A walk over the Garth

It didn’t rain or blow much yesterday, and I strolled from Efail Isaf up to the top of the Garth and down on the Pentyrch side back to Efail Isaf.  It was sunny with blue in the sky as I took the road past the chapel to the turn off to the racing stables, and crossed the field on footpath 66.

I used to run, and ride, up here some years ago.  Nowadays, the track to Garth Fawr gets flooded – before the new gas line was put in, the stream was piped under the path and all this was dry enough to run over.  In fact, this path could be disabled-friendly.

People now use the higher ground – although there is some nasty wire, half sunk in the mud, that could catch a leg of sheep or child.

I passed the ruins of the old centre of the Garth estate at Garth Fawr and took the old road up onto the common.  The sky had become steely and the easterly wind blew cold; no-one was there, no sheep or cattle to be seen.  No sound of the A470, M4 or Church Village bypass.

Then a jogger and his dog appeared and followed the horizon, and a mewling buzzard (or red kite perhaps).  It is a special bleakness, not at all threatening or unfriendly.

Coming down from the Garth, views over Pentyrch have patterns of reeds and clumpy pasture in the foreground.  A couple of horses are on the road in the left hand corner. Then, stretched beyond, you can see over the Vale of Glamorgan and across the Bristol Channel to England.

Another well mannered, if bored, horse moved aside at the cattle-grid on the path (footpath 73) which turns across the hillside towards Efail Isaf, avoiding the road.

I avoided a bit more of the road by another path (76) which leads into the woods over Craig Gwilym, sighting a quite Hardy-esque cart beside firs.

Onwards and down the road to find the cat still curled up in her radiator bed at home.