Glamorgan Ridgeway – Section 2

On friday we were back out to do section 2 of the Glamorgan ridgeway walk. Again we weren’t sure of how far we would get but the idea was to pick up at the exact point we stopped last time, leave the car and reach a suitable starting point for section 3. We succeeded – eventually!

Perhaps i’m paranoid but there seems to be a deliberate attempt to prevent walkers using this path, locked gates, extremely hard to climb stiles (for dogs), unfriendly signs. barbed wire where therre should be no barbed wire, missing signage. it’s as if landowners don’t want people using the rightful path through their land.

But maybe it’s just me – we knocked off another 4 or 5 miles (we have to retrace our steps each time to get back to the car so in effect we are doing it all twice) so around a 10 mile walk for all the dogs so they were happy! So next time we start from betws.

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  Lets go!

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  Hobbit house!

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  You shall be free! – Murph has a habit of trying to release Dug by biting through his lead

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  Dug finds a river

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  The view down towards Betws

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  Ummm yeah these are dog friendly

Extra milage where we took the wrong path down a super steep hill and ended up in Coytrahen by mistake. The small loop at the end is where we got lost in a field because the path was unclear and signs missing. The loop on the way back was to avoid the ladders again.

Success/failure is not black/white

One of the beauties of ultrarunning and I guess life is that you live and learn. And they say you learn as much of not more from failure than success. And I think I agree.

Yesterday was the run “over the other side” for a 40 odd mile run along the south west coastal path in Devon. It was all planned, I had my friend Claire as my support crew, the two dogs were going to spend the day traveling with her to various support points. All that could go wrong would be my legs giving up, or I could fall off a cliff or something.

The landscape was beautiful and so much fun to run through. As I had never been there before it was like exploring as I went. The photos below really don’t capture the scene.

I set off around seven and was in a groove much sooner than I expected. I was expecting hilly and I certainly got hilly, with a mix of long drawn out drags and really steep stuff. It was all technical and I was loving all of it. I was alternating between shirtless down in the wooded valleys and a waterproof jacket up on the highest hills as it was drizzling up there.

Then the derail began. Not with the legs, not the heart or the head but upon reaching combe martin to meet Claire and pick up more food and water it was clear murph was an unhappy dog. He’s been on crew before and was fine but yesterday he wanted none of it. He was crying and whining all morning while I was gone. He was barking at people when parked up. He is a nervous dog because of his rescue past and it displays in ferocious displays of false bravado which to the outside world can be quite intimidating and frightening.

I continued on and at the next stop they met me on the path so he was happy to be away from people but as I stocked up and then moved on his crying broke my heart. Suddenly the joy of running where I was became joyless. I turned it all over through the next section which as it turned out got me near halfway. This was because Claire couldn’t get the van near enough the path which stressed her further. I was oblivious as there is no mobile signal. It seemed like a long leg but as I pulled into the next stop I could hear murph barking before I saw him and the decision was made. It was over there and then

The time to think on the last leg brought me to the only possible conclusion. I could continue in my own world and selfishly push for the 40 mile achievement I wanted so badly but only at the cost of the happiness of the others.

It was a no brainer. I checked how they all were and climbed in the back with the dogs and called it a day. I’m not going to lie it was disappointing. I was having the day of my life as far as running goes. It was all clicking along. I had a few back issues with the downhills but not enough to stop things. I was driving the uphills hard, too hard perhaps and who knows if the wheels would have fallen off eventually. It doesn’t matter because in the end it turned out not to be a day about running. Ultrarunning is about making decisions, hundreds of tiny decisions throughout the day all leading to success or failure.

In the end I only had to make one decision yesterday. And even if today I feel like a failure I know deep down making the right decision was the only way to really win.

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  The view the night before – “see those in the distance? I bet I have to run up those” Of course I did

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  Dawn looking back over Ilfracombe

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  View towards Waterford

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  Waterford harbour

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  Approaching Little Hangman

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  Some cliffs somewhere

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  That way – They have done a great job on signposting the path.

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  Up there – Now thats a longass uphill drag

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  But when you’re up there its great

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  Cairn on Great Hangman

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  The drizzle is coming in

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  Another valley

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  Oh look thats nice, a vertical path to get out of the valley!

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  Those dots in the path are the support crew!

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  Every drop was steep

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  Looking back

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  Looking forward – thats the path cutting halfway up the opposite hill – another longass drag!

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  But always worth it

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  Ummmm yeah – the correct path was actually new Zealand

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  Just run out of water and wouldnt you know your luck…

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  And this is where it ends

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  Fierce van guardians making sure anyone parking within 20 yards knew about them

Glamorgan Ridgeway Walk

So for a change we did some walking. Well we walk a lot anyway but this was pre planned walking so its different. My friend heard of a long distance footpath called the Glamorgan Ridgeway which runs from Margam Park in the west to Caerphilly Castle in the east. There isn’t a huge amount of info about it online and from what i can make out parts of it are run down and wild.

The plan is to walk its length with the dogs over a period of time. So we will head off along the path until we find a suitable spot to begin the next section in a few weeks and then walk back to that sections start point where we left the car. This way we should actually manage to walk it both ways at the same time. Follow me? I wouldn’t we get lost a lot. Well on our initial recce visit we did get lost because we weren’t really trying and didn’t have great maps but on the inaugural first section last Sunday we made good progress and didn’t get lost at all.

So far we have around 5 or 6 miles done. We found a spot to pick up from last time and overall we were out for 4 hours and 20 mins which is probably enough for the dogs – well actually they were fine even the little one … see below

The Bro Stone in Margam Park – near the start of the whole route. As usual we were out early, avoid heat, avoid people

Nice views towards the Bristol Channel from the stone

Valley of the sheep – as you leave Margam Park itself you have to pass the gatekeepers

Happy Tilly – only small legs but the heart of a lion and never stops trotting

Traversing dangerous ground

There was a bit of road to do but it was peaceful enough

n the return journey we detoured through a forest whereupon Dug decided to play with tilly – who was having none of it

The view southeastwards towards Shwt

Nearly finished and Murph discovers he is attached to Dug as we test out the double lead that may be required while I run the South West Coastal path next week

We will keep you updated with progress, im also going to work on a route guide and publish it online for anyone who wants to follow in our footsteps/pawprints