Glyndwr's Way, Page 4

We thoroughly enjoyed the Cann Office Hotel. This curious name has several possible derivations. One is that it's a corruption of the Welsh name Cae'n y ffos, meaning a fortified field -- there had been a hill fort where the hotel's back garden is now. Another is that it refers to the hotel's sign, three (ale) cans, and the fact that it was a post office in the past. In any case, there are records of it back to 1310.

The man in this car had stopped and told us about a diversion ahead of us. It was, again, a matter of sending walkers along a road around rather than through a farm. He said something about not wanting walkers to have to mix with dogs and bulls. We're pretty sure that he was the farmer, and that he just didn't want walkers bothering him.

To show you what it's sometimes like on these roads, here's a truck coming and going. You can appreciate how we had to squeeze into the bushes beside the road!

We arrived early in the afternoon at Lake Vrynwy, a reservoir supplying water to Liverpool. When the dam was built, in 1880, there were 450 people living in the valley. The village of Llanwddyn was moved to its present location, where we stayed in a comfortable B&B.

We had warming hot soup in the little cafe run by an enthusiastic, energetic young French woman, and then wandered around the sculpture park below the dam.

We stood and watched a field of various animals for a good while. There seemed to be lots of bullocks either playing or practicing. They would pair off and push each other around, head to head, all around the field. One pair would go at it for a while, and then another pair. Probably very standard, but new to us...

Distances can be deceptive. See that church above his head? It doesn't look far off, but it took us more than half an hour to get there, by a meandering route.

We had many lovely cloud displays, such as this one as we crossed a moor on the side of Allt Dolanog.

Three of the villages in the area had had a millenium contest for people to carve benches with symbols of their village. We saw two of them. Both had lots of symbolic carvings, but the obvious ones were the bridge on the Pontrobert one (right) and the salmon on the Dolanog one (below). Dolanog was as far upstream on the Vrynwy River as salmon could come to spawn, and Dolanog means "dale of the salmon". The Dolanog one actually has its old bridge depicted, too, on the arm rest.

Here's the Dolanog Bridge itself: We were once again crossing and following the Vrynwy River, and stayed close by it for the rest of the day, to Pontrobert.

We were slowed up by some sheep, on the path above the river. They turned and looked at us, said "Relax, you guys", and sauntered on at their own pace.

We had an exciting experience while staying at Church House in Pontrobert. Our hostess was Cathy Knapp, whose husband, Stefan Knapp (1921-1996), had been an outstanding artist and sculptor. He had pioneered the method of enamel on steel, among other media, and there were many examples of it in the house. Several were on the walls in our bedroom. Cathy has made a pool area in the back garden into a memorial garden with some of his sculptures. That evening we read a very interesting and absorbing book that Cathy has written about Stefan's life and works.

It rained all day on our final day, so I never got out the camera until we were in Welshpool, the town at the end of Glyndwr's Way. There's a marker in a park, commemorating for us, at least, a thoroughly enjoyable walk through beautiful mid-Wales.