Walking: Pont ar Daf to Dyffryn Cellwen

It had been quite a long week and I really felt like I needed to stretch my legs and give my mind a chance to just wander aimlessly, preferably in a location where there weren't other people.  So I decided to go on a long walk in the mountains.  For ease, I wanted to start somewhere where Ed could drop me off on his way to work, but I also wanted some parts of it to be in an area I hadn't been to before with some off-path sections so I planned on heading up Fan Fawr and then just going west.

I knew the weather wasn't going to be good and a little bit chilly, but it was meant to clear up a little as the day went by (though that didn't really happen).  I made sure I wore a number of layers and had more in my bag, along with a thermos of hot tea to make sure I was able to stay at the right temperature throughout the day and in case anything bad happened so I could protect myself from the elements.  I also took both my walking poles to give myself a bit more stability when crossing any rivers and when going through the boggier areas.  As an additional safety assurance, and because my route wasn't 100% fixed, I set my WhatsApp so that my husband could see where I was at any time.

So, from Pont ar Daf I headed to Storey Arms and up onto Fan Fawr, straight into the clouds.  It wasn't actually as cold as I was expecting, but it was as wet as predicted and I knew that my feet weren't going to stay dry for very long (I had also packed my trainers, some dry socks, and a miniature towel for when I finished - a luxury for sure, but definitely a good one).  However, I find as long as I can keep my body warm my feet do just fine in these conditions.

From the top of Fan Fawr I headed towards the trig point and then north with the plan of cutting across west a little bit later to look at some old, unused sheepfolds on Nant (brook) y Gaseg.  Unfortunately, at that point I couldn't see far enough in the front to be able to navigate properly so I decided to follow a path I already knew which would lead me to Nant Mawr, a tributary I could follow down to Nant y Gaseg.  From there it would be easy enough to find the sheepfolds.  As I was following this I finally came out of the clouds and could see them ahead of me and this allowed me to then take a more direct route.  

After a little nosey around it was time to cross over the brook.  It took a little while to find a safe spot as the water had risen quite a bit in the rain and the main issue was not trying to not get my feet wet (this had already happened) but more that you could see the rocks were a little bit too slippery to use safely.  However, I did finally find somewhere and I was very glad I had my walking poles with me.  Then it was straight up the very steep east side of Fan Llia back into the clouds.  If I'm honest, I actually quite enjoy walking in cloud cover and mist.  You may not get the views, but there's something very magical about it and I love how easy it is to mis-interrupt things you see in the distance and the changed noises that reach you.  

The plan was to then find a route down the west side of Fan Llia, cross the road, and look for a route around the side of Fan Nedd that would take me to the actual path leading to the top.  However, visibility had gotten even worse by this point and I knew this wasn't going to be a safe option at all.  So I changed my plans and decided to just follow the Beacons Way off Fan Llia and onto the Roman road I was planning on following later, leaving Fan Nedd for another day.  I have walked this path before so I took the slightly lower route this time, not that I could really see anything to make this really feel any different.  It was, of course, raining pretty heavily once I'd reached the bottom and it was time to have my lunch.  Nothing that a good, hot cup of tea couldn't fix though.

Then it was onto the Roman road for 2.5 hours.  I'd already walked just under half of this before when I had walked this section of the Beacons Way, and I have to grudgingly admit the other half wasn't any more fascinating than the first.  Up until this point, I hadn't bothered listening to anything on my headphones as I was enjoying the more natural noises of brooks, rain, and wind.  This time of year also meant that there weren't even livestock noises out on the hills, but now I needed a little bit of extra distraction so I put on some podcasts I'd been saving.  It was also quite a straightforward walk from here on so I could afford to concentrate less on where I was going.

As expected, it did get a little bit more complicated when I was walking through farmland and I ended up not being able to finish the very last part how or where I wanted.  Instead, I ended up walking along a B road which allowed me to look into the fields where the Roman fort and camp were meant to be.  It turns out there wasn't actually too much to see so I didn't feel like I'd missed out too much.  Then it was onto Dyffryn Cellwen to meet up with a friend who kindly drove me to get a pint or three.  Though things didn't exactly go to plan this walk was still exactly what I needed and, though physically tired, I felt much better afterward.  I also ended up with a lot more energy again, managing to get quite a lot done in the days following that walk.  It's definitely something I need to remember to fit into my days a lot more often.

