This page is dedicated to Chris on behalf of the Walk & Talk for her friendship, kindness and starting up the group for the village.

She has left us with a wealth of walking routes to walk from and we hope you enjoy them as much as we have.

About us? Chris formed us to be welcoming, friendly, fun filled and supportive to each other. Anyone can come along as long as they take responsibility for their own welfare, go as fast as the slowest and respect the leader and our rules of safety and countryside code as stated on the home page. We aim to keep that up for the future with anyone who comes to join with us.

It has worked so well over all the years of walking together.

About: Chris and how her Walk & Talk began.

The community of Ynysybwl owe the honour of having the successful WALK & TALK group which meet every other Saturday at 11 am to walk between 5-7 miles around Ynysybwl to the lovely Chris O’Brien who sadly died in April earlier this year, at the early age of 67, after a brave journey through cancer. Originally from Spennymoor in Durham, Chris came to Ynysybwl as a child when her father, A Durham miner, took work at the Lady Windsor pit. Chris’s love for Durham stayed with her, but she embraced her Welsh home in Ynysybwl fully, even sending her girls, Andrea and Teresa through Welsh medium education, and her granddaughter Jasmine is now a teacher in Welsh medium education; and though originally church of England, she brought the girls up in Tabernacl chapel with its strong Welsh language influence. She immersed herself quietly, but fully in the pleasantries of community spirit in the village.

The WALK & TALK group, began not as a dream of Chris’ but as a result of a good heart. Chris had listened to the people around her who wanted to go for a walk in the countryside but didn’t know the way. They couldn’t join with the already established and successful Cwm Clydach Ramblers as the distances and pace was too great for many newcomers. So, Chris decided to see what she could do to help.

She nervously walked into the regeneration centre and asked about help to set up a new walking group in the village and she was given great encouragement to do so. Although she enjoyed walking, Chris had no route finding skills of her own and so she realised she had a lot of work to do to enable this to happen.

Under the guidance of husband Terry (who is an experienced and capable route finder and walker) she would go out every week with him and learn and risk asess new routes for her little group so that when she led the walk it could go smoothly and would be within the capability of all who walked with her. She kept her route descriptions, maps and walk information in files (3 thick files eventually) in meticulous order so that she could refer to them time and time again. Her personal favourite walk was the bluebell walk and she would carefully plan this to happen when she saw the bluebells in flower over Graigwen.

She used the temporary money given new starting groups to diligently plough into hiring a bus to take the group to different starting places even as far as Brecon, or to help with a Christmas meal together, in early days this would be up the Mountain Centre in the Brecon Beacons and later on at Llanwynno or the Old Bwl pubs. She never wanted to have anything to do with money so when the initial grant run out she was relieved. But the group paid into a private kitty to donate money to charities themselves and so the heart of the group blossomed and continued in the vein of caring for others.

The pace of the group Chris always said was ‘we go as fast as the slowest’ which encouraged everyone to think about and tolerate the needs and abilities of everyone else in the group; and the motto was ‘we talk a lot of Bwl’ making a pun out of the name of our village for fun. The group began as a group of about four ladies: Chris, Nicola Price, Davina Cadwallader and Pat Parker, and their first walk was on 3rd May leading down the cycle way to Coed y Cwm, up the mountain, over the Roman Road and back down Ty Draw hill, but due to the warm nature and the carefully planned and varied walks, the numbers soon grew and reached as high as 30 men and women!

You could join the group if you fancied a walk and thought you could do it, and that in a way was her disclaimer. There was no formality to the organisation in that way, but her firmness about the simple basic rules enabled it to work extremely well. Her prestigious planning, pre-walking new routes and adapting walks to suit her companions, was paramount to people’s enjoyment and Chris did this relentlessly for the sake of those who chose to walk with her. A friendship group, now with over a 100 walks behind them, the Walk and Talk started from the heart of a very lovely lady who will always be remembered for her kindness, her soft and gentle manner; her care for others and her love of fun. It was a privilege to know Chris.

Her esteemed files of routes and information have now been donated by her husband Terry, to the Walk & Talk group, so her walks can continue to be a source of enjoyment and history of the group, for all who go along in the future.

Eryl Williams (friend of Chris and the Walk and Talk)

As well as preparing and leading walks for the walk and talk group in Ynysybwl, Chris enjoyed walking with her husband Terry who is a highly skilled and experienced walker and navigator. She called Terry her ‘Oracle’ to the walking group, because if she needed to know anything about walking/routes or planning, he was her guide and teacher. Here is Chris in some of the many places around the UK that she has walked with Terry over the years.