Llanidloes to LLangadfan

After reluctantly leaving Lloyd's Hotel, but before setting off from Llanidloes, we bought lunch supplies and walked around the town. Llanidloes has a 16th century market hall, an elegant structure. People seem to like to sit and relax on its benches.

A few miles of pleasant walking brought us to the Clywedog dam and reservoir.  Here's our first view of it:

We then walked down beside it.

At the bottom, below the dam but predating it, are the ruins of a lead mine, Bryntail Mine.  The ruins look rather like those of a 13th century monastery!

We had our lunch there, and then followed the road up the other side of the dam.  The views were good, and we eventually could see back to the path we had descended on.

For miles the route more or less followed the edge of the reservoir, sometimes way above and sometimes right beside it.  Several hours and many hills later, we were back in sheep fields.  For a while (it was now late afternoon, after 7, and we were tired) we were again on a typically straight Roman road, with sheep standing guard.

We finally dropped down off the ridge to our place for the night, the Star Inn.

The next morning we were in rather wild moorland for a number of hours.  The Clywedog gorge with its footbridge gives the feel of the area:

By noon, we were descending the very steep track down the side of the highest mountain in the area, Foel Fadian.  The views of the valley ahead were excellent.

These curious cows were on the other side of a fence, so we didn't make their acquaintance:

There were lots and lots of blackberries, much enjoyed by us, for many days:

We spent the night in Machynlleth.  The town was Glyndwr's capital; he was crowned here in 1404 as "King of Wales", and had his parliament building here.  The building referred to as Glyndwr's Parliament Building is actually too new, as it was built in the 16th century, but it's fondly thought of as such.  The next morning was a Wednesday.  Ever since Edward I granted a charter to Machynlleth in 1291 to have a market on Wednesday, they've had a weekly market.  The stall in this photo is in front of Glyndwr's Parliament Building.

There's a clock tower similar to Knighton's -- and the black-and-white across the road is where we had dinner:

At this point we took two days off from the walk.  It was a short bus or train ride from Machynlleth to Aberystwyth, where Thann has friends to talk mathematics with.   Then Friday afternoon we hit the trail again, and were soon back in the beautiful scenery.

We stayed at another great B&B, Yr Hen Felin (the Old Mill), and were early enough for tea outside (and a nap inside!) before the good dinner that Paddy made for us.

The next morning was again, of course, pleasant walking.

We were later on a moor with wild ponies. Our landlady that evening told us that they had been there for many years.

A rainbow plus dark clouds were a warning. Our rainjackets were soon put on, for the first time on the walk. It had been remarkably sunny and dry up to this point. From here on we had intermittent light rain for the rest of the way, several more days.