Plans Afoot 2023

As you know we've moved........to Wales, and all the plans we'd made previously no longer applies.  So, it's time to make new ones.  We're still trying to save money though so that means that we need to find stuff that is either free or as cheap as possible.  I've already started making a list.

We still have our National Trust membership, which is a gift, and there are quite a few places around us where we can go and gawp at luxury we will never be able to afford and that I'm glad we don't have.  It also means that there will be a few places where we can park for free when we go walking.  Of course, there is a whole lot of historical sites that are not owned by the National Trust (some of which we saw when we were on holiday here last year) and it'll be interesting to get to explore them too.  However, as they will most likely cost money we'll need to space out our visits to them.

We're wanting to get back into wild swimming again this year and, to that end, we brought the Wild Swimming Walks book for South Wales to give us an idea of places we can go.  We're going to start local to begin with and of course there's always the sea as well which isn't too far away from us.

I've also been looking at some pre-mapped walks in the area to help get us acquainted with the area.  I've picked walks that are relatively long so that it's more of a day event and included locations like the Black Mountains as well.  Once we get use to them we can start to map out our own walks to explore the area more.  There's also some hill walks that start right outside our front door and would mean no need to drive anywhere beforehand.  I'm also trying to find some old books that contain possible walking routes (and by old I mean pre-1960s) to see if it is possible to walk them still.

And then there's the coastal paths all around Wales that would allow us to get back to the sea again.  I'll need to research this a little more but they should be very easy to follow.  Of course, it would be practically sacrilege to not be in this area of the world and not visit Pembrokeshire.  Summer is always good but some part of me would also like to experience it when the winter storms are rolling in as well.

There is a lot to explore here and it'll take us a while, but we don't want to make the same mistake we did in Devon by not properly taking the opportunity.  The biggest issue for us is that our work shifts won't always match up so we won't have as much time to do all the walks and activities we want to do.  We will also be visiting family on some of the days we have off together as well.  I'll do some exploring on my own, possibly to places I know my husband won't be too interested in like the wool museum, but it wouldn't feel right visiting all the sites without him.  Especially as his work involves him getting to look at mountains all day long, but not getting to walk up them. 

Walks 2023: Fan Fawr, Pont ar Daf Circuit

I decided that, as it's been a while since I've done any mountain walks, I wanted to test out my legs and basic navigation skills so I decided to do a relatively long walk in the Brecon Beacons.  The route I took ended up including an AA walk (And on into Fforest Fawr), was around 13 miles, and it took me about 5.5 hours to do.

I started off at the Pont ar Daf National Trust car park and walked up to the Storey Arms before crossing the road and heading straight up hill for the top of Fan Fawr.  Most of this walk is pretty doable, but one of the last sections of Fan Fawr is a particularly steep bit which definitely gets your heart going and I'm glad I decided to tackle that first.  After a mini false summit the rest of the walk up to the top felt a lot gentler.  I then carried on west to the triangulation pillar, before turning back on myself down that steep side of Fan Fawr before heading north, skirting below a cliff edge, and joining into the path that walks along the highest point of the moorlands.

This path then connects to the Beacons Way at Craig Cerrig-gleisiad and I followed this path for a little bit before breaking off to follow the path that takes you into the Graig Cerrig Gleisiad National Nature Reserve (taking a slight detour to reach the triangulation pillar at Fan Frynych) and down towards Twyn Dylluan-ddu, passing a very handy cairn on the left.  It was then right at a cross-paths to follow a very well used footpath down into the valley, crossing the A470 and carrying on down the valley to the river Afon Tarell. 

A little crossing over the river at a waterfall (a very small waterfall) and I then walked along the Taff Trail back to the Storey Arms.  Having decided that I had a little bit more time to kill I didn't carry on along the path back to the Pont ar Daf car park, but instead went through the gate and up the footpath towards Corn Du.  There's a couple of different routes here but I decided to just follow the National Trust's path up, before cutting across on a path just below the summit as there were a lot of people there and heading back down to the Pont ar Daf car park on another well used path.

My legs definitely felt it by the time I was back at the car, probably not helped by the squats I'd done as part of my exercise routine the day before (what was I thinking), but I did really enjoy myself.  It was just great being back out in wilder lands and being surrounded by natural noises rather than just human noises.  Whilst I was there I kept forgetting to take photos, even though I had thought it would be good to blog about it, and I completely forgot that I had planned on possibly listening to some podcasts as I was walking.  The quiet, at least at the start, was just too enjoyable.  All good signs and it was also good feeling that type of terrain under my feet again.  I rarely find my feet get soar when I'm walking in these types of areas.  I'll be back as soon as I can.

