The Teifi, the Stars and the Turning Season

Croeso i’r Hydref — welcome to a new season in the Cambrian Mountains

The Teifi has carried us through a long, hot summer this year, but now the landscape around it is beginning to change. It has been an exceptional summer here in the Cambrian Mountains, with weeks of sunshine, warm evenings and the sort of weather that makes camping feel wonderfully simple.

Tent doors have opened onto blue skies, meals have been eaten outside and the days have seemed to stretch on and on. The prolonged dry weather has left the River Teifi unusually low too, bringing some great days on the river for our fishing guests and showing us a slightly different side to the water that runs alongside us.

But there is always a moment when you realise summer is beginning to loosen its grip. It isn't necessarily the first leaf turning or a particular date on the calendar.

Sometimes it's simply the light. The evenings become softer, shadows stretch further across the fields and there is suddenly a coolness waiting at either end of the day. Here, surrounded by the Cambrian Mountains and with the Teifi winding through the landscape, you don't simply notice the seasons changing. You get to live amongst them.

From summer green to autumn gold

Back in spring, we wrote about the gentle awakening of the Cambrian Mountains as the countryside slowly came back to life. Autumn feels like the other side of that story. Instead of waking, the landscape begins to settle. It doesn't happen all at once. Green slowly gives way to russet, copper and gold, the hedgerows become heavy with the signs of the season and mornings begin to arrive beneath a veil of mist. Sometimes the hills disappear completely, only to reveal themselves again as the morning warms.

There is something lovely about watching that happen from here. Autumn isn't simply a backdrop to your stay; it becomes part of the experience. You notice the crunch beginning beneath your boots, the smell of damp earth after rain and the changing light across the hills. You start the morning wondering whether you'll need another layer and return at the end of the day very pleased that somewhere warm is waiting for you. Even familiar views seem to change from one week to the next.

Following the Teifi

The River Teifi is part of life here throughout the year, but each season gives it a different character. After the exceptionally dry conditions of this summer, we've watched the water run particularly low. Our fishing guests have been able to make the most of the conditions, enjoying long, peaceful days beside the river, but as autumn arrives the Teifi will begin changing again. Cooler days and the return of rain will gradually reshape the river once more.

For those who would rather walk alongside it than cast a line into it, autumn is a wonderful time to discover the Teifi Trail. Cooler temperatures make pulling on your walking boots considerably more appealing than they might have been during the hottest days of summer, and the changing landscape gives you plenty of reasons to stop along the way. The river appears and disappears beside you, trees begin to take on their autumn colour and the countryside around Llanddewi Brefi settles into a slower rhythm.

You don't have to turn every walk into an expedition either. Take a flask, follow the trail for a while and see where the day takes you. Stop beside the river. Watch for wildlife. Take far too many photographs of the same beautiful tree. There are no points awarded for returning exhausted. Sometimes the pleasure of an autumn walk is simply being outside long enough to feel the season around you.

The joy of coming back

Of course, one of the best things about an autumn adventure is coming back afterwards. Summer makes us want to stay outside forever; autumn makes being outside wonderful and makes coming indoors feel like a treat. Muddy boots come off, the kettle goes on and suddenly something warm to eat becomes the best idea anyone has ever had.

For guests staying in our glamping pods, cooler evenings have their own particular appeal. After a day exploring the Cambrian Mountains, you can retreat to the warmth of your pod or sink into your private hot tub while the temperature drops around you. Sit outside for as long as you like, listen to the countryside settling for the evening and then retreat somewhere warm when your nose tells you it's time.

Autumn doesn't ask us to stop exploring. It simply changes the way we do it.

And then Wales turns out the lights

There is another reason we look forward to this time of year, and it happens when daylight disappears altogether.

Our long summer evenings are beautiful, but they make anyone hoping to properly explore our dark skies work rather hard for it. In the height of summer, you can find yourself waiting until very late before the sky becomes truly dark. Autumn brings the darkness back to the Cambrian Mountains at a much more civilised hour — and out here, darkness is something worth looking forward to.

Away from the glow of larger towns and cities, a clear night can reveal a sky that is very easy to forget exists. Give your eyes a little time to adjust and more stars begin to emerge. Familiar constellations take shape, the darkness seems to deepen between them and, when conditions are right, the Milky Way can stretch overhead. It is one of those experiences that doesn't really require you to do anything. Wrap up warm, step outside and look up.

There is something especially atmospheric about an autumn night here. The hills become silhouettes, the air turns cold and the sounds of the countryside seem clearer in the darkness. You might hear an owl. You might hear the Teifi moving through the valley. You might hear almost nothing at all. And sometimes, particularly when life everywhere else seems determined to be noisy, busy and brightly lit, almost nothing is exactly what you need.

Summer will always be special here. This year's has given us glorious sunshine, long days beside the river and warm evenings when nobody has been in much of a hurry to go indoors. But autumn doesn't feel like the end of all that. It feels like the beginning of something different.

It is walking the Teifi Trail beneath changing leaves and watching mist lift slowly from the hills. It's sitting beside the river on a cool morning, returning with muddy boots and cold cheeks, then climbing into somewhere warm. It's seeing the Cambrian Mountains turn from green to gold and noticing how different the same view can look simply because the season has changed. And when evening comes, it's stepping outside beneath a dark Welsh sky and discovering just how many stars were hiding behind those long summer evenings.

The seasons are part of life here. Spring wakes the landscape. Summer fills it with long days and warmth. And then autumn arrives, slows everything down and paints the Cambrian Mountains all over again.

Croeso i’r Hydref. Welcome to autumn. Follow the Teifi, watch the landscape change and, when darkness falls, don't forget to look up.