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Fieldnotes
| It's not an easy one to find, it is a long way from any main road, best reached either from the north at Staylittle or south from perhaps the prettiest reservoir ever seen llyn Clywedog. Parking was had under some conifers about 150 meters east of Cwmbiga farm. Not having the relevant map didn't start the day off optimistically, but thankfully the first petrol station I got to had the right one. From the car jump the fence and follow a small tree lined stream down to the corner of the field, climb the fence again, now there is a more substantial stream to cross. Arthur my three year old Jack Russell wouldn't go near the water, so i picked him up, toyed with the idea of doing a balancing act crossing on a fallen tree, then just ran through on tip toes, and entered another world. I thought the llyn Clywedog road side drive here was very easy on the eye, most agreeable. But the feast of thick, verdant, lush, damp loveliness that greeted me caught me completely off guard. I had to turn around and look back the way I'd come incase i'd been transported to some far off fairy land. I put Arthur down and he sank up to his knees in moss, I picked him up and sought some more solid ground to put him on, there wasn't much to choose from. Moving through this Jurassic paradise would be hard going, fallen trees abound, small black creeks crisscrossed the forest floor and the odd random deep hole waiting for an unsuspecting leg to break , all covered with a dozen kind off mosses, ferns and grasses. The air was thick with life too, flies, bugs and butterflies and their avian predators. We sort of blundered around directionless, I started thinking that I'd be really lucky to find it under this thick carpet of life, so I did what I always do and headed for higher ground, better to see further and it's usually drier and easier traversed. But brilliantly the higher ground turned out to be the long cairn. At the south east end of the cairn some stone work still shows above the mosses, right next to this cairn material is a large rectangular hole, I jumped in and had a grope about for any stone work, but the under growth was too thick. Moving north west along the length of the cairn is another deep rectangular hole, I jump in again and find lots off stone work, with only minimal furtling. After a long sit and stare about, a Jay shot through the small clearing not seeing Arthur and me till it was almost too late, it passed by about two feet from in front of our eyes. Brilliant !!! After a much belabored circuit of the long cairn it was sadly time to go, passing back over the river again proved once more to be like a portal through worlds, from Jurassica back to Farmtopia. Swallows swooped all about us as we crossed the field, calling their shrill summer call, and not far away the almost obligatory Red Kite, this was a good one. |
Posted by postman1st August 2012ce Edited 1st August 2012ce
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Comments (1) |
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| Sounds good Postie - i will add it to 'the list'! |
Posted by CARL 1st August 2012ce |
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