After a period of quite wintry weather for some, and a week or more of, would Stephen's inaugural walk take place or be spoiled by some white stuff, the day dawned bright and sunny if a little cold and thirteen--lucky for us--collected at the RSPB car park near Clydach.
Henry had brought a friend Rafe, and there were new members Meic, Tony and new girl Ellie to be warmly welcomed.
Ellie made it clear from the start that WE were on trial and that if we weren't on our best behaviour and didn't come up to "scratch," she would be off and not returning!!!
The six hour trial, as it turned out to be, went so well that before the end Ellie had agreed to lead us on a walk she knew, her stomping and sniffing ground, insisting it would be at fast pace with no stops for chats--though maybe a woof or two.
Did I mention that Ellie is Fay and Julie's lovely spaniel??!!
Well, lovely at the beginning that is, though extremely muddy by the end of this one!!!
Anyway back to the walk.
Stephen had done really well to re-arrange his intended walk due to a very muddy and impassable area.
Henry and Rafe turned around after a mile or two to pursue other delights of the Clydach area, and we continued to the beautiful Pont Llechard bridge.
Coming out of the RSPB reserve Stephen then took us quite steeply up onto Carn Llechart --a place I'd never been to before--complete with standing stones and a very beautiful stone circle.
The views were incredible with snow on the nearby peaks.One that looked too close at first, turned out to be Pen Y Fan with a very snowy top.
We stopped for lunch on the top of Carn Llechart in and around the stone circle, shaped almost like a bowl.The stones making excellent back rests and wind breaks.
Being a bit too bleak and open to stop for very long we were soon retracing our steps back to the road and on to Gellionen Chapel.
It is a very lovely if lonely looking building, given the remote area, but it was pleasing to see it in good order, with what looked like a recent coat of brilliant white paint.
We made our way over a common and down a lovely wet and stony green lane to Trebanos and picked up the canal, which would take us back to Clydach.
At one stage we had the canal on one side and the River Tawe on the other.
Stephen had done his research and on route he gave us some of the history of the area and the sites we came across.
At Clydach we joined the path at Forge Fach and walked beside a lovely weir with very fast moving water and eventually made our way back to the start.
The New Inn beckoned and most retired there for a well earned drink and/or cuppa.
What a lovely walk it had been with us being so lucky with the weather, there being just two very brief hail showers, falling like tiny particles of polystyrene.
Many thanks go to Stephen for his expertly led and researched walk.
Hopefully this will be the first of many, that he will co-ordinate for us.