Geography
Wales has more than 1,200 km of coastline, including the famous rocky coastline of Pembrokeshire. It is more a country of valleys and hills than high mountains. The country's highest peak is Mount Snowdon in the north-west at 1,085 metres. And the valleys are full of rivers and lakes. But it's also about 50 islands - often uninhabited. The largest is Anglesey in the northwest. The main river is the Severn, which rises in the Cambrian Mountains (linked to the Brecon Beacons chain) and flows through the whole of western England. It is also the largest river in the United Kingdom, at 354 km.
The Snowdonia Mountains are said to be around 400 and 600 million years old. Snowdon would come from an underwater eruption, the place was several times covered by water. Numerous slate mines are present in the area, the result of lateral pressure exerted on the Silurian rocks.
For the ascent of Mount Snowdon, one rule prevails for everyone: beware of the weather. Fog can fall very quickly and temperatures at the summit are at least 5°C lower than in the valley.
To the south, the Brecon Beacons area offers many rolling hills, traces of ancient mountains whose rocks have been eroded. Many coal mines make up the region, due to the geological history of the area, which allowed for the deposition of sediments and the transformation of biomass (including organic plant matter such as forest residues).National parks with legends
It is worth noting that agriculture has completely shaped the Welsh landscape, fields and meadows are legion for sheep, cows and horses. The challenge today is to reduce the emission of fossil fuels while protecting farmers and stockbreeders.
The Welsh classification of natural areas includes threeNational Parks and fiveAreas of Outstanding NaturalBeauty
(AONB). The classification is based on strict rules for road and house construction. The three National Parks are: the Brecon Beacons, Pembrokeshire and Snowdonia Park.Created in 1957, the Brecon Beacons National Park offers beautiful low mountain scenery. The wilderness of the Brecon Beacons contains forests, rare trees, lakes, moorlands and scattered herds of sheep. And in 2013, the Brecon Beacons Park became an international starry sky reserve!
Inside Brecon Beacons is the Fforest Fawr Geopark, established in 2005, which is the first Geopark in the country. These are unified geographical areas, where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed according to a comprehensive concept of protection, education and sustainable development.
It is also here that Llyn Cwm Llwch Lake is located. This lake is at the heart of a beautiful legend, that of an enchanted island invisible from the coast. A passageway leading to a rock would open every May1st. Those who have the courage to go through the door will find themselves in a beautiful garden full of fairies. The fairies play enchanting music, tell the story of future and past events and offer visitors exquisite flowers and fruit. No one should leave the island with these offerings... But one May1st
, a visitor stole a flower and left with it. Once he left the island, the flower disappeared and the man lost all his senses. Since then, the door has never opened again. But Llyn Cwm Llwch Lake is also a glacial lake, the best preserved in the south of the country. A glacial lake is a lake formed in a hollow by the erosion of a glacier. For the anecdote and movie lovers, in the movie Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, the entrance to the Batcave is located at Henrhyd Falls. These are the largest waterfalls in the park.Snowdonia Park
The climbers meet at Snowdonia National Park. Yr Wyddfa or Snowdon is Britain's highest peak, towering 1,085 metres above the nearby sea. It is a magnificent landscape of forests, lakes and waterfalls. But if mountaineers are said to find themselves here, it is also because the place has been used several times as a training ground for teams before facing Everest. It all began with Sir Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand climber and the first man to climb Everest and the two poles, in 1958.
Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008) took an early interest in mountaineering and from 1946 he climbed several peaks in Europe. And Mount Snowdon has beautiful cliffs and walls to climb. All in all, a perfect place for Edmund Hillary, who made the park his training base in 1952. On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay became the first men to reach the roof of the world.
In the end, like many Welsh places, it is a place of legends. The Glaslyn, a lake in the park, is said to be the final resting place of a sea monster: the Afanc. The monster once lived in the Conwy River and one day, for some unknown reason, it became aggressive and frightening. The inhabitants of the valley, tormented by this monster, not being able to kill it, decided to bait it with a young girl and take her to this lake, in the heart of Snowdonia Park.
In addition to the three national parks, there are five natural areas of exceptional beauty in Wales. The designation was established to "promote the conservation and enhancement of natural beauty, to advance public education, understanding and appreciation of the conservation and enhancement of natural beauty" and to promote the organisations that deal with them. The five areas are: Anglesey Island, Clwydian Range, Gower Peninsula, Llyn and Wye Valley.
