Day Twenty Three

Sunday 20 February - Aberdare to Resolven

Ty-Andrew is a b&b in Aberdare which usually caters for people working in the area, rather than for tourists. Lucky workpeople! A warm welcome, immaculate room, good breakfast – highly recommended.

The centre of Aberdare, a ring of shopping streets which has inevitably become a one-way system, was considerably quieter on Sunday morning than it had been on Saturday night. And from the very centre a path follows an old railway alongside the Dare River to the Dare Valley Country Park, a lovely start to a day’s walk.

Near the visitor centre I spotted a waymark for the Coed Morgannweg Way, which I hoped would take me more than half way to Resolven. As this is a much-walked park, tracks abounded, and I was soon struggling to find the one I wanted. A GPS fix confirmed that I was a bit higher up the hill than I needed to be – always annoying. I crossed a couple of open fields and picked up the right route.

This area is mostly forestry plantation, clear areas alternating with densely-wooded stretches. Low cloud and fog meant that visibility was not more than 100 yards, sometimes less. Ironically, the wooded areas provided the best visibility, the trees holding off the fog which was blowing in the wind. For a few miles I should, intermittently, have had splendid views to my right, across the Dare Valley. Viewpoints were signposted, and barriers prevented me from falling down the scarp slope while I was dreamily admiring these views. There were, of course, no views, just fog.

The Way joined a cycle track, both being accommodated on a high-quality forestry road. I passed several cyclists, each of whom exchanged a cheery greeting. Later, the Way left this and plunged into the trees on a downhill course to the South. I could have stuck to the wider track, but it was being raked by a chilly wind, and I wanted shelter for lunch, so I followed the CM Way.

A good path became an indifferent path became a muddy, rutted path. Cyclists who were spurning the “official” track for this alternative were advised a couple of times to dismount because of obstructions ahead. A sharp step down where the path had collapsed, rocks dumped to arrest the erosion, and axle-deep puddles – these, I think, were the sort of obstruction the sign-erectors had in mind.

Having climbed to about 2,000 feet, the path started a long downhill stretch into the Neath Valley. There were large areas where trees had been felled. I wanted to cut a corner, away from the CM Way. To save an unnecessary loop into Resolven, but the tree-clearance had obliterated the alternative path, so I stuck to the CM Way, until it joined St Illtyd’s Way.

St Illtyd’s Way is a long-distance route starting at Margam, near Port Talbot, looping inland round Swansea, finishing on the sands at Pembrey, near Llanelli. There is astonishingly little information about it on the Web, but it is marked on the OS map, and for a while it was going my way. St Illtyd, by the way, is said to have “flourished”(good word) at the end of the 5th and beginning of the 6th century, and was “held in high veneration in Wales”. He established the famous monastery and learning centre at Llantwit Major, sometimes referred to as the “oldest university in the world”.

I then passed a wind farm with, I think, about 16 windmills, all turning as fast as they ever do in the freshening Southeast wind. The noise, not objectionable, was like a posse of heavy aircraft in the distance, with an overlay of dentist’s drill.

An obvious short-cut presented itself, a farm track contouring round a hill above the Neath Valley, which proved to be the treat of the day. The wind had now blown away the fog, and here was even some occasional sunshine to illuminate the grassy slopes. I left the track and crossed fields to fall in alongside a stream, emerging on to a quiet road, just opposite the moderately-spectacular Melin Court Waterfall. A path across fields and through a small wood took me to Resolven, where my b&b perched above the town.