Pwll-y-Wrach Waterfalls
Like so many others we have something of an obsession with waterfalls. In this film we visit Pwll-y-Wrach, and walk through a lovely nature reserve to see the many, many waterfalls this little woodland has.
Some of them are harder to get to than others, and we had a lot of fun scrambling along the river beds to reach them.
Jo singing *Where are we going Ian?*
Can you pronounce it?
No! No!
I have no way of pronouncing the name of the place where we’re going because it’s one of those names.
Pw pw pwipwimpwim.
Today we’re going to a nature reserve called Pwill-y-Wrach
or something like that.
We’re going to do this because there are waterfalls, and we do like a good waterfall.
They’re going to be very very pretty that’s what they’re going to be, they’re going to be pretty,
What are they going to be? Pretty!
Join us on our waterfally adventure.
We are heading off in the general direction of Hay-on-Wye.
Hay’s a funny little town.
It’s the book town.
There’s a chap called Richard Booth, and Richard Booth decided that it would be a really good idea to buy in container loads of used books. He set up his own Kingdom. He became the King of Hay.
And in order to enter the town you had to have your passport stamped and things like that.
And of course it made national press, and it made lots of people go there, and I think there’s second hand book shops in there now.
There are bookshops that are literally just shelves in the street.
There’s no stopping and buying books for us today, oooh no.
So this is Hay, you can tell this is Hay because there is a dragon.
Look at the dragon.
I’m going to stop talking about Hay now.
Jo sings *Hay now Hay noow*
Ian sings very badly *Don’t dream it’s oveeerr*
Lens lens lens.
Are you excited?
I’m very excited, are you excited Joey?
I’m excited.
Let’s go and look at waterfalls.
I’m so ladylike.
You are.
Are you ladylike too?
Oh I’m very ladylike.
Jo laughs
You find us strolling through the countryside looking for waterfalls.
Waterfalls is what we’re looking for.
But oh my goodness- the noises of things.
And stuff.
Basically there’ll be squirrels.
And for some reason Jo is… hiding behind me.
In the distance now we can just about hear the streams.
Not the ‘screams’ though.
Not the screams, no, just “the streams.”
There’s me walking, there’s Joey.
Jo- I’m filming you filming me.
Jo- Film inception.
Filmception.
Hi. Apparently I’m in this one too.
What, I wonder, is my and many other peoples obsession with waterfalls.
It’s a very pretty place.
As you can see, lots and lots of green.
Very very tranquil.
I can hear buzzards in the distance and all sorts.
So, you know, it’s got a lot going for it.
And in the distance there you see Joey.
She’s chatting away to herself.
Talking to her camera I should imagine.
I wonder what she’s saying, I wonder if she’s wondering why we’re all obsessed with waterfalls.
I wonder.
I’m trying my hand at talking to the camera, which is something I don’t really do very much, because I prefer being behind the camera.
But here I am talking to you.
Who let the dogs out?
In the distance a dog with comedic timing goes: Bark bark bark bark
There’s a teeny tiny waterfall down there.
About yay high.
Here is waterfall number one.
Which, as you can see, is a waterfall.
There’s a lot to be said for the noise, I think it’s the noise that I like in part, obviously it looks pretty as well, but- you know.
Waterfall one wasn’t all that big, but it was quite a bit of fun to get to because we had to scramble over the river, next to the river, and then we had to, to get out, climb up a mud bank.
Trust you to make it look easy eh?
I mean we could, we ‘could’ have gone back the same way we’d come, but I mean where’s the fun in that?
So I am now completely covered in mud.
We’re wending our way on to waterfall number two.
I do like me a good waterfall and that, I think you’ll agree, was a good waterfall.
Oh, that’s made me dizzy.
So here is our second; and if you want to be pedantic, possibly third waterfall, because we have a pair of waterfalls.
Although you could class it as one. I suppose when the water’s high it’s only one, but when the water’s like this, you get two! Which is double your moneyyyy, something your thing.
At Ian’s crazy discount waterfalls this is obviously the one to have.
I should imagine that when it’s really thundering it down further up the hills it comes down here at quite a lick.
And now I’m going to have a closer look.
There’s something rather pleasing isn’t there?
There is something really quite special about waterfalls and if I could work out what it was, and I could bottle it, but I can’t work out what it is.
There’s something about the movement of the water, the movement of the air that goes with it.
In the middle of the plunge pool there’s a high bit, so I can stand directly in front of this waterfall without getting wet, but what you get as a result is a movement of the air.
