan Cynffig

Today's walk started in Pyle and headed to the Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve at Parc Slip. During the walk there were reminders of the the coal mining history of the area which includes the villages of Pyle, Kenfig Hill and Cefn Cribbwr. Our first stop was at the Heathcote Square Miners memorial, we didn't know this existed until today. It's a lovely community project to commemorate the lives of miners from the area with plaques containing miners names and information. Hats off to the people of Pyle and Kenfig Hill for this.

The Heathcote memorial is at the junction with main London to Swansea sustrans cycle route 4 so we headed up this for a while before splitting onto a footpath towards the Cefn Cribwr Iron Works.

Unfortunately the Iron Works which is run by Cadw was locked so closer inspection went out of the window and we took a few photos from a distance and carried on. There were constant reminders of the coal industry on the journey with strategically placed artefacts, information boards and artwork along the journey. The sculpture of father and son miners in particular was nice

We finally arrived at our turn round point, the Parc Slip Visitor Centre and it was closed, not that we'd planned anything here but it is shut on Mondays so note to self, don't do next walk on a Monday. Parc Slip is the name of an old colliery where in 1892 an explosion occurred at the mine, 112 men and boys lost their lives.

The walk was at 4.2 miles at the turn around and at present 8 miles is our current ceiling so we turned and headed back the way we came. Most of our walks are circular loops which means we are always covering different ground but in this case we retraced our footsteps with just a couple of alternate routes. The first being the Parc Slip Disaster memorial.

Lunch was a small pond where we met Elaine and Sula the extremely friendly dog.

Just past the Ironworks on the way out the county boundary headed off in the direction of the mountains so we completed stage 4 of our NPT tour, the River Cynffig / Bridgend County boundary. the next phase is a transitional one where we make our way to the Ogwr Ridgeway long distance path which will take us back into the county of Neath-Port Talbot.