Chasing waterfalls

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Today we set out to see some Welsh waterfalls. From Bailea we headed towards Brecon on the A40 before turning south onto the A470. We stopped briefly at the car park opposite the Story Arms as this is the highest point on the A470. Walkers can set out from here to walk to the summit of Pen-y-Fan. We thought that the view would be more impressive but, according to the information board, we were only half way up the mountain. I'm sure if we had more time, a hike to the top of Pen-y-Fan would have been on the agenda, but there is a limit to what can be achieved in a week!!

After our brief stop, we continued along the A470 until we turned off for Penderyn on the A4059. Before we reached Penderyn, we turned off onto an unnumbered road to Ystradfellte. We were on single lane roads - hemmed in by hedgerows - which eventually brought us to a car park, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, signposted Sgwd Clun-Gwyn. One of those words (Sgwd, maybe?) is Welsh for waterfall. Another group just setting off from the car park warned us not to leave anything in the car as one of the vans in the car park had just been broken into.

So we changed into our walking shoes, packed all of our valuables (why did we bring the iPad as well as our cameras and iPhones?) and set off on the Four Falls Trail. Our first stop was at the top of Sgwd Clun-Gwyn. Quite impressive from the top, but we were itching to find a way down to the bottom of the waterfall. Unfortunately, we couldn't see a path that looked safe to go down so we decided to keep following the trail to see if there was access to the riverside from the other side.

When we reached the other side there was a film crew hogging the best view point!! However, from the other side of the river, we could see the path down that we had missed when it was right under our noses. OK, noted for our return journey.

In the meantime, it was onwards to Sgwd y Pannwr (which seems to be pronounced Scuda Panveer?) which involved hiking along a rough track at the top of the gully before clambering down a steep, wet trail to river level. This brought us out level with the top of the falls - again!! Not to be deterred from getting the waterfall 'shot' that I wanted, I found a way down to the pool at the bottom of the falls for some photos (OK, lots of photos) taking in the breadth of the falls cascading into the river underneath. We have been taking lots of photos experimenting with exposure values and exposure lengths to try to take some shots that appear to freeze the water.

From Sgwd y Pannwr it was an easy, but muddy, walk along the riverbank to Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn. I'm glad it was an easy walk because it wasn't a very impressive waterfall. After climbing back to the top of the gully, we continued on to the trail down to Sgwd yr Eira - which seems to sound roughly like Scuda Eira (?) when a local says it!! This one was another fairly impressive fall worth the effort to hike down to it ... and back up!!

Back at the top of the gully again we started heading back to the car. We discovered that there was a fire trail that we could take which proved to be much easier to walk than the path along the top of the gully!! This trail soon had us back at Sgwd Clun-Gwyn where we clambered down the side so that we could take photos from the base of the waterfall. While we were down there a group of school children came walking along the river. They were having a ball wading up river and then scooting down a rock 'slide' in the river.

There have actually been a few adventure activity groups river walking, waterfall surfing - whatever you call it when people are silly enough to actually get into a freezing cold river in Wales??! At least the adult group that we saw were wearing wetsuits and runners - unlike the school kids who had on assorted clothing and gumboots. Yes, gumboots. Seems like an odd choice of footwear for the activity since they don't have any grip and fill up with water to weigh you down!!

Well pleased with our waterfall photography, we started heading back to Bailea on the look out for a (very) late lunch. There were snack vans in every second lay-by this morning, but could we find one now that we actually wanted some food?? Of course not! Ah well, back at Bailea Kath and Albert arrived just on 5.00pm to find us snacking on cheese, nuts and apples.

Kath and Albert had brought heaps more food with them, so we put together some chicken and salad for dinner tonight before getting down to the serious business of playing cards!! Bernie was on fire tonight winning two games of Jo on the trot.

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