Waterfall walk

On the Saturday we set off in the car for Tescos in Merthyr Tydfil to buy a sandwich for lunch. Unfortunately the car park there was packed out, so we went to Asda instead, only to find they had no sandwiches. We eventually found a petrol station that had a small food section attached and bought sandwiches for the next two days there.

 We then drove down the valley to Pontneddfechan to do a waterfall walk that had been recommended to us. We went in the visitors centre there first and bought a route description. This is a very popular walk, particularly with people doing short sections of the route, visiting one or two of the numerous waterfalls. 

 However we set off to do the full walk. This was largely following alongside a river, with diversions along the way to visit waterfalls. Trees along the way provided shelter from the wind and it was a lot warmer walk than the previous day’s.

The waterfalls were spectacular, and on the surrounding rocks there were plenty of icicles and frozen water. As recommended to us in the visitors centre, where the walk route left the river, we climbed up out of the valley on a small road, then dropped down the other side to pick up a path running alongside a second river to take us back to the car. Again there were some spectacular waterfalls along the river, culminating in a steep drop down and the Sgwd yr Eira falls, where the path passes over rocks behind the waterfall. From there we climbed steeply up out of this gorge and away from the river, then a good path contoured round the side of the valley, bringing us back to the car.