Walking: Cambrian Way Stage 7 - Storey Arms to Glyntawe

I was looking for some long walks that I could do to really stretch my legs and build up my mountain walking skills again.  One of the criteria I had was that it would need to start at a location my husband could drop me off at when going to his work.  Thankfully this wasn't a critical I needed to follow for the end poin as I'm very lucky in that he was happy to do a detour on his way home to collect me.  The two that fitted best were stage 7 of the Cambrian Way and stage 5 of the Beacons Way.  The Cambrian Way looked like it would require me to do a lot more navigational work so I decided to go for that first.

The directions for this walk can be found pretty easily online and in books so I won't go into that here, and I didn't quite follow it exactly as I started at the Pont ar Daf car park instead of Storey Arms and carried on walking a little longer once I'd reached Glyntawe so end up at Penycae further south.  So all in all I walked about 25km /15.5miles that day.

It did say in the directions for this walk that there were times where the route would either be faint or non-existent and there were a few times where I found myself just staring at my compass trying to work out what feature in the landscape I could use to navigate to.  For me though, this is the type of walking I really enjoy as it feels a little more like an adventure and you're a lot less likely to come across another person.  You also have to use your brain more and it was a good way to test my rusty navigational skills.  That being said, I was glad that it was a bright after a few days of dry weather as navigating some of these areas on a misty day when your feet are disappearing into wet, boggy vegetation wouldn't have been anywhere near as enjoyable.

There was a little bit of history to find on this walk, with a Roman Road to cross and a Bronze Age standing stone, Maen Elia, to look at.  Maen Elia was particularly striking against the surrouding landscape and a good reminder of just how long people have actually been using this mountainous area that we see as being wild.  There wasn't as much nature as I had hoped to come across which isn't too surprising as this is still quite a managed landscape, but I still got to listen to skylarks as I wandered a long and see a few red kites here and there.  One even flew right over the top of me.  Mostly I just enjoyed the quiet and the lack of people interaction I had despite me doing this walk on a Sunday.

I didn't find the end section of this walk quite as enjoyable as the start as you're just walking along an old tram line with not much change in the landscape to see.  Though it was still interesting to see just how far into the Beacons mining actually got and how the evidence of it isn't as obvious as you would think it would be seeing as it didn't end all that long ago  The village of Penwyllt was apparently once a thriving area due to mining, but you wouldn't think it when you walk past it now.  From here you walk through some actual fields, directly through the middle of someone's farm (which definitely felt a little weird), and a long some road before reaching the end point on the A4067.  It was here that I turned south and followed the footpath that runs parallel with the road to finish my walk with a pint in Penycae.  However, there is a much closer pub to the finish if you want to follow suit.

All in all I would say that this was a pretty good walk, though not necessarily one I would recommend if you don't have any navigational skills just yet.  It's obviously not a particularly popular walk and that means does you get to spend some time on your own.  There's are some interesting features in the landscape to look at and break up the walk a little.  The fact that I had beautiful weather on the day definitely helped, and that I didn't have a large backpack on my back.  This walk gave me a really good idea about the area and I enjoyed myself, though my feet maybe not so much.  Next - the Beacons Way, at least part of it.

Why I Work Outside

It would be true to say that there are many pluses to working indoors.  It's usually dry and warm, and there's usually an endless supply of tea.  Unfortunately that isn't really enough for me.  I can deal with the wind and rain (and the lack of tea) much more than I can deal with the lack of natural light, only hearing human noises, and just sitting still all day long.  Working outside works best for me and here's why:

Constant Exercise

It's true to say that this is generally good for everyone, but for me and the way my body works, with PCOS, it's best when I'm constantly moving.  This constant movement allows me to be healthy and to keep the excess weight off.  Most of the time the work I do outside is very physically and basically like carrying out a gym section all day long.  I genuinely enjoy it and it does seem to be what is healthiest for me.  It's certainly what has allowed me to keep to a healthier weight these last few years.

Helping with the Hyper

I can get very hyper, and I mean hyper.  If I don't get most of my energy out during the day then my energy levels peak at around 9 or 10 pm (I'm naturally a night owl) and then my poor husband has to deal with what is essentially a manic cat.  Working in an office really didn't help with this, and construction work only slightly, but being active in nature all day helps me release quite a bit of this energy.  This means that my husband only has to deal with a slightly manic cat when he's starting to get sleepy.

