With The Navigator and his better half sunning themselves in Madeira and Paul otherwise engaged I went off for a walk by myself.
Just before Christmas I had bought the second volume of Alan Richards "Great Walks in Carmarthenshire" and decided on the Llangain walk.
If you have not heard of these books I highly recommend them whether you live locally or are just visiting. The routes are interesting and so well described a map is almost not needed. For the history buffs Alan adds some pages about the past times of the areas walked. There were a surprising number of murders in this county.
The weather was somewhat misty not to mention my camera was playing up and hence only a few pictures. I will walk the route again and insert more photos in due course.
That part of the route which takes in Green Castle Woods I know well but the rest was all new to me despite being fairly local to this area.
There is some minor road walking but most is on green lanes and footpaths. Those areas in the woods and across fields was somewhat squelchy not surprising bearing in mind the rain in recent weeks.
A lot of farms in Carmarthenshire and no doubt elsewhere rarely have their names displayed, but on occasions there are some with attractive name plates.
As I walked under some power lines I could hear a conversation taking place but there did not appear to be anyone around until I looked up and two linesmen were halfway up a pylon carrying out maintenance work - rather them than me.
As i walked up the minor road from Brook towards Llangain I was suddenly joined by a boisterous brown labrador who seemed keen on walking with me. I had remembered passing a bungalow and holding on to his collar walked him back. Thankfully it was his home. The owner said he frequently escapes when someone is walking by!
I frequently pass by Llangain on the way to Llansteffan and had never been into the village and seen the local church, but Alan's route takes you past this old building before eventually leading you back through Green Castle Woods and the car.
I now look forward to walking more of Alan's routes.
"Ah!" I thought. A a chance to use the Welsh dictionary I downloaded on my Welsh walk to translate the name of the farm. All I could find was the first half of the word "ystrad" meaning, vale or dale, or I suppose valley, but there was nothing available on the next part.
ReplyDeleteHi Conrad, the walter part is no doubt a name Walters Valley/vale etc
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