As you approach along a steep incline of terraced Victorian houses there is nothing to hint at what is just around the corner.
The car park is a wonderful hay meadow full of wild flowers. You immediately feel you are away from the world. Far from "Silent" there are song birds and the pleasant rush of the river. As our ears become accustomed to listening, there is a persistent cuckoo. There seem to be more about this year.
Follow the path and you enter woodland. In June the beech trees have just developed their fresh green leaves, but we must return in autumn to see their golden splendour. The path, as with most welsh walks, goes up the hillside. The occasional bluebell is visible now, so hopefully in a few years they will spread and should become quite a show in themselves.
As the pathway becomes steeper the landscape opens out to the mountain. Now there are less birds, and in the distance you can hear the clanking of machinery and lorries from the mountain top tip.
On site signage is poor with no indication of distances along the waymarked routes. I, of course, have mislaid my leaflet which would have indicated where to go and what to see.
http://www.gwentwildlife.org/reserves/silent-valley-local-nature-reserve-sssi
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