Helping with Sleep

Speaking of sleep.  My natural state seems to be to not sleep very well, my brain just has trouble shutting down.  This got worse whilst I was working in offices.  Not only was I not exhausting my body, but not matter how hard I worked it actually seems to switch my brain on even more.  When I work outside not only do I physically exhaust my body, but it also seems to exhaust my brain too so it takes a lot less time to switch off.  I also find that being in natural light all day long helps keep my natural body clock in check so that I don't become too much of a night owl, and that helps with me fall asleep earlier than I might do naturally.

Mental Health

This is probably the biggest, and for me the most important, reasons for working out doors.  Being outside all day long has had a definite positive impact on my mental health.  This isn't going to be the case for everyone, especially when it's wet and grey outside, but to me it makes all the difference.  I feel better just by being surrounded by greenery, animal sounds, and a lack of people.  Having this as my work week has meant that I have felt generally much better all round.  Do I never get depressed now, unfortunately that's not the case, but it does happen less and I am able to deal with it a lot better, and that's a win as far as I'm concerned.

It Just Feels Natural

When it comes to work I'm happiest when my brain and body are working together.  Working in the office meant that I only got to use my brain, but outdoor work means I get to use both now and that just feels natural to me.  The final thing is that I just love being outdoors.  Even if none of the other things were true I would still be happier outdoors in the rain than indoors in the dry.  It just feels like that's where I'm naturally meant to be.

Now that I've had the opportunity to work outdoors I don't think I could ever go back to working completely indoors again.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep on mostly working outdoors now until the end of my working career.  What that career journey will look like in the future I don't know, but I will keep it mostly outdoors as much as I can and then I'll be able to carry on getting all the benefits I get right now.

Walking: Princetown - Abbot's Way circular walk

Last weekend was my birthday and I decided that, as I was going to be spending it in my own, I would go for a long walk on Dartmoor.  Partly because I wanted to go somewhere beautiful and outside to celebrate and partly because I wanted to test myself.  I've noticed recently that I am feeling less confident in myself and what has been particularly weird for me is that I've really noticed it when I've been outdoors.  As being in the middle of nowhere is normally where I'm happiest it's important for me to fix this and one of the ways of doing this is to get myself out of my comfort zone.

The original plan was to do the longest walk in the Wild Swimming Walks Dartmoor and South Devon book, but when we were researching the parking situation Ed found out that they had had to close the car park due to overuse and damage to the surrounding vegetation.  It also turned out, when I looked at the route more closely, that we had done most of the walk already so I'd just be going over the same ground.  So a new route was needed and I decided I would plot my own.  I have the OS Maps app on my phone so it was pretty easy to plot a route that would be about a 5 hour walk and, because it's me, I wanted to pick a route that would need some orienteering to ensure I stayed on route.  I am a little rusty on that front and wanted to practice, but this rustiness definitely showed itself later in the walk.

I parked at main car park in the centre of Princetown and headed up the bridleway (called Jobber's Road on some maps) towards the South Hessary Tor and onto Nun's Cross farm.  It was at this point where I got of the main track and followed the route south east on a dog legged path that becomes Abbot's Way.  Part of this path didn't always seem particularly obvious, but it was easy enough to get a bearing and following in the right direction until it became more obvious again just before Plym Ford.  As it had been dry and pretty hot for most of that week the ground was pretty dry which did make it a lot easier to walk on than it might otherwise have been.  I always love looking at some of the odd names given to some of the areas on the map and at one point the path went between Great Gnats' Head and Little Gnats'Head.  Though thankfully there were no actual gnats there.

Up to this point I was pretty happy.  The weather was good, my legs felt strong, I had managed to navigate myself pretty well, I could hear sky larks, and apart from a few people in the distance I hadn't really come across another human being.  But it then went just a little bit off.  I had gotten to the head of Erme River, crossed over the ford and was looking for the path that basically goes directly north when I realised I had gone a little bit too far east.  My instinct was to retrace my steps to find the right location but for some reason I decided to override this and take a bearing that would have, theoretically, gotten me back on the path further up.  Needless to say it didn't, probably because at that point there weren't any distinctive features I could use to aim at and this meant that I drifted more east than before.  

I carried on much longer than I should have done, even though I was also checking my location on the OS Maps app.  However, once it became clear that I was really far off the mark and that I was getting into some pretty dangerous terrain I decided to stop being an idiot and cut directly west which I knew would mean I would find some features I could use to properly navigate from.  I was lucky that it had been so dry otherwise it could have turned out far worse than it had.  Although, if it had been much wetter I probably would have turned back sooner.

