The area of Wales around Pontneddfechan houses the Brecon Beacons National Park and is commonly referred to as "Waterfall Country" and was only the fifth place on Earth to be designated as a "dark skies preserve" -- which means lighting is very closely regulated making it one of the "darkest" inhabited places on the planet. Unfortunately for me, one of the few streetlights in the area was just across the road from where I was staying, which really didn't matter as it rained almost the entire time I was there!
Caerphilly Castle was first on my list of places to visit and turned out to be a mix of interesting and disappointing. I was a lovely ruins surrounded almost entirely by water with a partial tower with one of it's walls tilting at an incredible angle -- looking like it was about the keel-over at any moment. One of the tactics of attacking a castle was to tunnel under it's walls/towers and then destroy the tunnel by setting-off explosives -- causing the ground under the walls/tower to sink and crack open the walls -- thru which the attackers could gain entry and swam the castle's defenders. Quite an effect tactic and that's what happened here (not unusual for a castle to be totally abandoned after such an attack -- it being too difficult and expensive to repair the damage).
The disappointing part was that much of the castle was "off-limits" as they were filming a mini-series for American television to air next Spring -- working title "The White Princess" -- security wouldn't tell me who was in it or let any visitors close enough to see or overhear anything. Kind of fun part was seeing the "extras" walking around the courtyard in Medieval garb between scenes and watching them haul props in and out.
Afterwards went to a cafe overlooking the entrance/exit to the castle and hung-out for a while sipping tea and having a fruit scone with cream and jam -- trying to see if I could catch a glimpse of anyone -- no luck, when they wrapped for the day, it looked like the main actors were quickly rushed out into black SUV's parked right at the gate and driven away. Asked if they needed any more "extras" and the guard just laughed.
There were two hikes I wanted to do while in the Park -- one was called the "Four Waterfalls Trail" and the other was the trail up Pen-y-Fan, the highest peak in the area -- it was threatening rain and I had been warned about trying to attempt any serious climb in bad weather so decided to do the waterfall trail which was a little shorter and more sheltered in case the weather turned. Glad I did -- ten minutes after I got back to the car, it poured hard -- would've still been on the mountain.
On the other hand, the waterfall trail had its own challenges. It was basically an out and back trail with spurs leading off of it to the waterfalls. It was rated "difficult/hard" but started out nice down a farm track through trees and meadows, having to climb over field gates using a step type system I'd never come across before (have, however, seen it since so it may not be uncommon over here). The track was a combination of dirt, gravel, fieldstones, exposed shale outcrops and grass -- with so much rain, it was somewhat muddy with pools of water so it was constantly climbing up and down the banks going along side the track to avoid the worst of it. From there, it went downhill conditions-wise -- it was basically downhill but you'd descend twenty feet down a hillside, ford a creek (or use stepping stones if you were lucky) and then have to climb fifteen feet back up the other side of the valley where you'd repeat the process.
Then it got nasty -- because of all the recent rain, the "trail" turned into a virtual swamp -- felt like a bayou -- water and mud up to your ankles interspersed with trees on small islands -- to make it even more "challenging", the "swamp" went out twenty yards on either side of the trail, you couldn't avoid it -- you could only move cautiously and hope to avoid the really deep spots -- in a couple of places, this went on for maybe forty yards of the trail then you'd be back on kind of "dry" ground. Kept thinking it would get better -- it did but now I was climbing up and down on fieldstones and wet shale with mud-caked boots -- like walking on ice.
Finally got to the waterfalls which were nice -- impressive by UK standards but paled in comparison to ones in Colorado and the States (I was expecting something more impressive, which is why I kept going). One of the off-shoot trails involved 170 steep stone steps down to the river (and of course back up) -- at the bottom was a nice waterfall that you could walk under behind the water -- only catch was the wind was blowing the water into the cave behind the falls -- nice on a hot day in the summer, not so nice on an overcast, damp chilly Fall day -- I passed on getting soaked. Turned around and headed back -- uphill, but had "figured-out" some of the really muddy places and, in places where the trail was actually the streambed, just walked in the water -- my feet were soaked anyways.
The trail was only five and a half to six miles long but missed a turn and ended-up doing a half mile or so extra -- was going down a long, steep hill and it dawned on me that I hadn't gone "up" a long, steep ascent on my outbound trip. In my defense, they had parts of the trail closed with detours which, in typical European fashion, weren't especially well-marked. Overall, I got a good workout, pretty-much enjoyed the hike and made it back safely -- this was one of those, very few other people were out that day and if something went wrong, you "were on your own" type of hike.
Next day, the weather was a little nicer and thought about doing Pen-y-Fan but my body let me know in no uncertain terms that that was not going to happen! Ended-up going to another castle -- absolutely picturebook stunning from a distance (high up on the top of a hill silhouetted against the sky) -- so-so up close. Steep walk up (nothing new there!) with the added pleasure of the last hundred yards being steep, through uncut grass and sheep/cow dung -- you could actually see the marks where the cows had slid down the hillside a few feet it was so muddy and slick.
One of the "big draws" of this place was there was a cave underneath the castle that you could exlore -- theyeven rented out flashlights. Problem was, it was raining hard, the cave was the lowest point on the hill and guess where all the water drained too. Got down a series of steep, slippery steps to the cave floor and about twenty yards into the pitch black cave when my flashlight started flickering and going on-and-off -- already having stepped numerous times into three to four inch deep puddles of water, I decided not to push my luck, declared "victory" and retreated down the hill to drier ground in the castle shop cafe to have something hot to drink and dry out! Upside -- it was so wet that most of the sheep/cow dung had washed off my boots!
The next day, I was off to visit the Queen and a wizard.
