Felindre to Abbey Cwm Hir on Glyndŵr's Way: Day 2

A day walking in drizzle over ridges of green fields and gorse.

Drizzle fell for much of the day from grey skies as I walked along farm tracks and quiet roads, up and down hills. Green fields in the morning with sporadic stands of pines and larch, the latter losing their final orange needles. Deciduous trees were now bare, their exposed naked branches not longer veiled by a cloud of leaves. I deviated from the path at one point, distracted by the elegant backward curve of the blades on a group of wind turbines, slowly turning in the breeze. Typical of this time of year there were a variety of fungi, orange blobs scattered in cropped grass and inconspicuous brown growths among trees, most attractive were some red spotted toadstools.

Wind turbine, note the ends of the blades turning back, maybe to shed vortices.

One of the prettier toadstools.

At noon I reached Llanbadarn Fynydd, a collection of buildings including the New Inn, which looked to have been closed for some time, and a community shop and petrol station. The shop sold me a coffee and muffin, and let me sit down inside to enjoy it. Serving a farming community they had three different magazines just for classic tractors on display. Spray cans of dye for marking sheep were available in different colours. The markings on the sheep (indicating ownership) now seem to be in particularly luminous colours, such as shocking purple and fluorescent orange.

In the afternoon much of the walk was along gorse covered ridges on a grassy path with views of the valleys of hedge rimmed green fields beneath a lowering sky. Although bleak the landscape had a desolate windswept beauty.

Green fields crossed by Glyndŵr's Way, the drizzle obscuring the more distant hills.

My Bed & Breakfast booking stated 5:30 pm was the earliest check in, so to avoid arriving early I enjoyed a leisurely late lunch snack in my bivi bag to shield me from the wind. Darkness falling early at this time of year, the last kilometre or so was in darkness using my head torch as I walked through woodland into Abbey Cwm Hir. Although the pub was closed Tuesday's, my room at the B&B was warm and comfortable.