Thankfully it wasn't too long before I saw Fox Tor which gave me something to head towards.  However,  whilst seeing that was a mood lifter it was still a lot of work to get there and my legs where getting a real work out at this point.  It was a real joy to actually get to Fox Tor, sit on one of the stones, put on some layers, relax, and eat some lunch.  Once there I got my bearings properly and worked out what I wanted to do next.  The original plan was to to follow the path down into Foxtor Mires to Whiteworks and then walk west back onto the bridleway that would take me back to Princetown.  However, that route would mean walking through more mire and looking at it from above the path wasn't particularly obvious.  I decided I'd had enough of that for the day and that instead I would follow the old stone wall just below the Tor west which would take me to a path that would lead back to Nun's Cross farm and onto the bridleway much sooner.  This was a much safer route.

Despite getting lost on the second half of the walk I did still enjoy myself, mostly because I had been outside on my own in good weather doing something I really enjoy.  It was a very good reminder though to be much more careful when I'm outside.  Had the conditions been wetter and the mist come down I could have been in a much more dangerous situation.  I've learnt my lesson and will bear this in mind the next time I'm out navigating in wilder places.  

As for my confidence, well weirdly it hasn't dented it.  My initial instinct was actually right and, ironically, I should have had the confidence to just follow it.  I would have been in a much better situation if I had.  It's also weird how calm I stayed despite being in a situation where it would have been perfectly normal to panic.  I was aware that panicking was a possibility, but my brain remained completely calm which, in the end, allowed me to logically get myself out of the situation, and it was a good reminder to myself that that's how I react to these situations.  In fact, I now want to get out much more to do these walks and to get a lot more practice in orienteering.  Though next time I might take my OS map instead of my Harvey map despite it being bulkier and fiddly to use as it has a lot more detail on it to navigate from - at least until I get back into the swing of things.  Oh, and I have made the intended route public on the OS Maps app if anyone else wants to give it a go.

Walking in 2022

Now that things have finally quietened down a bit it's time to get back to something we love doing, walking.  My husband also now has a full time job again, at least for now, so we have a little bit of extra money coming in to do more with - not that walking is a particularly expensive hobby.  The only issue is that my work is Monday to Friday and his is shift work, so we don't have a large number of days where we are actually off together.  To work around this we're planning on organising the walks we're wanting to do as much as possible so that when a day comes that we do have off together we can just get up and do them.

Devon's Coast to Coast /Two Moors Way

This one didn't exactly go to plan the last time we attempted it, but we do really want to give this walk another go possibly in summer.  However, we'll probably give ourselves a little bit longer to do it this time round so that we putting less strain on our bodies and are less likely to injure ourselves.  We have a bit more time this time to prepare for it as well, so that'll probably mean that we actually need to take less stuff with us.  I'm really looking forward to this as it's been a while since I've done a long walk and these legs could do with a good stretch.  At least we have all the equipment we need, all tested as well, so we don't need to buy anything extra for it.

Walks with Wild Swimming

We brought a book a while ago which had some walks in Devon with wild swimming attached to them, but are yet to do any of them.  As wild swimming is something we want to get into more that is something we really need to remedy.  There are a few that are pretty close to us, including one at Ivybridge and one at Noss Mayo, and the walks are mostly pretty short so it shouldn't be too difficult to get these done.  We also want to get more wild swimming in in general, but that we can do much closer to home and even do it on mornings when my husband starts work at lunch time.

Dartmoor

As we're so close to this moor it seems really silly that we haven't spent more time wondering around it.  This is one where I need want to do a little bit more research as the map we have of it isn't the best at showing where the actual footpaths are around Dartmoor.  I think there are a couple of wild swimming walks that are based in Dartmoor so that'll be a good start, but it's probably time to have a nosey through a good old OS map.

South West Coast Path

One of our main plans this year is to have more of an explore of the coast we're so close to in Devon.  As we have our book on the South West Coast Path this seems like the perfect way of actually do this.  We're not able to do all of this walk in one go, but will instead do the stages separately.  As each stage is obviously designed to be linear, we need to work out ways of returning to our starting point as we don't want to walk the path back again if we can help it.  This will probably mean public transport, unless we can find some circular routes in some places.  This'll also give us an excuse to venture into Cornwall, Somerset, and Dorset a little more.

I have to admit, usually when it comes to walking like this I don't really tend to (or like to) do too much planning.  I'm more of a decide on the day and go type of person.  However, we are really looking forward to getting back into walking again and this seems like the best way of doing it.  So soon, hopefully, we'll be out there breathing fresh air, stretching our legs, and getting the most out of where we live.