This is the first 'task' I have undertaken since making the decision to carry on with the 50 list. It's part of an ongoing challenge, to walk at least 50k or miles of Derek Brockway's Weatherman Walks series of hikes around Wales. More about the Derek 'the Weather' later.
So, this walk was a 6 mile circular walk around Blaencwm in the Rhondda Valley. It was actually the toughest of Derek's walks that we've done to date. The hilliest one we've done - and you should know by now how much I hate inclines - and also the roughest terrain. But, we made it, even though I was convinced at one point we'd have to call for Mountain Rescue!
We started in Penpych woodland car park and proceeded to climb up, and up, and up.
We were heading up to a couple of waterfalls and this part of the walk, though strenuous was alright as at least there were proper paths, unlike later on. It's a forested area with lots of 'conifers'? To me they just look like really tall Christmas trees, but it was pretty.
Eventually, after a fair amount of climbing we reached the waterfalls, pretty cool actually. The first photos are from the lower down waterfall, the next ones are from the largest one which we could get really close to.
This was actually only point two on the walking route, we'd barely got going! Still, we climbed further up, again, and finally made it to the top of Penpych mountain, which overlooks the town of Treherbert.
When we were at the summit I'm afraid I made an embarrassment of myself. On the way to the starting point I'd taken part in a family conference call to discuss my Mum's ongoing care package, while on the phone my sister in law Mags, and my Mum dared me to sing the Sound of Music at the top. So to prove I did it here it is, I don't think I'll be getting a call from Andrew Lloyd Webb any time soon.
Anyways, onwards and upwards, though from now on we were actually first of all walking along a ridge and then descending in to a valley. The terrain was getting ever slightly treacherous now and it was easy to lose your footing and slip - which I did multiple times. Eventually at the very bottom of the valley we reached the Rhondda river which we had to cross.
We were then trying to work out how we were going to climb up out of it. There was no clear path at all and at was at this point that I thought 'Bugger! We're lost'. I have to admit I really did start to panic and call Derek the Weather all sorts of names for getting us into this mess. Eventually though, after getting stuck in a few real boggy parts we found the 'steps' cut in to the hill. I wouldn't exactly call them steps though.
You can see a little bit in the photo above the state of my boots after getting stuck in the mud. I've had these beloved walking boots for 20 years and it was only today that I discovered that they are not waterproof. It was an exceedingly muddy walk.
Anyway, we did manage to climb up out of the valley to the Rhigos Road - civilisation almost! From there on in it was a straight and relatively easy walk back down the other side and back to the car.
So, a fairly eventful walk. We worked hard, I had fun, I got scared, but, I did it. And after the last couple of horrific months it actually did me good to get out and about. Thanks Derek!
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