Steph and Sue wanted to go down to Builth Wells for a bit of shopping, so Bertie and I took the opportunity to walk down the Wye Valley trail from Steph's house and meet them in the town.
On the other side is the football club parking next to the road leading up
towards Drum Ddu
Continuing on the road and up a steep rise (marked on the map) as it cuts
through the plantation. The track then cut down to the left of the road in the
trees
The track had a few raised board walks over boggy parts. From the stream at
the bottom the track then climbed back up into sheep fields.
At this point the track became unclear and I ended up following the obvious
sheep track, which I only realised when we came upon the "jubilee stone"
marking a bonfire on Queen Victoria's jubilee.
Correcting the error was relatively easy as all the field gates here ere open
and I could cut back to the proper track as it cut down the side of a wood a
few fields over.
Now back on the marked trail, we followed this through more fields until it
came out on the road from Brynwern Bridge, which we followed for a short
distance until another path led off into a small wooded area.
At the bottom of the wooded area the track cut across a field an into a farm
yard. On the other side the tack cut through a sheep field, after the earlier
error, I paid more attention to the GPS than the sheep tracks as the real
track led around a fence and into a cabbage field.
Above was Bryn-wern Hall
From the cabbage field the track cut upwards into a pine forest above the
river, which could just be seen through the foliage and below.
As the forest track angled slightly downwards we dropped back down to the
river.
We had finished the meandering away from the river and the remainder of the
walk would be alongside it all the way to Builth.
Walking along a wide track beside the river through fields and wooded area.
the river was very calm and reflective at this point.
The river bent around to the East and there were a few seats and picnic tables
dotted around the most picturesque points. This was Goytre wood
Coming out of the woods by plum tree pool, the track now moved alongside some
fields.
A series of fields as the river curved round to the right
The rail bridge came into view as the track followed a paved driveway. Then
around and under the bridge.
Up through the Wern Wood, which had been the subject of recent logging, before
dropping back to the river. This was a prime fishing area, with a number of
positions out into the river on the rocks.
Back into fields as we passed Penddol rocks, and a beach area, which Bertie
used to take a paddle.
Then cutting away from the river as we approached the junction with the river Irfon
Crossing the Irfon on a suspension bridge and then into the municipal park First back to the Wye then along side this besides playing fields and a school.
More recreation fields and grass areas, as we walked towards the parking area, looking over towards the old bridge over the river.
Although we had reached the end of this section of the Wye Valley Walk we now crossed the bridge and up the road to the petrol station and the local Coop where we had agreed to meet the others.
As we arrived and sat for a drink they came out of the shop and we returned to Newbridge for coffee.