Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future

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The reader is welcomed on his journey through a language of wonder and adventure, ‘now we arrive in a dell… now we meet a stream of pools…now we scramble over a moss-swaddled wall’. He draws us in. We listen. We are on his side. Bullough speaks to a series of environmental scientists, mostly based in Welsh universities. Some are so sad that they seem about to weep in the middle of their Zoom calls. Others are frustrated by a continuing misapprehension among the public. While thinking about Wales in relation to global heating can sound funny – what could be nicer than turning up the thermostat on the country’s habitual chilly drizzle? – it turns out that the results will be nastier than anyone anticipates. As Prof Mary Gagen of Swansea University explains: “We can expect a lot of very, very wet summers and winters and the crop failures that accompany that will cause severe food shortages.”

From coastal castles to the steep pitches of Snowdonia National Park, mountain passes to the UK’s first trail centre at Coed-y-Brenin, traversing the ‘desert of Wales’ through the Cambrian Mountains and spectacular Elan Valley and lastly crossing the rough and wild Brecon Beacons National Park into the valleys of South Wales, there are few long-distance routes that rival the variety of landscapes that you’ll find on Sarn Helen.

The Sarn Helen, or Wales Coast 2 Coast, is a 430km epic trail that ebbs and flows its way from Conwy in North Wales, to Worm's Head on the Gower, South Wales.

Looming environmental catastrophe lies at the heart of Bullough’s book. Interspersed with his travelogue is a series of in-depth interviews with scientists from Welsh universities, whose predictions for the country’s future are by turns dispassionate and chilling. This Collection features the route split into seven stages, which you can ride each day, combine or split further as you wish. You’ll find places to stay, get more supplies and enjoy a hot meal in most of the towns and villages on the route, but it’s important that you book ahead for accommodation, especially in the busier summer months.A crucial book for now... Bullough has produced a multilayered and compelling account of his home's imperilled future... Stunning -- Gwyneth Lewis