Last week I shrugged off my mid-summer photography slump, dusted off my camera bag and headed off into north Wales. I had heard there was a wildfire in Cwm Bychan in the midst of the Rhinogydd, a range of rugged and wild mountains (and National Nature Reserve) between the Mawddach and Dwyryd estuaries. I thought it might be interesting and useful to document it – if it was still burning. My plan was to drive towards Trawsfynydd , turn off westwards along a minor road into a forestry carpark, and then head further west on foot along the “Roman Steps” a public footpath through the mountains into Cwm Bychan.
Just a few miles north of Dolgellau it became clear that a wildfire was still burning in the Rhinogydd. A blue-ish haze suffused the landscape. It was genuinely unsettling and this feeling was accentuated when a fire engine hurried northwards, blue lights flashing. A gate barred the minor road I planned to take and a sign warned that it was closed ahead. Smoke billowed from the mountains several miles to the west. I reckoned that if the road was “closed ahead” I could legally drive as far as the point where it was actually closed. So I headed along it towards the mountains.
After faffing around for a while, and then trudging and floundering on foot upwards across a wasteland of molinia tussocks, I finally reached a point from where the source of the smoke could be viewed across the treetops. It became clear that the fire which had begun in Cwm Bychan on the western flank of the Rhinogydd more than a week earlier was now burning on the eastern flank, It had, as they say, spread like wildfire.
From my viewpoint I could hear vehicles driving along forestry tracks but they couldn’t be seen. I had no real idea what fire-fighting activity – if any – was taking place. Although a breeze was blowing the smoke south-eastwards, the fire itself appeared to be progressing slowly northwards. Very strange!
After taking a series of images, the best of which is reproduced at the top, I returned to my van and a quick mug of tea. I continued up the road in the van but at the point where it enters the forestry plantation I could go no further. It really was closed here. What I had assumed was one fire truck going backwards and forwards must actually have been seven different fire trucks and they were all parked here. Dozens of fire-fighters were in attendance, plus a refreshment tent. They were surprised to see me and rather suspicious of my motives. “Are you the official photographer?” one asked me. It seemed that I had arrived just at the moment when most of the fire crew were being stood down. I heard the chief thanking them all for their hard work and I managed a few quick snaps before they left.
But the fire was still burning. It was more widespread than it had been earlier in the day. The great pall of smoke was still heading for Dolgellau and onward. What had they actually been doing?
Part Two will follow.
To read more Tales from Wild Wales as they are published, please click the Follow button
Tales from Wild Wales 