So I’ve got round my ankles this really nice cool breeze.
I ran out of shorts, so I am wearing a skirt, which is white, which goes really really well with mud, I have discovered.
Mind you, I manage to get dirty whatever I wear, so um… I’m just going to go with it’s mud effect.
And now I’m going to have a closer look.
That’s what it is. It’s a fashion now isn’t it? Mud effect clothes.
But I earned my mud.
I’ve managed to find a primordial gully with another waterfall in it.
It’s a little cascade of all sorts of little waterfalls.
I’m going to have a closer look, cause that’s the sort of guy I am.
I was expecting, from the little bit of reading I did about this walk and the waterfalls on it, that we were going to see maybe five waterfalls.
This however, is a little gem.
It’s a little cascade, so we’ve got these ones here, which is what we saw when we first came along, but behind me there are pool after pool after pool.
I am surrounded by waterfalls. I couldn’t be happier
I’m a happy chappy.
I’m going to wonder further up and see what else I can see.
That’s what you get when you come to the black mountains.
We’re a bit turned around. We’ve just traipsed through some undergrowth, and crossed the river, and recrossed the river, and found ourselves on a path.
The map says we’re on course for another waterfall but there is no waterfall in sight.
That’s the footpath, I was right, vaguely.
Slightly wrong, but also right.
We got to the right place through the wrong means, that’s what he’s trying to say.
We have reached the… fifth of our waterfalls, as you can see it’s a bit on the not doing an awful lot scale.
Basically someone’s turned the tap off a bit.
Although it is a waterfall it’s not quite as impressive as all the other ones.
In the interim, enjoy the pretty waterfall
Jo- Oooh, ahhh.
We keep heading this way and apparently there are further falls.
We kept going and it turned out that the little waterfall we saw back there wasn’t actually the waterfall that we thought it was, it was just a precursor. Just a snippet, a preview, if you like of the waterfall that was to come.
Whoop! I’ll just turn that into a casual move.
Yes, you ‘meant’ to do that didn’t you?
You meant to er… fall sideways.
Fall sideways into me.
It’s like being with someone that’s constantly drunk.
Jo- laughs- Hey!)
I’m light on my feet.
Ian scoffs- Light on your feet!
I wobble but I don’t fall down.
You’re a weeble?
Yeah.
Riight, she’s a Weeble.
Yeah, what we really need is a camera stabiliser about now.
Because look it’s very very wobbly.
Jo laughing- yes it is.
There is apparently one more waterfall, which is errrrrr…. quite a trek to get to.
We’re heading up that, which is quite steep.
Well end up getting fit at this rate.
You see that look on ‘er face and the stance that she… oh don’t do that
that’s oh dear… the stance that she’s doing says we’ve taken the wrong path.
Again.
And the reason that we’ve taken the wrong path, is the path that we should be on no longer appears to exist.
So what we’re going to do is walk back down the path we’ve just walked up, which we did think that it was a little bit on the odd side that we had to walk up such a steep path to go and see a waterfall but hey ho.
Not the first time.
Especially considering there was a sign at the bottom.
There she is, looking all… moody
I’m not moody!
I’m Fine!
Yeaaaah, she’s fine.
Now watch as I fall flat on my backside.
And slide the whole way down.
Lots of spiky things!
I will now attempt to avoid the spiky things.
Ow.
See, now we’re back down at the bottom again, the whole idea I
Whoop!
Well that was sort of slidey and slippery and… yeah.
Let’s see if we can make it to the last waterfall then.
There’s quite an easy path on the other side that you can get down.
Whoop, squelchy
This is the last of our waterfalls that we’re going to be able to reach, there is another waterfall. Apparently, according to the map.
But we can’t get to it because the path has been washed out, and we’ve only been able to get to this one by walking along the river bed.
But it’s been a lovely walk.
And Jo is up there taking some footage of a nice, pretty waterfall, which I’m sure is what she’ll leave you looking at.
We walked the same route.
My shoes.
Ian’s shoes.
They’re a little bit muddy.
A little bit?
Ohhh yeah.
How?
How Ian?
I don’t get dirty, I don’t get how it happens, but I just don’t get dirty.
I’ll send you to NASA, they want fabrics that dirt don’t stick on to.
Yeah, and apparently I am made of whatever that stuff is.
Look, I’ve got a little bit of dust on my T-shirt.
Oh! Poor you and your “dust”
I know. It’s just appalling isn’t it?
Anyway, we’re going to walk back to the car now.