llywela | a winter's walk

So my sister (the elder) had another appointment with her 'specialist' yesterday - a very last minute appointment, they rang in the morning to say they had a cancellation if she could come in, so of course she moved heaven and earth to get there, she's waited months for this appointment already. The upshot is that the last lumbar puncture she had showed up abnormal results, including oligoclonal banding, which is a possible indicator for a number of things, such as the meningitis they keep ruling in and then out again, multiple sclerosis, and fibromyalgia, none of which are good possibilities. The specialist wasn't happy that her GP has taken her off the medication that's been keeping her symptoms in check, so has put her on it again, and has ordered more tests, because three years down the line after a frustrating merry-go-round of waiting for tests, waiting for appointments to discuss the test results, discovering that the test results have been lost, ordering new tests, waiting for new tests, waiting for appointments to discuss the test results, discovering that the consultant hasn't read the file, etc, we're still no closer to an actual diagnosis of what's wrong with her.

Never be ill in Maidstone, that's the moral of the story.

On a brighter note, I went for another winter's walk on Saturday, a four-mile cross country hike in the Newport area this time, setting out from the Fourteen Locks Visitor Centre at Rogerstone and taking in the Allt-yr-Ynn nature reserve, Wern-ddu wood and Ynysyfro reservoir en route. It was a beautiful day, bright and crisp and clear - cold enough that I ended up with a headache, but still a lovely walk...if a little muddy in places. I think I might have to invest in slightly sturdier walking boots!

This is the 'pound' at Fourteen Locks.

The 'Fourteen Locks' Centre gets its name from a series of locks known as the Cefn Flight, which is an absolutely ingenious piece of canal engineering, dropping 169 feet in just half a mile - it's one of the steepest series of locks in the UK, completed in 1799.

This waterway was a branch of the Monmouthshire Canal, built to transport supplies upstream to the mines and coal and iron back down-river to the port in Newport. The canal was made redundant as a means of trade when the railways came along, and fell out of use entirely in the 1930s, after which the stretch of water between Locks 8-21 (the 'Fourteen Locks') fell into disrepair - as we can see, industrial decay at its finest!

There is a Millennium project between Newport city Council and the Canals Trust to reclaim the waterway, however, and restoration work is ongoing, so maybe some day the locks will be fully functional again.

This is the old lock-keeper's cottage, built in 1792 (and restored about 40 years ago after a fire)

I was very taken with this sign along the bridleway - such dramatic imagery!

Next, we joined up with the Sirhowy Valley walk, taking us up into the hills.

Some lovely views north toward Mynydd Machen and Twmbarlwm.

Next, we picked our way along a muddy little footpath through the Allt-yr-Ynn nature reserve, which was once the grounds of Allt-yr-Yn House, a large country home now reduced to a ruin hidden in the trees that we didn't even find. We did, however, manage to find Allt-yr-Yn Lido, once an outdoor swimming pool built in the 1930s on the spot where the spring and ornamental pools of Allt-yr-Yn House once stood. The pool closed in the 1960s and was subsequently demolished - this pretty wildlife pond is now all that's left.

The muddiest stretch of the walk came next, taking the footpath across farmland into the grounds of Tredegar Park golf course and skirting around the edge of Wern-ddu Wood before passing Ynysyfro reservoir.