In the past our festive blog post has featured Our Alternative Christmas, Havin' a Comedy Christmas and Top 10 Tips to Survive Christmas. This year my PAVO finance team colleague Lisa Banfield suggested favourite walks (and a bike ride!)
As I write it's pouring with rain outside after several cold bright days of snow which turned Powys into a winter wonderland. So, stay safe, but if possible take the opportunity over Christmas and New Year to head outdoors, get those leg muscles working, some fresh air in your lungs, and rejoice in some of the amazing scenery right on our doorstep (and a little further afield in one case).
Here are my colleagues' top suggestions:
Owen Griffkin - Mental Health Participation Support Worker
Title: My Dog Walks
Route length: Anywhere between 0.5 - 5 miles
Time: 10 minutes - 2 hours
Start/finish: Llandrindod
The walk
I’ve had my dog Honey Lemon Squash Meringue - Honey for short - a cockapoo - for just over a year now, and although my daughter and partner promised to do the bulk of the walking, it has generally fallen on me to do the early morning and late evening walks. Not that I am complaining, as I get to see some beautiful sunsets, sunrises, and the passing of the seasons and the effect on the landscape. Most of my walks take in Rock Park, so this autumn has been spectacular, with beautiful colours falling from the trees and covering the ground in a different way every day. I also appreciate the different routes you can take from Rock Park - take a walk to Lovers' Leap for great views towards Howey and Newbridge, or venture past the old bakery and up to the Lake. This means no two walks are the same.
The dog loves it too, and frequently jumps into the stream, no matter what I try to do to stop her.
Impact on my wellbeing
Having a dog, and being made to leave the house first thing is a great way to start the day, and definitely helps with at least two of the Five Ways to Wellbeing - Be Active and Take Notice.
Lisa Banfield - Finance Officer
Route length: 4.6 miles (7.4 kms)
Time: 1 hour approx (longer if walking)
Start/finish: Suspension bridge, Back Lane car park, Newtown
This is an ideal bike ride to suit a range of ages and abilities (good for confidence building too if you’re new to cycling!) as it is all on a generally flat surface and no roads.
The bike ride starts at the suspension bridge in Newtown by Back Lane car park where you will see a (faded) fingerpost. Follow the path going under the traffic bridge, along the river, up, and over the bridge by the gravel car park. After crossing the bridge turn left down a short bank (Route 81 National Cycle Trail) and follow the path alongside the river. Go through the gate at the end of the path and under the pipe bridge and past the ‘Old Pump House’ on your right.
Continue on the path passing a small parking area near Llanllwchaiarn marked by a finger post.The path follows the line of the old canal and you will soon pass another parking area connected to the Llanllwchaiarn to Aberbechan road and a fingerpost.
Go through a gate passing the sewage works on your right, across the lane and continue along the footpath. Pass the old Dolfor Lock on your left and the Pwll Penarth Nature Reserve is on your right through a gate. The bike ride ends here so turn around and retrace your tracks back to the beginning.
Although you can continue further if you wish, as this is part of the Route 81 National Cycle Trail Aberystwyth – Wolverhampton.
Impact on my wellbeing
I feel this is a nice easy bike ride and gives me time to destress and take in the views and sounds of the lovely surroundings.
Freda Lacey - Senior Officer, Health & Social Care
Route length: About 3 kilometers
Time: 1 hour (depending on how long you spend looking at or for shells, stones, drift wood, slimy seaweed)
Start/finish: Woodstown Beach, Waterford, Ireland, but Ynyslas/near Aberystwyth just as good!
I grew up the near the sea, it has always been a part of my life. I need to scent seaweed strewn over rocks, crunching the shells walking along the shifting sands, picking up a coloured stone and rubbing it imagining where it has drifted in and landed from, spotting bits of wood re-imaging shapes and faces, the wind battering me from the front and compelling me from the back when I turn around, the sound of crashing waves, or the slurp and swish of gentle tides... The experience of walking along the beach takes me back to childhood and time with family, mostly spent sand digging or tidal pool shopping, but also takes me away now on tides of time, past and present.
