Visit by sister: part IV

Another day, another walk! It was Saturday and the weather looked good. Where should we go walk? Given that it was now weekend, I was of a mind to avoid the busy areas. I contemplated another walk in the Ysbyty Ifan area. But my sister wanted the terrain a bit more rugged. Could we just try do the walk we had abandoned the day before again? We had decided against it for reasons of wind, and today was not windy. I figured we could. Just check if there would be space in the Park and Ride! We made sure to have a backup plan and we were off. 

There was space in the Park and Ride. The plan was on! So we parked, and minutes later we were all my way up the side of the valley. As it so happened, we had started this walk a few years before, but it started raining, and we didn't have enough time to do the whole walk anyway as my sister needed to catch a train. And my shin hurt. We didn't get far! But now we did. 

Climbing out of Nant Peris

We walked up in glorious sunshine, and the route was beautiful. All was well! Until it wasn't. At some point my sister expressed the desire to stick her head into a stream. I know that that is a bad sign; it might indicate a headache. It turned out to be one. And we were just approaching the ridge.

We reached the ridge, and enjoyed the views. We also now had to contend with a lot more company. The ridge is busier than the approach we had taken! But we walked up to the top of y Garn, and just beyond, and then reconsidered our options. Given the headache situation (neither of us had thought of bringing paracetamol) we might want to cut this walk bit short. My initial plan had been to go over the top of Elidir Fawr, but we binned that. We could go down in Cwm Dudodyn instead. That saved some 200m climbing and descending again! 

Almost at the ridge

On the ridge!

View from y Garn, looking east

View from y Garn, looking north

And I thought we would go all the way to Bwlch y Brecan and catch the path from there, but we saw another path veer left from Cwm y Cywion, and we decided to chance it. I assumed it would go down into the valley, but it turned out it just followed the ridge of Esgair y Ceunant. I liked that! I had never been before. And my sister was quite OK. 

Sister and sheep fold on Esgair y Ceunant

Pretty flower

Looking back into the valley

We drove home, and there my sister made sure to recalibrate her biochemistry. And we had the rest of the soup. My sister made some sort of potato farls, but then Finnish, to go with it. And I baked a cake (badly). And then it was pretty much time to call it a day again. This day hadn't quite gone according to plan, but I think we managed to make the most of it! The next day would be our last full day together…