Although some restrictions on travel are still in force due to the Covid 19 Coronavirus Pandemic I decided to spend a few days walking the Cambrian Way, spending the nights wild camping. Having gained a lift to Machen, I climbed up to my first summit, Mynydd Machen. Most of the trees on the path up the mountain have been harvested in the last few years and now foxgloves were in abundance between greying tree stumps. After a final steep ascent up an eroded section of moorland I reached the top, marked by aerials and a bench. Being a clear day I could see down to Newport with its historic transporter bridge and across the Severn Estuary to Somerset.
Walking down to Crosskeys I passed on old slag heap, refuse from the now defunct coal mining industry of South Wales, in the distance the new, cleaner sources of energy were visible, the silvery panels of a solar farm on one hilltop and beyond a few wind turbines. After walking down through woods, avoiding the signposted forestry operations I crossed through the strip development of Crosskeys and the railway line to reach the old Newport to Cwmcarn canal. Now abandoned and silting up, a moorhen, black with a red beak, was enjoying this industrial remnant.
Newport to Cwmcarn Canal
The second climb of the day took me to the hillfort on the summit of Twmbarlwm. From here I could just make out the two road bridges across the River Severn, as well as Newport, Cardiff and maybe the Brecon Beacons to the north. My view of the Severn estuary stayed with me all along the long, open ridge that led me to the town of Pontypool. On the way I met a herd of black cows, who stood their ground as I walked by, as well as sundry sheep who scuttled off. On approaching the town, the path dropped down the east side of the ridge through green and leafy beech woods. Many people were out walking with their children, enjoying the sunshine.
View north along ridge from Twmbarlwm hillfort
I stopped at the Esso station which lies on the Cambrian Way as it crosses to the south of the main part of town. After picking up some supplies and a welcome cup of coffee, I sat on a bench in Pontypool park to enjoy it. The park was a mixture of more formal cut grass and less formal woodland on the higher slopes. Climbing up through the trees and a short tunnel I reached the Shell Grotto, sitting at the top. Although never open for you to see inside, there were seats for me to recover after my exertions and admire the vista of distant lands spread out before me. Following the ridge my next sight was Folly Tower (also closed) after which I entered rough moorland. At this time of year it was covered with brown and uninteresting heather and whinberry bushes (like blueberries) bright green, but still too early in the year for any fruit. From the ridge the distinctive isolated mountain of the Skirrid stood out in the distance, an outlier of the Black Mountains that I would be walking across over the next two days. The Cambrian Way does not cross it, but it lies on the route of another long distance trail, the Beacons Way, a route which the Cambrian Way crosses a few times. To the east was the Sugar Loaf, one of my climbs for tomorrow.
Folly tower
After two aerials by a small road, and a memorial to a race horse I began to think of where to camp for the night. Officially illegal in Wales, wild camping needs to be done with discretion. To be legal you need to ask for permission from the landowner, but who knows the ownership of the common land I was crossing? If you camp at dusk and leave before anyone is up, in a secluded spot, leaving no trace but a patch of dry ground and flattened grass, then nobody is likely to be upset. Unfortunately at this time of year, days were very long, and in the area I was in, the mountain of Blorenge, I could see no places to hide my tent. I waited until an hour before sunset before pitching, when there was nobody around to see me and the sky was darkening as dark clouds accumulated in the west. I struggled to find a patch of grass off the main path, the clumps of heather being far too uneven, but settled on a spot by some rocks well off the main path.
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