We Moved

So I've been away from this blog for a while now, but I do have my reasons.....we moved.  And by that I don't mean just to a different flat but from Plymouth to the Brecon Beacons.  I had planned to do some posts about packing up our things and moving but I have to admit that I did get a little bit overwhelmed by it, even though we were just moving within Britain and I've never really gotten overwhelmed about moving before.  I think part of the reason was that we had really set roots in Plymouth with a whole load of plans of places we wanted to go to and things we wanted to do, something I hadn't really done before.  It was also our first home after getting married.

However, we were still excited by the prospect of exploring a new location and of my husband starting a job more in keeping with what he wants to do.  Trying to focus mostly on that we packed up our flat, shoved it all into the back of a van, and headed north.  Before it came to our move date we had been spending all of our free time researching what type of properties we could rent, what areas we would like to/ would be able to move into, and what types of jobs I'd be able to get.  It was looking like we would have to rent an unfurnished property, which would have led to quite a big additional expense and I was also researching where we could buy secondhand furniture, but in the end we were able to find the furnished house (yes you read that right, we've been able to rent a house up here) to move into.

Due to the fact that we'd been a little bit sad about leaving our previous home I wanted to spend the first week or so getting this new house into feeling like our home.  It's amazing how just putting up our books around the place made it feel like our space.  Now that our nick nacks and pictures are everywhere it definitely feeling more cosy.  I also spent that time sorting out our council tax, insurances, changes of addresses (why are there so many), and, of course, joining our local library.

And then there's all the new locations to find and explore, and I've already started putting together a list of possible places for us to go.  It'll be especially good to get back into the mountains again as we're now right beside them and we also want to get back into wild swimming as well.  From the basis research I've done so far, there seems to be quite a few opinions around us.  The one thing we will miss though is the sea and it does feel a little strange to not be able to see it straight from our window anymore.  However, it's not too far from us and there are lots of walks we can do there as well.  I think we'll probably end up spending a lot of time there just to make sure we get our seaside fix.  We should hopefully be able to get back to learning to surf again as well.  

Another thing that was high on our list was to find out where we could get refills for our dry groceries and cleaning products, which we've been successful with thanks to the husband, and that search has meant we've also found some towns and villages with good looking pubs which could work well at the end of a walk to explore.

Now that we're all settled in I should hopefully be able to get back to blogging regularly again, this time with a Welsh flavour.  I'm hoping to document all the exploring we get to do in this new area, though there is a possibility that when I finally get work our shifts might not match up again so I might have to do some of that exploring on my own.  One thing we did feel bad about when it came to leaving Devon was that we didn't explore the area as much as we had intended to (a common issue I know), so we plan on making a real effort to not do that again here.  There is a lot to see and, you never know, we might get to see some of it on a rain free day............not holding our breath though.

Day Trips into the Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park

At the moment I'm located in Matamata in New Zealand's North Island and the closest area of walks to me is the south section of the Kaimia Mamaku Forest Park.  It lies just east of Matamata and is about a 30 minutes drive from my location.  Due to this I decided to do some short walks into the area to get a feel for it and to keep my legs functioning on the walking front.  It would be good to do a full walk at some point, which usually takes a couple of days at least, but unfortunately there probably won't be time for that before I go.  These are the walks I've done so far.

Wairere Falls

This is probably one of the most used and easily accessible tracks in the area, with a well maintained path and lots of wooden board walks and steps.  

It is, however, still a very steep climb in places, though it does at least start relatively gentle and flat at the beginning.  

You can either stop roughly half way up the walk to get a good view of the falls or you can carry on up to the top to get a pretty amazing view of the surrounding area from above the falls.  I actually did this walk on a whim and wasn't wearing the most appropriate clothing for it at all, but I still found it pretty comfortable though a little muggy.  

The initial plan was just to go to the first stop, but I decided to carry on up and was glad that I did.  

This walk can also be the starting point for a much longer walk as it joins onto other paths that lead east deeper into the Kaimai and I plan to do that at a later date.  Definitely a good walk and worth going to.

Rapurapu Kauri Track

This track starts at a 'blink and you'll miss it' car park off State Highway 29 and is a go and return track.  I thought it was an enjoyable walk, not too physically difficult apart from the eight crossings over the Rapurapu Stream.  

It also goes through different environments, including pine forests and mature tawa/ podocarp forests, which adds a bit of visual variation to your walk.  Unfortunately I didn't make it to the end as some of the streams hadn't lowered as much as I thought they would after some rainfall and one just felt to high for me to cross safely whilst walking on my own.   

I could have wadded through the stream, but I had planned to do some more walking in the afternoon and didn't want to have to deal with soaked boots.  My boots actually do a pretty good job at staying waterproof through most things I put them through, I even find myself in situations where the socks above the boots are wet but my feet are nice and dry, but I don't think they would survive through full on wadding. 

