A HIDDEN WALK IN WALES - CYM GWAUN

MAY 30, 2026

               RAPIDS ON THE AFON GWAUN

This week I would like to show you two variants of one image from a beautiful hike Fran and I took on our last day in Pembrokeshire near the coast in South Wales. The fact that we found this hike at all is a testament to our twin and opposing skill sets that lead to conflicts to be sure, but also lead to serendipity on our travels.

This was our last full day in our cottage in the middle of nowhere near the town of Fishguard on the coast. We had gradually gotten used to our rural isolation a mere seven miles from the center of town. We now knew almost every way to get to town, which involved single-lane roads, nearly all of which were named Celtic Way despite leading in completely different directions from our cottage. Inevitably we ended up at the same Tesco, surprised that we had landed back in “civilization.” Since Fran would have to make a big drive the next day, I looked for a place close at hand before we would have to pack up the cottage and head out the next day.

Looking at my list of possible things we could have done in our week in Pembrokeshire (which would have taken a good three weeks, not one week) I noticed an obscure but celebrated hike which promised a pleasant walk along a river a mere five miles on the other side of town. My skill set is doing an inordinate if not obsessive amount of research is to find an out of the way activity in the middle of nowhere - what I call “the middle of fucking nowhere.” What makes for very interesting sidetracks is to use the web to follow rabbit holes to sites that might have nothing to do with ordinary touring. One of my favorites in England is to find motorcycle blogs which explore “unbelievable rides” in the countryside. I have never ridden a motorcycle in my life, but these guys know an obscure route better than any average tour guide, and after a little prodding Fran is usually game to at least try one if I promise that we will turn back if things get too hairy.

So in a little over fifteen minutes we found a place that seemingly hadn’t changed for a very long time. We were again only a few miles from town, but this time we had gone down into a hidden valley after a week of hill climbing with the car. Cym Gwaun is Welsh for Valley along the  
Gwaun River, and it was absolutely beautiful but so hidden that we couldn’t even figure out if we had actually found it. Plunging down single-track roads that defied any way to even bail on the trip, we finally arrived at what I thought might be the promised car park that would lead to our hike. Maybe.

It was now time for Fran’s skill set to come into play. She said hello to the only other human being in sight, who was leaving the only other car in the car park. Within a few minutes and a few questions, Ben was not only telling us how to find the path, but taking us across the river to get there. Even though I can now find exactly more or less where we were on Maps, there is no way we would have ever found the hike without Ben. It turned out that he had lived nearby for years. He came weekly to walk through what was obviously one of his favorite spots on Earth, and that he hadn’t found this particular hike himself without a decade of exploration. The idea that we found ourselves there was only challenged by his disbelief that we thought we could find our way to the trailhead. He lead us to the trail, went on his way down the path, and promised to check up on us since he was obviously hiking faster than we were. He assured Fran that I could handle the trail if we took it at a slow pace.

               THE BLACK AND WHITE VERSION

This image was taken at one of the bends in the stream where it encountered enough rocks to make for some interesting rapids. As usual in a “woodland” setting, be careful about avoiding the sky to prevent it from overwhelming the exposure and drawing the viewer’s eye fro the subject at hand. This valley was so steep that it really wasn’t a problem, but there was still some work to balance the different light levels in the background and foreground. I had to mask off some areas of the rapids to avoid losing detail in the water. The black and white version is just a matter of taste, trading monochromatic green for grey. But black and white allows for more editing without leading to unrealistic effects. I could highlight the small tree across the way, hopefully in such a way that you would not know what I was doing. In a nutshell, this is what most post-processing is all about. A pretty strong vignette darkened the edges of the image and further concentrate your attention on the river.

The hike was beautiful, following the river that led past several farms in the valley in between a lot of sheep and several rapids on the river. I do not remember if we saw any other hikers, maybe one or two, before Ben showed up again on his way back. What was most delightful about our brief encounter was that Ben got even more of a kick showing us the valley than we had in actually finding it. It’s this kind of experience that makes travel so worthwhile.