Impact on my wellbeing
The walking activity is for me a side benefit of the experience of beach combing, it’s the draw of the sights, smells, touching, leaning into the stinging wind and relief of the vigorous pushing wind that for me sums up the tingling feeling of wellbeing and renewal once I’m back inside. For me, it’s an activity where I bring the outside in and the inside out…
If you go to Ynyslas, I’d suggest going at ebbing tide, park on the beach, take the “Board Walk” into the sand dunes.
Jane Cooke - Senior Officer, Mental Health
Title: Llanwrthwl to Cwmdeuddwr
Route length: approx 2.5 miles to Cwmdeuddwr
Time: Takes me ages - I’m slow & creaky!
Start/finish: Llanwrthwl (if you catch a bus back)
From our track you can see the first part of this walk; of the many walks I have done and loved, this is one of the reasons that I like this particular walk, in some ways I keep it in my sights. The walk starts in Llanwrthwl, just off the A470 between Newbridge on Wye and Rhayader, climbs up along a track that on the lower section passes through a bank of Rhododendron. Conservationists of course loath R Ponticum, a thick leaved thug that shades out competition and spreads across hillsides, the leaves shrugging off conventional herbicides. But like many plants that we now demonise, in itself it is beautiful and in the spring when the blowsy purple blooms are at their best, I can see this haze of colour from our track.
Climbing higher the route passes Cefyn, surely one of the highest holdings in the area. Highland cattle and shorthorns are well equipped to tough out the weather here and can often be seen grazing the tough Molinia grass. After the Cefyn the path levels out and before long there is a lichen covered finger post inviting the right hand turn that we always take at this point. This marks the highest part of the walk and I like to linger here. With my creaky knees I no longer do the high and challenging hill walks that I used to love. The experience of being at height, the particular feel of the wind as you approach a high point, standing on a ridge looking in all directions are all joys of upland walking; this walk is manageable for me now and also gives me the chance to experience these moments.
Heading down hill there is a choice of a delightful meander through woods managed by the Woodland Trust, or following the edge of the wood down to a minor road. From there you walk along a short stretch of delightful minor road before crossing the river Wye over the lovely Glyn bridge, a suspension foot-bridge. Passing Glyn Farm you are then on the last leg, along another minor road, dropping down into Cwmdeuddwr and the Triangle Inn. If you have timed things well there is time to stop for lunch and a well earned pint before catching the bus back to Llanwrthwl to pick up the car.
Impact on my wellbeing
It certainly is ‘active’! It enlivens my capacity to take notice as I stop and take in all that is around me and relish the wind and the sounds of the high ground.
Jackie Newey - Information Officer, Mental Health
Route length: 2.5 miles
Time: 1 - 2 hours as plenty to stop and look at on the way round.
Start/finish: Take the B4518 from Llanidloes, turn left on the circular road around Llyn Clywedog. Drive up past the dam and 500 metres further to a layby on the right where the walk starts and finishes.
The walk
Llyn Clywedog reservoir was created in 1967 when the River Clywedog was dammed to alleviate flooding in the Upper Severn Valley. This is a short walk around a narrow peninsula of land shooting out into the reservoir. It boasts some incredible views across the reservoir in all directions, to the surrounding mountains soaring high around, and at lower levels the Clywedog Sailing Club on the opposite shore.
The signposted track is up and down dale, but well trodden, though unfortunately not accessible to wheelchairs. We often go with extended family and their children and particularly enjoy resting on the narrow beach half way along where we do a spot of bird watching - identifying buzzards and red kites amongst others. Most times we seem to have the whole peninsula to ourselves - to climb windblown trees and pick up pine cones, to feel the breeze on our faces and watch the clouds scudding for miles into the distance. We always thoroughly enjoy ourselves.
Impact on my wellbeing
The signposted track is up and down dale, but well trodden, though unfortunately not accessible to wheelchairs. We often go with extended family and their children and particularly enjoy resting on the narrow beach half way along where we do a spot of bird watching - identifying buzzards and red kites amongst others. Most times we seem to have the whole peninsula to ourselves - to climb windblown trees and pick up pine cones, to feel the breeze on our faces and watch the clouds scudding for miles into the distance. We always thoroughly enjoy ourselves.
This walk is local to me but could be a million miles away! Mother Nature is usually on top form and I feel truly grateful to be alive and experience all she has to offer on the day.
Do you have any favourite walks or bike rides you could recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers!
