A very early start and a three hour drive through the dark, rain and fog was not the best start to the day.
Starting with rain & fog
I knew not to expect the nicest of weather but by the time I had reached Blaen y Glyn I was already considerably, well knackered. So I switched up my plan a little bit and didn’t really go for a route.
It felt good knowing that I wouldn’t go to far and there was little need to focus on following a trail, or trying to attack the day at much speed. I took a lovely little trek following the water, as it tumbled over waterfalls and through rapids.
Even though I didn’t quite reach the Talybont Reservoir in time to beat the sun, it was still early morning. I had a carpark to myself and I took my time eating breakfast first.
A steep decline
I might not have gone far, yet a steep decline was one that I needed to take quite slowly. I’m not going to post a map of my route for this one. To be honest for most of the morning I couldn’t work out if the trail was worn from being walked on before if it was simply the water that had carved it.
It had been raining all morning and it looked pretty clear that this had an affect on the flow of the water. There were many times that I wondered whether a sudden downfall might have left me either stuck or turn the path beneath my feet into a river.
Boggy & rocky
There was also a few spots where I needed to cross the stream, and a lot of boggy and rocky terrain. It was the first time I had unstrapped my hiking pole from my pack. I mostly used it to test the stability of the water covered rocks. With the water was flowing pretty fast I couldn’t help but picture myself getting caught up by the current if I took a wrong step.
Since I hadn’t really checked where the trails were, I thought that I best just take a quick check to see the best route back up. Then I just followed my gut feeling.
This is not the path you’re looking for
It was pretty steep, pretty rocky, pretty wet and pretty slippy and definitely not a path meant for hiking. Yet it was probably one of the most enjoyable two hundred meters I have taken on.
It was all worth it though, the view over the valley from the top was amazing!
