Welsh "Safari"

Distance: 3.74 miles

Ascent:  141 metres

Surface: Mixed

If you like seeing animals then this is the route for you. Great for a family walk. On a good day you may encounter: lambs, pigs, a Shetland pony with his big best friend, buzzards, wild Carnaddau ponies, alpacas and even donkeys.

Directions:

1. Head up Sychnant pass from the YHA. Turn left onto the new Oakwood Estate (Lon Caer Seion) and follow the road uphill to the right alongside the fields. Look for the young bulls on your right (time of year dependent).

2. At the top of the estate go through the kissing gate onto the fields above Oakwood. Follow the path across the fields to the gate/road at the far side. Here you may see sheep.

3. Turn right onto the road and then immediately left up past the grand Tudor houses. Off to the right across the fields you may see the pig sties and pigs. As you continue up the road past the old golf course clubhouse you may encounter the Shetland pony in their technicolour coat and his big horse friend.

4. Opposite the house on the right, go through the kissing gate to the left and head across the fields bending to the right towards Llechwedd. Lambs and sheep abound here. 

5. Go through the kissing gate, on your right here there are often alpacas and donkeys. Continue across the filed and over the style. Go straight ahead here across the track heading towards the corner of the field where a kissing gate and narrow passage awaits. Go down this passage to the road.

6. Turn right on the road, after 50m or so bear left uphill on the track. Follow this up and over down to the right of the lake, here wild ponies, buzzards and ground dwelling birds thrive. Follow the track to the right of the lake until you hit Sychnant Pass road. Turn right.

7. Head downhill, shortly after the first right turn, turn right onto the track heading towards a row of houses through a gate. Go through the gate past the houses and through the next gate. Follow this track onto the single track trail and continue ahead. 

8. This track leads you back to the old golf course and the large Tudor houses. Head past these and down the Oakwood fields to the Oakwood Estate. Retrace your steps from Oakwood along Sychnant Pass Road to the YHA.

Please do not attempt to feed the animals! Some of the animals have special dietary requirements, recently two Shetland ponies died as a result of people thinking they were being kind feeding them.