PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES
Life is simple in the eco pod, like I need it to be. Warmth, food, gentle light when the sun retreats behind the craggy treeline… and a soothing, slow-motion vista across fields, feeding horses – my little sanctuary, protecting me from the mad world and delivering me to Mother Nature for restoration. I sit on the quiet deck and a couple of lifelong lovers, swans, descend onto the green expanse before me to settle, all wingspan and whiteness. I settle, too. This is Cynefin, the Welsh word for habitat, and I am part of it now.
But… morning comes – and my restless spirit and I have a mountain to climb! A short drive away, the Brecon Beacons – and my quarry, Pen y Fan, the highest peak in south Wales which, with its twin, Corn Du, are ‘Arthur’s Seat’ (yes, that Arthur). At journey’s end, way up high and acutely aware of my quivering quads, a euphoric sense of achievement, arms akimbo and laughing elatedly, like it’s Kilimanjaro.