I also didn't have a stick with my which I could use to steady myself in the water. I will try this one again, probably in the afternoon when it won't matter so much if my boots get very, very wet.   

North Henderson Tramline

This is part of a circuit you can do which includes part of the North South Track.  You start from the Old Kaimai Road off State Highway 29, which is an amusing road that's half good surfacing and half full gravel track - always good.  

I started this quite late in the afternoon so the plan was to only walk to the North South Track junction and back rather than doing the whole loop.  There are a few relatively easy stream crossings and a few steep inclines, but otherwise it was quite a nice easy walk.  

This is mostly forest with a dirt/ mud track, with some scrambling up trees roots and up banks, but it does go through some open farmland at the start.  Whilst this track felt different from the first two I had taken into the Kaimai, it was very familiar to the those I walked afterwards.

North South Track to Hurunui Hut

This track starts from a much more obvious car park on the Kaimai Summit of State Highway 29.  There's a small stream at the start that becomes really difficult to cross if there's been some rain, and which had actually stopped me doing this walk before, but was low enough for me to get over.  

It then heads straight north up the Kaimai, all in forest and with only a few streams, real scrambling point to get over (I did get pretty dirty doing this walk, always a sign of a good walk), and some quite steep sections which made it quite a satisfying walking experience.  

I walked up until the Hurunui Hut, where I had lunch, and then returned back to the car.  As I said, the walk felt very similar to the North Henderson Tramline walk I'd done before and you spend a lot of time under forest cover without any other view.

If you are wanting a good view of the surrounding area, this isn't the walk to take.  However, it does keep you out of the sun, just not tye heat unfortunately. 

Te Tuhi Track to Mangamuka Hut

I didn't have a lot of time to do this walk, so I decided to just walk along this walk until I was half way through my time available and then walk back.  

This started at a small parking spot at the end of Te Tuhi Road and walks across some private farmland until you get into the forest.  You cross a few streams, but this track is mostly a pretty steep climb up the side of the Kaimai and probably is one of the quickest ways of getting into upper area of the park.  

You can carry on along the path to get to the North South Track or to do a loop walk that takes you back to the lower section of the track.  However I decided to follow the path south towards Mangamuka Hut, which took me on a not very used path that disappeared from view on a regular basis and which needed some thought and clambering to get through.  

I actually quite enjoy this type of walking, which requires your brain to be in gear too, which is just as well as the scenery was basically identical to the scenery of the last two walks.  There is a viewing point which would probably be amazing, but the e day that I walked it the whole area was carpetted in fog. 

The only real issue was the fact that it was very hot and muggy that day, making the walk quite uncomfortable at times and I was glad I'd brought a spare top with me to change into when I was back at the car.

These have only been very short excursions into the park and obviously don't really give a good description of what walking through Kaimai Mamaky Forest Park could be like.  They do require you to be relatively fit with quite a bit of scrambling in places, especially if you're short like me, which make them quite a physically interesting way of spending your time.  The main issue for me is that the scenery on each walk has pretty much been identical.  This fact is great for the wildlife and ecology of the park (and exactly what you would want for a reserve like this - ignoring the many invasive species of course), but does mean that they are not the most fascinating of walks ever.  I think this is definitely an area where long distance walking trips are a much better option than day trips.  The muddy scramblings were still fun though.

Walking Jock's Road

If you follow me on Instagram you will know that last weekend me and my partner walked Jock's Road to Braemar and back, and I decided it might be worth writing a little blog about it.

Jock's Road is one of the Cairngorms historic routes and was an important drove route used by herders to get sheep and cattle not sold in Braemar market to the Glen Clova's Cullow market.  In fact, the markets were held two days apart to give the drovers enough time to get across.  It was has also been part of a right of way dispute between 1886 and 1887 against the landowner McPherson and is believed to be one of the routes the Highlanders used on their way to fight at the ill-fated battle of Culloden in1746.  It my also been one of the routes they took when escaping back to Glen Clova and Glen Esk.  While the origin of the name is connected to a John (Jock) Winter who was thought to be one of those who testified against McPherson against the closing of the pathway, but the name actually extends further back than thought and is really unknown.

 

We decided to do the route backwards on the first day, starting at Glen Doll as this was the closest point to us, walk to Braemar, spend the night there, and then walk back again.  In this directions you start at the Glendoll Forest Forestry Commission Scotland car park (which you can leave your car at for 48 hours) beside the Angus Rangers Base.  If you start at this end make sure you go into the base to fill in a route card so they can send out help if you don't return in the time you've stated.

