Day Five - Dylife to Dinas Mawddwy. 22.8 miles.

Monday, 19th August.
Total ascent 1139m (3737ft).

I think I'm beginning to understand Tony Drake's thinking. He was obviously a really nice man who wanted to bring out his dark side, just a little bit, say 10% of the time. So he devised this walk. "Did you enjoy striding across the Pumlumon? Then stroll down this easy slope and cross the footbridge, as it says in the book, even though there's actually an enormous bog at the bottom and you can't see the bridge until you're 20 feet from it." "Are you enjoying this track that descends gently to Commins Coch? Then turn right down this narrow path overgrown with brambles which will rip you to shreds in minutes." "Did you enjoy that airy hilltop? Then walk through this boggy forest which leads to the swampiest, most unattractive valley in Wales."

Don't get me wrong, today was my favourite day so far, full of great views on long hilltops with good paths (and great weather), but every so often I'd succumb to Tony's dark side and stumble around aimlessly for a while until he showed me mercy, which was usually in the form of a gate.

So in brief, the first 9.5 miles were superb and I seemed to spend a long time on top of hills with stupendous views into the valleys, back to the Pumlumon and especially forward to Cadair Idris, which was beginning to loom. I passed a pink toilet in the path and got about 10 yards past it before it registered what I'd passed. Of course I had to go back and lift the lid! Shortly after I stopped for a while to watch a very impressive, monstrous piece of machinery cutting down trees, stripping the branches and turning them into logs. Each tree took about 30 seconds from start to finish.

The least annoying bog I've seen so far.

Then came the ten minute nightmare path down to a road leading to Commins Coch. I had hoped there might be somewhere to get a drink other than water but I was out of luck, so I carried straight on with part two, 13.5 miles to Dinas Mawddwy. After a road ascent this led to another, longer hilltop path, but one with a difference.

I knew there was a large wind farm on top, but despite the amount of walking I'd now done in mid-Wales I'd never been very close to one. The turbines were all well away from the hill edge so at just 100ft from the top I still couldn't see or hear them. Then they all seemed to appear together, and it was a very impressive sight. There were 18 enormous turbines spread out over the space of about two miles, and I walked most of its length. Two were broken and looked quite sad compared to the others. The path went within 50 yards of the majority of them so I wandered over to the nearest one. Standing directly beneath the blades was a combination of awe-inspiring and terrifying! There was a door on the back which said, 'Danger of Death, 33,000 volts. Sadly it was locked as I could have done with charging my phone.

They were quite loud close up, whooshing away to themselves, but at distance I couldn't hear them at all. I supposed the sound would carry more at night. I reckon there's room up there for another 200 or so, I'm sure the locals wouldn't mind.

Approaching the wind farm.

From underneath. Those blades seemed scarily close.

And leaving them behind.

Straight after the wind farm came the hideous forest and valley mentioned earlier, which took some time to negotiate, but after that came a great descent and traverse to my destination. I had noticed a shift in the landscape yesterday from moorland to the more rolling hills which characterise the Glyndwr's Way, and now it was gradually changing again to a more familiar, mountainous environment.

It makes sense then that I've finished the central section of the Cambrian Way. I've done 93 miles in 5 days which is pretty good going, but the emphasis will now change from distance to height, so the days will be shorter. In fact I happen to have 93 miles to go as well, but this time in 8 days.

The weather has been fantastic so far, great again today with sunny intervals but not too warm. I look at it two ways. Firstly I've been very lucky and long may it continue. Secondly I've used too many of my good days and I'll have to pay them back with some rubbish ones.

I must backtrack at this point, as I had a major ego boost this morning and need to share it. Having had a good chat with the landlady at the Star, it transpired that she's in the process of selling the pub after 30 years there. Initially this sounded like good news, as someone else can take it on and upgrade it. However after thinking about it I can't help but wonder if the only reason it exists as a pub now is because she's in it, living her own life and occasionally serving beer and putting people up. I can't see anyone who relies on it as a business succeeding. Anyway, to my original point, I'd thought how much friendlier she'd seemed this time than 3 years ago. As I was leaving she wished me luck and said, "The Cambrian Way is for men, Glyndwr's Way is for pussies." Oh yes, now it's official, I am not a pussy. Is that why she was friendlier? Regardless, I need a Not A Pussy badge. I may have been one 3 years ago, but not any more.

The lounge bar of the Star. Yes, it is a pub.

Jen and Liz arrive tomorrow and I've got a shorter day so should finish much earlier. After that I've got a rest day before the high mountains come thick and fast. I'm in the rough and ready Llew Coch at Dinas Mawddwy. Yet another very good meal of homemade beef pie with a jacket spud, and some excellent Reverend James bitter to drink. In fact I might just manage one more.

I'll finish this bumper photo special with a scenery photo, just in case people think I only take photos of pink toilets and windmills.

By Kevin Downes (BSc, PGCE, NAP).

-- Posted from Kev's iPhone