Stepping into nature

Walking in the outdoors naturally brings with it a simple pleasure.

The world takes on a hush and things you’d never normally notice stand out like the brightest stars in a midnight sky.

On your first step into Coedydd Aber Nature Reserve (locally known as Aber Falls), we think you’ll soon understand what we mean. The modern world falls away and nature comes first.

Where the valley floor meets the rising mountains, hawthorn and crab-apple trees rise out of the ground.

In May they bloom, their white flowers emerging after a cold North Welsh winter to fill a landscape on the cusp of exploding into colour.

The beauty of winter

But we don’t think the colder months should put a halt to your adventure to Aber Falls because, in fact, winter brings with it a whole new beauty.

You’ll probably hear the crashing rumbles of Rhaeadr Fawr waterfall before you see it.

Beginning life in the Carneddau mountains, rainfall builds and carves its way through the landscape, gathering before its final plunge into the river below.

When the winter rains arrive, the waterfall is easily one of the most dramatic and impressive sights in the whole of Snowdonia.

Experience the ‘hiraeth’

There’s a word in Welsh, ‘hiraeth’, which roughly translates to ‘longing’ in English.

But sometimes language is untranslatable because ‘hiraeth’ means much more than that.

It’s hard to describe exactly, but once you’re back home after your adventure around Coedydd Aber you’ll slowly start to realise the essence of what this word really means.

A sweeping sense of homesickness fills you; a desire and yearning to be back watching the waters of Rhaeadr Fawr tumble down.

We don’t think it’ll be all that long before you’re headed back to Coedydd Aber Nature Reserve, that overwhelming feeling of ‘hiraeth’ drawing you back, time and time again.