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  • Alick Burt

A Quiet Paddle on the Brecon Canal

The Brecon Canal is not far from where my brother lives so I was able to combine a visit to him with a bit of paddling.

The first time I paddled this Canal it was on the section from Brecon to the Star Inn at Talybont.

This time I decided to try and start around the same area where I finished last time.

I found the Star inn on the map and another pub with a car park adjacent to the water a bit further on.However when I got there it looked like they mught be busy so rather than occupy one of their valuable spaces I drove a little further up the road and found myself a convenient spot to put in.

The tunnel was ahead of me and all was quiet with nobody coming the other way so I entered and paddled on keeping the far end in sight.

As I got further in it began to get darker and darker but I made my way through without incident and made a mental note not to go through if I was too late back as the light would not be sufficient.

I paddled on under a wonderful green canopy.

The canal is quite narrow and luckily there wasn't much traffic.After a while I stopped for a coffee under this lovely big tree.

Next I came to Llangynidr Locks.There are two then there is a short paddle till you reach the next one. There are some great views off to the side between the locks.

and also from the canal over the valley.

and then I was back in my own little world of green

A smiley face appeared on some hay bales which matched my mood at the time.

It was well past lunchtime and I didn't have sandwiches with me so was looking for the next pub.

I had already passed two but at the time I was a little early and wanted to find somewhere to start my next trip from too.I saw this handy roadside access at about the same time as a passing boat and asked the boatman how far the next pub was. He told me it was quiet a way so I decided to turn around and go back to one of the others.

I made my back to the coach and horses where I was a bit late for meals and the sandwiches were out of date so I opted for a slice of cake with my pint of Reverent James Original.

On the way back I spotted this lovely old sign

and when I stopped for tea I saw this suspension bridge away in the distance but I'm not sure where it is or if it is still in use.

When I got to the tunnel it was looking darker inside so I opted to take the route over the top with my trolley. On the way over I saw this curious cage. I wonder what it is for?

As you can see from this final picture there is still plenty more canal for me to come back and paddle!

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