Great Treffgarne Mountain

This walk seemed the muddiest of them all, in fact I am wandering how exactly to wash my walking shoes and the washing machine is getting to be the favourite. This is the walk no. 32 and can easily be combined with no. 33 (Treffgarne Gorge) as they both start from the same point. That was actually my plan but my walking shoes got filled with lots of lovely mud hindering any furter hikes that day. OK, I admit, am being a bit of a wus, but I was lucky this happened towards the end of the walk.

The hike starts from the Nant-y-coy Mill and takes you on the right side of the valley north-westerly. The first part worth seeing is the valley in about mid-way into the hike - around the farm at North Hill. The path after that is a bit different from the one mentioned in the book as the Pembrokeshire County Council approved some modifications to the public path. These were made in September 2008. It now takes you round the farm to the left and then joins the original route at the top of the hill - the Great Treffgarne Mountain. That is the most spectacular part with great views in all directions. There are also these peculiar stones dotted on the top of the hill, each some way from another.

After that the path became very unpleasant as one farmer completely ignored the fact there is a path there. It was changed to a mud-bath instead of a field. At one moment, thinking I was stepping onto a reasonably solid mixture of mud and cow poo, I instead stepped into something much more liquid-like making my foot sink way beyond ankle deep. My left foot got completely soaked and my right one didn’t fare much better. Grrrrrrrr!!! I thought the farmers were supposed to be more considerate about the public paths - in fact it seemed that in that area the farmers trash the paths to discourage hikers from using them.

I was later told they have no such obligations and the paths are of secondary importance to their ownership of the land the path is on. I feel a bit nostalgic for the days in Yugoslavia (Slovenia ) where a lot of land was nationalised for the common good.

Hmmm, gives me ideas ;-)