Wales Outdoors Weekly Roundup 23/6/24

And Wales Guided Tours too :)

Jul 16, 2024

Wales Outdoors delivered five waterfall walks, one sunset on Pen y Fan hike and a Yoga residential weekend and Wales Guided Tours delivered a tour of three castles and Tintern Abbey… Phew! All this whilst avoiding the chaos that Taylor Swift brought to Wales… We’ll publish the yoga weekend separately.

Waterfalls

Six from the US on a waterfall walk day but they we’re not very prepared or up for the strenuous nature of the hike so Andy delivered a walk to a couple of falls then whisked them off for lunch in the High Street of the Year, Treorchy, then onto Castle Coch. Flexibility is the nature of the game and it always pays off, with happy clients and great feedback… These were ‘Swifties’ to a man and were very much looking forward to seeing the pop icon in the stadium the next day.

East of Cardiff

Four Taylor Swift fans, one a no show due to illness, and we were off, taking in Chepstow Castle, Tintern Abbey, Caerphilly Castle and Castell Coch before getting the clients back into Cardiff in time for them to rest a little and then put on their sequin dresses and glitter their faces. They had a great day and the chat was interesting throughout. Like Andy they believed the Covid era restrictions to have been government overreach and acceptance of such as a puff of madness that almost all became embroiled within. It’s surprising how many of our clients now openly state that they are not vaccinated, that they believe the covid measures to have been all about control.

Waterfalls

An exceptionally gorgeous day, sunshine, sunshine, sunshine… So, here is a video made from this singularly wonderful hike.

Waterfalls

Another small group hike in the waterfalls area of the Brecon Beacons National Park with clients from Holland and the UK…

Pen y Fan Sunset

It was a washout, literally. The longest day of the year and not a ray of sunshine to be seen…

Waterfalls

The weekend was all about our Yoga residential but I took time out from that to facilitate an exploration of the four waterfalls for a group of women from Bristol. They say 'We are a grassroots group of black women and women of colour who are passionate about walking and enthusing who identify with our lived experience to do so.'

Ideologically I believe that the UK is likely at the top of the list of least discriminatory countries in the world. Where funding is available for the maintenance and support of a minority group I feel that this in itself is discriminatory and where some groups benefit some miss out on the same opportunities. The authorities that have control of the purse strings do like a bit of virtue signalling and so fund the obvious whilst refusing to address the reality, which is that in the UK the most under represented and poorly performing are white working-class lads.

The Brecon Beacons National Park member Dr Yvonne Howard-Bunt said 'There are many people who don’t see them (National Parks) as an option to visit' and it is this attitude from the authorities that I wholly refute. I see a diverse representation, of people of colour, sexual orientation and with varying levels of ability accessing the places that I take my clients. What is underrepresented is outdoor education for school-age children, the government mandating just one week of adventure activity for every child, not each year, but for the total time in education through to 16 years.

The planting of seeds in a child's mind, the placing of memories, that is what encourages future visits to the countryside. But no one is talking about increasing outdoor education quotas in schools.