Walk Around Wales - Dai's Blog

The forecast was for a good evening and I had some stretching to do because I'm trying to grow taller so I headed off to the sunset mountain Fan Llia for my stretching and sundown. I planned a circuit Blaen Llia, Fan Llia, Maen Llia and Afon Llia which is known in my head as the Llia Roundabout. I know there's a lot of Llia going on there so let's start first with Llia, I've no idea where that comes from, tehn Blaen Llia, Blaen is an odd word with many meanings, it could mean 'source of', front of, a high inaccessible place, near to. In this case I think it's near to because the source of the Afon Llia which means Llia River is at least a couple of miles away.

The cairn on Fan Llia with Fan Fawr, the nearest mountain and Corn Du in the distance

Fan Llia (pronounced van) is Llia Peak or Mountain, most of the peaks in the Brecon Beacons are called 'Fan Something or Other' but I don't thinks there's a literal translation for this. Maen (meaning stone) Llia is a great big standing stone on the lower slopes and back to Afon Llia and there's a road next to it which should really be called Ffordd or Heol Llia but then again it's more likely to be called Ffordd Nedd because it's more on Fan Nedd rather than Fan Llia. Confused, you should be because I think it's actually called Sarn Helen, it's an ancient road the Roman's used between Neath and Brecon which is named after St Helen who travelled it I think in the 5th century. Anyway I followed the road all the way back to Blaen Llia just as darkness fell and alighted my chariot and headed off home. There are so many questions to be answered there I'll need to keep doing the Llia Roundabout until I have all the answers. And I forgot to mention the Pen-y-fan sheep guards..............

............ OK, I played a little on photoshop with the picture but they were there watching me when I was stretching, they are real and they did look like that, they spooked me a bit.

Sunset was nice but not brilliant - the angle of sunset took the sun away from the Black Mountain which wasn't ideal but you can't always have it your own way. Roll on the next outing.

I parked the car on the Rhigos mountain road near the Llyn Fawr Reservoir and headed on up the Craig y Llyn ridge for a stretch.

Llyn Fawr is one of the most important archaeological sites in Wales it was here in 1913 a hoard of Bronze and Iron age artefacts were found while the reservoir was being built. Items found included a number of chisels, sickles and socketed axes, a sword, a spearhead, a razor and horse harness equipment. They date to the beginning of the Iron Age (c.750-600BC). The largest item was a cauldron weighing in at 75kg, it is so large an average size person would not be able get their arms around it. For more on the Llyn Fawr Hoard please..... CLICK HERE

A movement in the grass by Llyn Fawr caught my eye and it was Mr Baby Frog hopping away from me. So I picked him up, took his photo and sent him on his way again.

There are nice views of Llyn Fach when climbing the ridge

Sunset wasn't brilliant but there were some nice colours appearing about 20 minutes post sunset when I was on my way down the mountain.

For years I'd ridden my bike up the Swansea Valley and for years I'd seen the Sleeping Giant (Cribarth) and said, 'I need to climb that mountain' so with a few hours spare that's what I did. Parking in Abercrave near the main road I plotted a course that went virtaully straight to the tip of the mountain. First things first though there was an info board full of stuff about Abercrave so I took the time out to read it..... More to follow soon

27/6/2015 - WEBB ELLIS MEETS WEBB ELLIS - THE RUGBY WORLD CUP COMES TO GLYNNEATH

I walked over the hill and there in a field not far from my house was the William Webb Ellis Trophy otherwise known as the Rugby World Cup so I took along from my collection of rugby memorabilia an original signature of Mr Ellis and had it photographed with the RWC and Glynneath's most famous son Max Boyce.

For more on the Webb Ellis signature please click on the link below.

http://www.world-rugby-museum.com/pages/history/origin/william-webb-ellis.htm