Over the last couple of months I've been working on a series of radio scripts, looking at Welsh folk tales. It's been a very enjoyable experience and I've been able to link some of the stories with walks in relevant areas, which has made it doubly enjoyable. So many tales (such as the Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach, The Three Sisters of Plynlimon, Cantre'r Gwaelod) are associated with rivers, lakes or the sea; my favourite walks are always by water and through woods, so I've really been able to indulge myself !
I'm obviously not alone in my love of rivers. So many writers seem drawn to them. I'm currently reading a poetry anthology - The River's Voice, edited by Angela King and Susan Clifford - which spans several hundred years worth of river poems, with Tennyson and Wordsworth cheek by jowl with Ted Hughes, Carol Ann Duffy and Seamus Heaney. What is the lure of a river for such writers? The symbolic importance of its journeying? Its links with past and future generations? The vital role it plays in sustaining communities?
Most of my life has been lived in close proximity to one river or another. I feel at home by running water, inspired by its movement, its constancy yet its unpredictability. Last week I finished the Usk Valley Walk that runs from Newport to Brecon; I was born a stone's throw from the Usk, and to quote a poem I came across a few years ago, "There's no river like your first river". For a long distance footpath the walk is actually quite short - only 48 miles - but it passes through fantastic countryside and interesting villages and there are glimpses of a lot of industrial archaeology that have direct bearing on my family history. The walk utilises quite a bit of the towpath of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal (or the Mon and Brec as it's known locally), looking down on the river; with the autumn colours and boating activity on the water it was both a relaxing and an energizing experience. The week before we had almost finished the Wye Valley Walk from Chepstow to Plynlimon (a more ambitious 136 miles) but time and the weather got the better of us. Still, only another five and a half miles to go there when we can resume next spring!
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| Reflections on "The Mon and Brec" |
