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I'd marked two courses of approximately 5 miles each
for the next two legs on St Illtyd's walk and they overlapped slightly
so I doubled up and did them together. Having cycled this area
extensively I knew a lot of the walk already so kept moving without too
many stops. Starting in Abercregan, I took a
quick detour for my first point of interest and followed the path down to the old Abercregan football field next to the River
Afan. It was here that I played my first ever organised football
(Association) match for the Bay View Under 13s against Abercregan Boys
Club. I was 8 at the time and not even the youngest member of the team.
Mark Hamer was only 7, we played in claret and blue, the Burnley
colours. The opposition who were mostly 11 and 12 year
olds towered above us and we were thrashed 9-1. The only thing I
remember about the match apart from the location is that the balls kept
getting kicked into the river and there were blokes with nets ready to
catch the balls as they travelled down the river. The field looks to be
disused now and if you look the photo of the field without the scraggly guy in it
you'll see a set of training floodlights to the right that also look
like they've seen better days. 
From
Abercregan I headed down to the Afan Argoed visitor centre on the main
forestry road, the sporting memories continued to flow through my mind,
this was part of the Cymmer off road triathlon which I won three times.
The visitor centre was the end point of the last walk so it was a quick
180 degree turn as I headed onto the St Illtyd's walk and joined the
line of the tour. St Illtyd's is marked only on the map at this point
and I didn't see a walk signpost/marker for at least 3-4 miles into the
walk. There were quite a few turns and with de-forestation happening too
my local knowledge helped big time when reading the map. There are many
mountain bike trails crossing the walk, most notably the Wall which
traverses Mynydd Nant-y-bar. I believe the trail gets its name from the
climb on St Illtyd's walk up to the Bryn Bettws lodge. Before the trails
were built circa 1990 I did a National Series mountain bike event here
and this climb was referred to as the wall. The photo below doesn't show
the gradient very well but its a good one, a lung buster. 
Travelling
into Cwn Cregan the course on the map looked a bit dodgy (off the paths
down a step descent) so I followed my nose on the paths and an unmarked
scrambler track until the walk signs started to appear (for the
first time). I followed the signs to Troed - y - Rhiw where the signs
went up the left hand valley and the path on the map up the right
valley. Left looked best so I followed the signs to the foot of the wind
farm and then navigated to Blaen Cregan. This sets me up nicely for the next
leg from Resolven. I headed back down to the car. Interestingly I passed
another two St Illtyd's signs giving another two route options, the first
was
the right hand valley, this route would have been quite a bit shorter
and it would be nice to know if it is easily navigable as per the map,
the second sign was on my loop and way off the course from the one marked on the
map. Total time approx 4.5 hours, distance approx 10 miles. CLICK
HERE FOR PREVIOUS WALKS ON THIS TOUR CLICK
HERE FOR ST ILLTYD'S WALK INFO |
