Checking that the Rhymney Still Flows
When you plan a walk it’s often a good idea to double check the route. Is it as it was last time you looked? And when you are involved with writing books full of walks then this can be doubly important. Has someone moved the right of way? That left turn onto the industrial estate, is it now blocked? Or, worst of the lot, has the river bridge been destroyed by floods and the walk rendered impossible without a fifteen mile detour? Luckily none of these apply on the ramble I engage in today. We’re in the Rhymney River valley doing a six mile circuit from Rhymney Hill Gardens to Llanederyn and back. In the book ( Walking Cardiff ) this is a slice out of the full trek staring at the site of Rhymney Castle and finishing at Castleton with a return by bus. But as these are times of Covid we decide to walk half of it as a circuit. The actual walk turns out to be pretty much as originally described. Green, riverine, the deep country right at the edge of the city