• Mood: accomplished

Garwnant Visitor Centre, South Wales

The day after we went to the protest in Cardiff, we met our children, plus their spouses and the grandchildren in the forest at Garwnant. It turned out to be an excellent location with a wide variety of trails. We'd stayed overnight in Merthyr Tydfil, but there is little to do in Merthyr first thing on a Sunday morning, so we arrived at Garwnant some time before the family. This gave us time to eat a breakfast of bacon rolls before going to explore.

This is one of the statues that greet you as you pull into the car park. I have to admit to doing a double take when I first glimpsed it because it looked for a moment like a man taking a pee! Looking more carefully revealed the over-large head and strange ears and that it was in fact a statue of an ogreish sort of person.



View looking out over the visitor centre where we ate breakfast and showing the ogreish person more clearly.



We decided that the narrow road alongside the reservoir was not likely to be chosen for the family outing, so that's where we went first. The weather was dampish, but not actually raining, which was a relief after the torrential downpours of the previous day. There were glimpses of the reservoir through the trees.



It looked beautiful, but each stile and path led to a sullen fisherman, ensconced with all their gear, and not looking kindly on intruders who wanted to take photos. There also lots of dire warnings about the dangers lurking by the reservoir. They really didn't seem keen for people to be there, despite the inviting stile.



We turned back after a while and met the family back at the car park. We had a nice walk which even little A (who is 4) managed and the 3 grandchildren followed the clues and filled in the worksheet as we found each animal sculpture dotted at intervals along the woodland trail. Then, after a very nice picnic provided by our daughter, we bade everyone farewell and set off north, reaching home in the early evening.