Caban Coch & Garreg Ddu Reservoirs 14 mile circular loop - Elan Valley, Mid Wales

{I originally started writing this blog on Christmas Eve but never finished it for one reason or another......here I am, 8 months later! I decided to keep the original intro but as I've done this walk so many times, this blog will include pics of both the original Caban Coch loop which I've done many a time and then the current photos from the most recent walk we did 2 weeks ago while camping in Fforest Fields August 2018.}


So today is Christmas Eve, which is one of my favourite days of the year! Unfortunately this year, I'm not as excited as usual as it's been a pretty draining few weeks and I'm the person working on call Christmas Day so it's not quite the same as usual, but I'm still trying to maximise Christmas spirit - hard work when everyone else in the house and family is off for a chunk of time and you're not! So I'm posting a walk from mid Wales as it's been a while since I last blogged.

The past year or so, I've spent quite a bit of time walking in the Elan Valley and there are some lovely walks to be had! So I thought I'd post up a walk I've done a few times now. It's quite long at 9 miles (the guide book says 7 but I've tracked it on quite a few occasions and it's definitely closer to 9) but it's a really pretty route all the way around Caban Coch reservoir. Walk starts at the Elan Valley visitor centre, which is easy to find and signposted well from Rhayader. Parking is pay and display and pretty cheap at something like £4 all day. There's information in the centre and they sell a cheap book of routes with some maps of the area which is handy. There's also a café but it doesn't serve food later than about 3pm I think. They do have events on throughout the year so there's always lots to see and enjoy.

Head straight on from the car park behind the visitor centre and up towards the dam. You cross a bridge and follow a footpath to climb up and come out next to Caban Coch reservoir.

Crossing the bridge

Tina looking photogenic as ever.

The other side, you turn right and climb up a short steep section of steps and come out at the top of the reservoir. The route is quite easy to find, you walk straight on along the path which follows the reservoir most of the way around.

When me and Tina visited recently, we were training for our long distance hike on the August bank holiday so we decided to add on Garreg Ddu as an extra loop to bump the mileage to 14 miles. It is a fairly easy walk with very little overall climbing, so well worth doing if you have the time! If not, the 9 miles is totally acceptable and a great walk in itself.

Every time we do this walk, Tina hits her head on a low hanging branch - despite me usually walking ahead and warning her. She's normally too busy talking and just turns back in time to whack herself. On this trip however, she was delighted to discover it had been chopped down! Clearly many people had been as stupid as her and they felt the need to protect them.

Here's proof Tina will just blindly copy anything to fit in...she didn't grasp the concept of my new phone 'selfie' mode where you hold up your hand to trigger a 2 second timer.

You reach a section where the path heads left up a steep grassy climb and you can see the remnants of the dam they blew up during world war 2. This is the only real climb of the whole route and it is fairly steep but quite short. At the top, you can either follow the path and head all the way up before branching down to the right or just beat across on one of the lesser trodden paths through the ferns to arrive at the path which continues to head towards the forestry. You cross a stream and then follow the path uphill for a bit before heading through a gate on the right which is signposted as a footpath.

You head down the forestry (or what's left of it) and the path continues on to the left. There's a picnic table here which we made the fatal mistake of stopping at on a previous trip....only to be engulfed in a cloud of midges determined to eat us alive! We stuffed in the food and promptly carried on!

Here I am just before the picnic table full of midges. This was a different day and we were wiser!

As you carry on through the forestry, you emerge to a really nice view of this end of the reservoir.

It had been sunny for so long, the reservoirs were looking really empty and you can see how low they are - normally you can't see so much of the bank!

The path is fairly easy to follow - at the bottom, you go through a gate and come out past a farmhouse and a few cottages you can hire as holiday homes. Then you cross over a bridge and walk back along the road the majority of the way (it's fairly quiet). You can detour off where there's a large wooden gate and a footpath signposted Elan Valley Estate...this brings you through a gravel/tree lined path that leads you down to the edge of the reservoir where you can get a closer look but you then need to climb back up to rejoin the road along a dirt path.

At the end of this road you reach a little church on the left and a bridge which goes to the right. Following this back and turning right again you'll be back on the main path which will bring you back out at the Elan Valley visitor centre (about 30 mins walk)...but we decided to stop for lunch and then plough on to do the Garreg Ddu loop!

I had no idea how easy it would be to find this loop but was tracking it on OS maps so we could see the footpath and it was a lovely woodland route all the way around and not strenuous at all.

The path starts off as a small road/farm track and then signposts off into the woodland as footpath to skirt around the reservoir. Garreg Ddu is really long so at times it heads off more into grassy land and across a few fields. The only thing I hate about the Elan Valley is ticks. The dogs always seem to pick up ticks here no matter what extra things we treat them with and after this weekend, we pulled the biggest tick ever off Gracie which had attached to her chin - I actually felt like spewing when Mark asked me to help him after he found it, I was wondering if I could even do it! Urghhhhhhh. Hate them so much!!!

This photo doesn't even begin to do it justice, it was the biggest tick I'd ever seen in my life. Poor Gracie!!!

Anyway, back to the walk! You get some really nice views looking back over the reservoir as you get halfway around. It was another really hot day in the heatwave that the UK has been experiencing for what feels like forever...and we'd come a little unprepared and didn't have enough water! So we kept sweating onwards, with the dogs panting and as we headed back over farmland and down the road adjacent to the reservoir, I thought I could hear running water.

At first, I thought I'd imagined it, it felt like we were in a desert and it was some kind of mirage. Tina was totally oblivious because she's obviously used to being dehydrated and doesn't have dogs. However, as a good dog owner, I was acutely aware the dogs were boiling and needed a drink, so when I spotted a stream in full flow, I just legged it off the path and threw the dogs in to cool down! I was starting to worry they'd struggle to finish the walk...14 miles is quite a long way in baking sunshine. Tina thought I'd gone a bit mad but we carried on, feeling victorious as we finally reached the bridge which leads us back to the last leg of the walk.

Tina striding onwards - to victory!

Mark rang me at this point - we were on a big group camp with my family and loads of friends..they'd spent the day walking to the pub, eating and drinking wine and beer. Happy days! They said the campsite was way too hot but it had been a bit breezy on the walk so we were feeling alright although it was still really warm. We felt pretty strong and took a picture at the end feeling really fresh, even though we were 14 miles in:

Whilst on the phone to Mark, we missed the turning for the footpath we usually take back down to the visitor centre at the side of the dam, so we ended up walking on a bit further and coming down the steep path into the car park. The centre was closing for the day so we couldn't use the loos and we collapsed on the grass to check how far the route had tracked on OS maps, we struggled to get back up - and Gracie didn't want to move at all.

Sleepy beagles!

We headed back to the campsite for a barbecue and a few well deserved wines! We always stay at Fforest Fields. It is without a doubt one of our favourite campsites! There's so much space....loads of walks and cycle paths on site, you can hire kayaks and kayak on their lake, loads of smells for the dogs, campfires allowed in firepits and minimal light pollution so super starry nights! They also have a well stocked shop with an honesty box and a café which does lovely food and drinks (open in peak season). The facilities are spotless too. The only problem is they have a strict noise curfew at 10.30pm so trying to keep Tina quiet past this point after a few proseccos is hard work! We succeeded though and live to see another trip here, which I'm grateful for!

Less than 2 weeks until we head off to Pembrokeshire on our long distance hike...50 miles in one weekend. In preparation, we headed up Cadair Idris with heavy backpacks on for some training last weekend - more on that to follow soon!

Fforest Fields from the track above. Photo courtesy of my dad! It really is sublime.