mountain walk

After collecting and stacking a carfull of horse manure for the allotment, we set out on a pony hunt once again!

From certain places in the valley bottom you can see the upper slopes of Twmbarlwm but no ponies could be seen from there so we had to go up ourselves.

We parked by the gate to the Common, sadly vandalized, and set off. I headed to the summit of Twmbarlwm, Mountain Man went off towards Mynydd Lwyd.
From my vantage point I could see two ponies!
I had phone signal but he did not, so he bore right at the path crossroads-less than fifty feet from them!!
The wind was bitter on the top and was breathtaking, as was the view. Many puddles were iced over and the mud was crunchy.

It is heartbreaking to see the damage caused by off-roading- scramble motorbikes, quad bikes, '4x4' s all come up here and do not seem to care about the irreparable destruction of the groundcover and subsequent erosion of the ground itself.

We did a full circle of the forest edge,walking through a light snow shower, in case the ponies had found a broken fence and made their way to shelter and lower ground that way, but no fresh signs atall. We have an idea where they could be but having walked at least five miles already we weren't going to do another eight!
At least we saw two of the newer stock brought from Merthyr Common and also a new sign for the Raven Walk at Pegwn y Bwlch.