Yesterday's walk - uphill!

It was uphill all the way on my walk yesterday. I made sure I took my Ventolin inhaler before I went and then I was fine and didn't get too out of puff except on the first really steep bit, when I stopped just twice to catch my breath. The sun had come out early afternoon and whilst it wasn't anything like as hot as it had been on Sunday (when I think it must have been the upper 60s F), it was still hot enough for me to soon take my rugby shirt off and walk with bare arms.

(Click on photos to enlarge)


There aren't uninterrupted views all the way - I had to take the photos of the views in suitable gateways, as the road is a very old one I think, and sunken well below the level of the bank and hedge either side of it. This is my first gateway up the hill, looking across the valley with Black Mountain in the distance.

Looking back down the valley towards the Towy Valley.


And again.

That's the ridge of Bannau Sir Gar in the far distance, right. Below it is the magical lake of Llyn-y-Fan-Fach. The steep hill to the left is topped by an ancient Iron Age hillfort.


Looking just to the left of the hillfort.

Even the hedgerows are wild around here. This little lane is one I used to ride up with Fahly, but I didn't want to go round there on foot as the local nutter lives there, and since he has attacked two of the neighbours (one admittedly, with provocation, when he embedded a scythe in the top of his 4x4!) and I didn't think I could sprint out of trouble if he was having a bad day.

I didn't take photos of them, but there were still the "last" of the summer flowers blooming - a couple of tiny flowers on the stem of a foxglove - all the others are dead from summer Council trimming or having set seed. The last Red Campions still studded the hedgerows along with the last flowers on the brambles - there is one which is flushed with pink like apple blossom, so pretty. There were a few stems of Meadowsweet still blooming down near the river - I picked a tiny sprig and the scent was very strong (slightly reminiscent of Fennel) and the scent was still in the air on my way back down the lane.

Above and below, the view looking back down the lane towards home.