Walk Around Wales - Dai's Blog

It was a glorious morning, I even welcomed the frost on the windscreen. Unfortunately I spent most of the morning in my dentist's chair having a new filling and by the time I got home and finished my work it was raining again. So I held on for a break in the rain or I was going out at nine o clock whatever the weather. At 8.15 it stopped raining and by the time I got in the car and drove to Pontneddfechan it was raining again. originally I was going to walk some waterfalls but went to plan B with a walk down one of the silica mines.

(DO NOT COPY ME, THIS IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS - THERE IS NO GENERAL PUBLIC ACCESS TO THIS SITE)

I was testing out my new head torch for lighting up photographs. The large photo below was a 30 second exposure and I tried just filling in the area with the head torch, I think it worked quite well.

These two photos show the pillar mining system, where pillars are left every so often to hold up the roof, falls are inevitable with this system and it looks like in some cases pillars (picture right) the pillars needed to be reinforced. The mine is now owned by Natural Amenties Ltd

http://www.naturalamenities.co.uk/

This is their blurb that I've cut and pasted from their website

"Natural Amenities Ltd is part of a group of charitable companies foremost of which is Cambrian Mines Trust who owns half of NAL. We are all working together with other organisations to preserve our mining heritage and maintain various sites over which we have varying degrees of control as public amenities.

None of the group is 'private profit' type organisation, all we are about is preservation of historic remains and access of the underground for those equipped to safely do so."

Part owners of the Natural Amenities company are the Cambrian Mines Trust and a very good history of the silica mines can be found on the website.

http://www.cambrianmines.co.uk/NAL/history.html

Another website to hold information on this mine is Aditnow which is a mine exploration & mining history website.

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/Mines/Upper-Dinas-Silica-Mine_4294/

It all makes interesting reading. The silica mined was transported to Pontwalby where it was used in 'fire bricks'. Bricks that were used to line furnaces. These bricks were transported worldwide.

Both yesterday and today were gorgeous sunny days, a little cool. Yesterday I managed a 4 hour mountain bike ride in the Afan Forest and today I struggled to get my work done but did manage to wrap up at around 4.45 which meant I could get to the beach for sunset with 10 minutes to spare. There I met Andy from Bonymaen who is good mates with my mate Kev Corcoran. Andy was well set up with his tripod when I arrived...........

The sunset was a gorgeous orange from start to finish, not a purple, pink or red in sight with a lovely reflection on the sand from an outgoing tide. I've asked Andy to email me his best shots, fingers crossed.

Happy days are here again, another sunny day, until mid-afternoon anyway and that makes David a very happy boy. I wrapped up work by 10.30 so it was down to the Glynneath Training Centre to meet up with the local walking group Cerdded y Cwm. I think that translates loosely as Walkers of the Valley.

So we hopped in the cars and parked up in the Henrhyd waterfall car park but unfortunately the falls were deemed to muddy so we headed off down to the 'Swansea Lez Off' corner where that great scene in Pride was shot and down the road to Cefngwaunhynog Farm before cutting back on the Sarn Helen Roman Road. To make the most of the walk I walked back home via Pont Melin Fach and the Nedd Fechan waterfalls with lunch at the Horseshoe Falls. Lovely jublee

Our glorious leader Brian Morgan points the way.

Making the most of the sun I'd already sorted a packed luch so I headed back home walking via the road through the forestry to Pont Melin Fach and down through the Nedd Fechan watrefalls. I had my camera ready for most of the journey looking to add to my photo collection of birds but it must have been lunchtime for them because I only saw about 5 birds in about 5 miles, there were two red Kites but they were to far away and others that flew away from me and this Dipper.

CLICK HERE - FOR INFO ON THE RSPB WEBSITE

My lunch was the horseshoe falls with a nice view of Sgwd Ddwili Isaf (Lower Ddwili waterfall). Happy days are here to stay.


Sarn Helen	Road to Cefngwaunhynog Farm	Country Roads take me home to the place I belong	Dipper meet rock, rock meet river	Sgwd Ddwili Isaf

Spent a couple of hours walking with Cerdded y Cwm Walking Group in the Afan Forest. The forest is best known for it's mountain bike tracks, I've included maps for two of these The Wall and Whytes level below. I occasionally ride these to keep up my mountain bike skills. It makes life interesting.

The walk was approx 4.5 miles and led by Brian Wilkinson, far right in the green coat on the first photo.

Click here for more info on the Cerdded y Cwm Walking Group