 

The walk starts along the blue route through the Glendoll Forest and, I have to admit, this is a very gentle, nice way to start this hike with lots of opportunities to do some bird watching.  However, this doesn't last for long and soon you're walking up the step, but well maintained path up Craig Damff.  It is quite a hard slog, but the view definitely makes it worth it.

When to come to the top of this climb you'll come across the emergency shelter, Davy's Bourach (the location of which is worth keeping a note of as the weather can come in pretty quickly) and beside it a plaque in memory of five men who went walking this route on New Years Day in 1959 lost their lives. It's a definite reminder of how exposed you can me on the Cairngorms.  From this point the route levels out a bit and is a little easier going as you walk past Cairn Lunkard.  The path is relatively obvious as you follow one man made pile of stones to another, that become more obvious as you get used to their shape.  Here again it's worth stopping to take some of the scenery and do some bird watching.  This walk is actually quite a god walk to do if you want a remote chance of seeing golden eagles, though we definitely didn't have the right weather this time.

The climb increases a little when you go over Crow Craigie, but the main thing you have to bear in mind is this is where you are really exposed to the weather.  In our case it was cloudy with a little bit of rain and 30-40 winds, and you definitely felt that there. Thankfully it wasn't too cold, but I can see how this would be an amazing spot to watch birds of prey.  Unfortunately, after Crow Craigie is the land of disappearing paths and wet feet.  The boggy landscape does mean that it would be almost impossible to maintain a footpath up here and you are better off being able to jump from one relatively firm part of ground to the next.  





The GPS on my phone meant that we were able to stay on sort of the right path, but on going down hill a long the Allt an Aitinn stream it really was just a 'find the safest way down and then work out where the hell you are' sort of task.  The scenery was still stunning though, despite it being a dull day.

Once we had reached the bottom we headed for an obvious metal pole and then followed the sometimes obvious, sometimes not so obvious past on the east side of the Allt an Loch river.  Here too you want to look out for large random looking stones.  To begin with it's a little difficult to distinguish these stones and those left by the glacier receding, but, as before, these begin to become obvious and you can follow the route even when the path can't be distinguished.  The ground is pretty wet in places, but becomes very boggy as you get closer to the Loch so either wear wellies or accept you're going to have soaking feet.  There are a couple of places where the path slights in two and I would normally recommend you take the higher one, but when you're right beside the Loch I'd go against you instinct and follow the path through the reeds.  This turned out to be the driest.

The path around Loch Callater is relatively easy under foot, but our legs were definitely tired by this point.  However, it was still funny being eyed up by suspicious sheep.  There is a Bothy you can stay in at Lochcallater Lodge and in hindsight this might have been a better plan than carrying onto Braemar.  The scenery is beautiful here, with not too many midges, and waking up to that in he morning would be a great way to start your day.  It also cuts out a lot more walking!  That being said the path down from Lochcallater Lodge to Auchallater is a pretty easy one, well maintained, and clearly designed to take vehicles carrying people to the Grouse Butts.  Once at Auchallater it's a walk along the A93 to Braemar.

 

We were staying in one of the two persons rooms at the Braemar Youth Hostel and, thankfully, this was one of the first buildings you come across as you walk into Braemar.  After a shower and a large meal it was time for an early night and, I have to admit, I fell asleep pretty quickly.  The only issue I had was that it would have been better off if there was a bath to soak into to help ease the tired legs.

The next morning we grabbed some lunch from the Braemar Coop, which thankfully opens at 7.00am, and then caught a bus to Auchallater.  There isn't actually a bus stop there, but the bus driver was more than happy to drop us along the way.  This time we did the route the way you're meant to do it, and the way the drovers actually took the cattle.

If you were only able to do the route one way, the direction of Braemar to Glen Doll is definitely the direction I would recommend.  Not only is it a bit more historically accurate, but it's much easier going up the boggy, disappearing path route towards Tolmount and then down Craig Damff than the other way around.

 

This is a great walk, but you do intend on doing it you need to be quite fit, used to quite tough hill walking, and be very mindful of the weather.  We were pushing it a bit on the weather front, but made sure that we had a good number of thin layers, as well as water / mind proofs to keep us warm and dry (apart from our feet).

 

Things that I did learn on this trip were how much I love being outside, whatever the weather; I definitely need to eat more of the snacks that I brought; how bitterly cold the wind can be onto of those hills; that I need to find out where the Bothies are; and how much I love my OS maps app used with GPS - totally genius, a great safety feature (though I will always carry a map and compass just in case) and this is not a plug.  But, I definitely intend to do more walking trips, so expect to see more blogs on these.



And now I would just like to take a moment to say goodbye to my walking shoes.  They've lasted me a long time and have taken good care of my feet, but this walk showed me just how worn out they have become.  I do feel bad unceremoniously chucking them in the bin, but there isn't a lot else I can do.  Framing them might be a little weird.