Golden Fire

Blazing fires are heating up the furnices. Miners covered in sweat, with blackened faces from the ashes and coke, keep shovelling new coke into the fire. With 1600 degrees the miners empty their barrows with iron and limestone into the furnices. Their senses are numbed. They can't think, can't feel. They keep going. For those few cents they take home at the end of the 7-day working week. The flames roar with power as the iron and limestone melt. It's between 1793 and 1861 when 1300 men, women and children operate the iron works in Clydach Gorge.

Today it's quiet. The roar now comes from the stream that runs through the gorge, a very timid roar. The morning sun is lighting up the trees above the iron works, making it look like they are on fire. Birds are singing their songs, leaves are rustling in the wind. I follow the stream, making my way over a narrow and muddy track next to the stream. Fallen trees block the path and after every tree the track grows narrower and more overgrown by bushes: less and less people have walked here. It's fun, I keep going to see how far I can come, good skill-practice!

A dead end at last, no way to go on. Instead I turn around and do another round of climbing and sliding till I am back at the easier part of the track. Upwards then! Here is a quarry to explore. Frosty ground and sunlight trees on the top-edge of the quarry, the massive stone walls are an impressive sight. Thinking I can get up, I climb up a hill on the edge of the quarry. Nearly at the top, it gets too steep and I choose to make my way down again. Instead I follow the old mining railway and get to a beautiful waterfall.

Having explored most of Clydach Gorge, I head for the footbridge over the motorway. It leads me to another waterfall called Devil's Pit, a small waterfall but with a strong current. The other side of the motorway offers me a walk through the hills, catching the last bit of sunshine before I make my way to the pub for a wood-fired pizza near a cosy fire.