Adventure Day: Melincwrt Waterfalls

Today I had some time to spend with my sister. It has been a while since we had a good catch up. We wasn’t sure where should go that was a few hours worth but also not too long for doing the school run.

So, Melincwrt Falls was chosen.

These coordinates are rough areas.

Parking: 51.704134, -3.706674

Starting Point: 51.704131, -3.706143

Waterfall: 51.701303, -3.700738

Fairy Forest: 51.700707, -3.694002

About the Location

have been here several times now and enjoyed each time. I wrote about the last time I went there here:

Adventure Day: Melincwrt Waterfall

As before, there is plenty of parking at the bottom. You are usually luck to see a car or two there. The start of the track is just on the other side of the road.

Heading up to the waterfall without distraction should take about 15-25 minutes with a slight gradient. I think it took us over half hour taking photos and enjoying the sights along the way.

There is plenty of spots that you can see the river down the left side of the track.

A little way down from the waterfall there is steps on the right, these head over the top of the waterfall and gives access to the fairy forest beyond.

The best time to see the waterfall is just after a few days of rain, even better if you time it half hour after the rains… or I guess as it is raining.

The fairy forest is above the waterfall and is near the church that is there. Although I would ask all to be considerate that this part is not a beaten path and is old and natural woods.

What happened?

After looking at a small clearing near the. car park that was not there before, we headed on to the trail.

The sun was a bit weird today, lazy and bright.

Winter still has it’s grips on the forest but there was plenty of signs of spring coming and not just from the Daffodils flowering. Other plants were poking through the dead leaves, and the trees had buds on ready.

At the waterfall I found a random pair of sunglasses left there. How did someone forget them?

After seeing the waterfall we headed back down the trail to the steps that head up and over the top. On the way up I found a random tag with a face on it and one blackbird egg in the branches of a fallen tree. Tried looking for more or even a nest.

Somehow someone left these on one of the large boulders, nice glasses though.

Following the stream further up into what I say is a Fairy forest, a mostly untouched part of the trail and woods, that just looks old and wild. Although it didn’t strike the majestic beauty that I have seen it in the spring and autumn time it was still a wondrous place to go. We spent probably close to an hour exploring the area including a rest for 10 minutes.

They walk back down went quickly, it always seems to somehow.

Afterwords

In all it has been an enjoyable day and a good catch up with my sister. I can’t wait for my next adventure day!

Thank you for reading this post, I hope you enjoyed it.
If you haven’t already, Subscribe and Follow so you don’t miss out on my next post.
While you are here have a look around at my other content and remember you can also find me on Twitter @dpwilliamsweb.

Adventure Day: Craig Yr Aber

I decided to go back to Craig yr Aber again today, starting at the bottom carpark this time and taking a very different route. The weather was good and a I found a different path to follow.

Continue reading →

Adventure Day: Newton Beach

Today we had a few hours down Newton Beach in Porthcawl, on what turned out to be a very windy day!

Continue reading →

Adventure Day: Back to Craig Yr Aber

It has been a hot minute since I went out last. Today after weeks of bad weather and timings I finally managed to get out in the wilds again. I had promised myself that I would be out more this year, this is the first time but so much has been happening. Today was a much need break.

Today I decided to go to an old stomping ground, Craig yr Aber. No matter the time of year I find there is always beauty up there to be found. The deeper forest are the best, the most freeing, a place for imagination to bloom. It was hear that I put use to the foraging pouch and hunted for things for my son to look at and enjoy.

The adventure today paid off. After trying to get to a spring that seemed naturally defended, I settled on stumbling across a beautiful spot. I sat and rested here for a while, the lazy Sun hanging to the left warming me up, a stream flowing on my right and a ruin of a long forgotten building in front. I sat on a tuft of ground covered in thick green moss and wrote in my journal while listening to the birds sing. It was a perfect moment.

Then I heard a sudden scatter of feet heading towards me! A flash of black and white zoomed past, jumped over the stream, under a fence and headed deep into the pine forest! I was so shocked to see a badger that, as far as I could tell, didn’t notice me being there.

The encounter was an interesting highlight to the adventure. The rest of the morning I spent slowly strolling through the woods heading back up to my car.

In all it was a nice walk, although I feel tired now I feel recharged again and I can’t wait to get back out there again. Harley also enjoyed looking at the bits that I managed to pick up, he loves the oak twig for some reason.

Adventure Day: Melincwrt Waterfall

This morning I had planned to spend the day writing the next post in the All I Own series. I had it all planned out and ready to go… then I looked out the window and seen that we had a nice bit of weather!

So I quickly packed my bag and headed out the door to Neath. For a couple of weeks I have planned to go to Melincwrt Falls, today was the best chance for me to go.

I have been here a few times before, it is a nice little walk up a trail to this lovely waterfall. A good place to start doing trails again after so long.

Continue reading →

Adventure Day: Bwlch-y-Clawdd

It has been a while that I have been out on an adventure!
Today I have decided (last minute) to go to The Bwlch (known locally).

Quick interruption… So I looked up the translation for “Bwlch”, it has multiple meanings. One such meaning, that makes sense here is “Mountain Pass”. Although it is technically a hill, here in Wales we like to call them mountains.
However, where the Cymraeg (Welsh) gets confusing. Bwlch-y-Clawdd means “gap in the hedge”. Now this is off a Google search, I would love to know if this is correct, but it doesn’t make all that much sense.

Bwlch-y-Clawdd Road
Cwmparc
Treorchy
Wales

Latitude: 51.640389 Longitude: -3.534217

Thankfully being mid-week it was very quiet. In fact only one person passed me on his bike.

I had started off using my camera, a Canon 700D. However in all honesty My iPhone takes better quality images than it does. The only real ‘sacrifice’ is printable image size. Something that I don’t really do anyway.

I will explain my decision in a later post.

There are a few different tracks that you can walk here. I chose to go up the one that goes along the South-East that over looks the valley down to Bridgend.

It was a pretty perfect day for it, it was neither too hot or cold with a nice little breeze. It was slightly overcast with a nice lazy sun lighting the sky. Pretty good for photography.

I had walked about half way up this one track, i could have gone further, however being the first time in a while I didn’t want to push too far and regret it later.

I sat down on a rock for a little while for a drink and rest. It was really peaceful, considering that not too far away there was the main road and not much further than that a village. There was almost no sound spare for a bird chirping (a skylark I think) and the silent whoosh of the windmills.

I know this is a bit of a short post, there really was nothing exciting to talk about on this adventure.

However it really was what I needed.

I encourage anyone who has been struggling with the pandemic to get outside, somewhere peaceful and spend some time recharging.

I hope you enjoy this post, I am planning to bring more posts to this blog about a range of topics and interests.
So please comment below, like, and follow this blog!
Also check out my Twitter page for the latest.