Henrhyd Falls

     This last week's jaunt took us to Henrhyd falls on the eastern side of the Tawe valley where the Nant Llech has cut a deep, tree-filled gorge in the hillside as it spills down from the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons to join the Tawe opposite Ynyswen.  I wasn't at all prepared for what we saw - there simply is no sign in the rather bleak landscape of either gorge or falls.  It wasn't until we left the car and entered what appeared to be simply a wood and the path began to steeply descend that we found ourselves in what I can only now describe as an enchanted place - the faint at first but growing sound of the falls, the increasing coolness and dappled, deepening shade, the glimpses of falling water through the still bare trees, the luxuriant vibrant green moss carpeting the ground.  

     It was a long and at times steep path down to the valley floor and a further path snaking up the gorge through a tangle of fallen trees to the falls - neither paths, it has to be said, are advisable for some.  It is only then, after all that walking, did the falls truly reveal themselves, and as I've said I wasn't really prepared for it, and I'm still not sure how to describe my experience. It's easy to give the odd fact; the silvery rush and tumble of the water as it drops some ninety feet (the highest in south Wales) into a curved pool, the contrast to the dark welsh stone that forms a sort of amphitheatre like a pair of welcoming arms; but to describe that deep, almost tangible spiritual presence of the place another. In Japan this would be sacred place with a rope of rice straw or hemp - a shimenawa - hung between trees and festooned with shide (paper streamers) to demarcate the spiritual, the pure, from the secular; and indeed standing there in the presence of something quite awesome it felt a long way from the 'external world of telegrams and anger' of the political events in Westminster.  And, to be frank, a certainly more spiritual place than many churches visited for this blog.  I shan't name them!