Only 4 were available for this walk to the Garw Valley and 2 of those were leaders, but it made it easy to set an early start time at short notice in the hope of avoiding the rain due to come in around midday.

We met at 9.30 am at the Calon Lan Centre in Blaengarw and from there took the zigzag path up the west side of the valley through the Darren Fawr tree plantation and back down to Pontycymer Lake. Along the way we passed the poignant Craig Barber Memorial to a young soldier killed in Iraq, some old steel cables which are remains from the Ffaldau Colliery, and stone ruins of forestry huts used by German POW’s during WW2 who planted the forestry. Walkers are sometimes followed by dogs, but we were followed by a lost lamb, bleating loudly and pulling at our heartstrings. Its mum was nowhere to be seen.

From the lake we crossed the village to our next landmark which was the Squirrel pub, and ascended the steep street almost to the top where there is a Commonwealth War Grave. We took a footpath, and various short lanes and gulleys which led to farmland on the east side of the valley. Here we walked cautiously along a mercifully relatively dry muddy track keeping close to the fence knowing that recently, large numbers of Highland cattle had been encountered here with their very long and pointed horns. ( ID by Val!). This didn’t prepare us for the sudden appearance of a cow and calf from behind the gorse bushes. Roger , in front, demonstrated an astonishing reflex response and leapt up the steep bank. We quietly and slowly retreated about 15m by which time said cow had led her calf down the field and was running with other cows away from us----they were even more scared of us than we were of them, which takes some doing. Greatly relieved to have escaped unharmed we spotted the best path to take in order to traverse the hillside ( having previously aimed too high or too low) which led us precisely to our next target, a kissing gate in the dry stone wall. Beyond this, we picked out old mining levels indenting the hillside where land owners had searched for coal seams. After crossing the narrow Nant Gelli-Wern we had a short break for refreshment before continuing for about 700m along an old tramway track which heads into Cwm Nant Hir. We found tadpoles in a large puddle on the way. Just as we were almost at the first of 2 lakes, there was a rather slippery culvert to cross and unfortunately Roger injured his ankle, and needed his stick to complete the walk. We were interested to see a grill in the lake which we took to have been used when the coal was washed to separate the contaminants. At the second lake we admired a terracotta sculpture depicting a mining scene, and a nearby , small but beautifully maintained memorial of the collieries. The rest of the walk was through quiet streets until very soon we were back at the Calon Lân Centre where there was another sculpture of the same style with the words of Calon Lân and an English translation carved around the base. This famous Welsh hymn was composed by Daniel James in Blaengarw in 1890 We had lunch at a picnic table in light rain, overlooking the lake. Soon afterwards the rain became more significant, justifying the early start. TJ

Roger Bradshaw, Teresa Jenkins leaders; Val Monaghan; John Andrew.

Time about 3 ¼ hours

Distance – various estimates between 5.3 and 6.5 miles

Ascent 2072 feet