Turbines & teepees

Posting from a bus shelter in Caersws... bussing as much of the way as possible today as I seem to be injured...creaky squeaky achilles after only 40 miles but then a lot of that battling cross country through overgrown, hidden bridleways, bracken over my head, flailing with comic inelegant over bogs & falling down hidden holes in the ground, losing a leg down a thigh-high hole. Up til now not seen much joy in exercising my right to roam over rough country tripping over tussocks (pesky Rhos pasture, your ecological importance inversely proportional to ease of navigation) & wading through bogs, but beginning to understand the lure of the compass and the straight line. I am turning into an orienteering geek. 

Many wonderful, fascinating, articulate, helpful people all along the journey. Restoring my faith in human nature (in light of reading about political treachery & climate change denial) & realise people are just inherently fascinating. Some brilliant words & strange sites:

Tipis (teepees?) nestling in the hills above Carno 

Offshore turbines like 'seagulls flying'

Barn owl chicks on a Sunday morning (not for breakfast!)

The Carno turbines: 'magic...they bring the hillside alive'

As for the silent (?) partners in this journey... Turbines... hm, being up close to them I've gone from a kind of awe-&-fear inspired spine-tingling reverence (dizzyingly huge & somehow animate creatures) to indifference ('they're just there and they work' - CAT) in space of two days. Useful navigation aids & fantastic landmarks but just one component of a working landscape.

Still had fun playing with the long shadow of the blades turning in the sunset @ Mynydd Clogau last night though.

So totally gutted I may not make it up to Llandinam today.  But just done a lovely interview with a spritely 86 year old gentleman. Bus stops seem to be fruitful meeting places for conversation...

Mark Lynas writes about 2 British climbers who had to be rescued after a climate-related (as it turns out) major rock fall in the alps. They had experienced a minor rock fall hours before 'but mountains have strange effects on people's minds and [they] pressed on'... Thinking I may do the same & hope for the best....