Water World of Wales Secret Britain

This is the story of Britain, but a Britain we rarely see.

Britain as an undiscovered country.

Our glorious landscape isn't just spectacular.

It's full of secrets and surprises.

We asked you to share your secret places.

It's absolutely beautiful.

And the response was overwhelming.

You're taking us to some remarkable sites.

How bizarre.

I've never climbed anything this high in my life.

We'll also share a few secrets of our own.

'I really enjoy discovering secret wild swimming spots.'

Oh, that's amazing!

'This is Britain as you've never seen it before.'

Oh, my word!

HE LAUGHS

-If you want to know a secret...

-Then come with us.

The great British weather.

Love it or loathe it, the rain keeps our land green and pleasant.

Essential for farmers like me.

And for walkers like me... watery wonderlands spring up.

But some of our best water features are the most secret.

Their charms only known to the fortunate few.

Hunting for those idyllic spots, spurred on by your suggestions...

We've come to South Wales and the Brecon Beacons.

On the western border of the Beacons, the Black Mountain rises.

Crowned with a majestic ice age lake.

To the east is the glorious ribbon of the River Wye.

And in the heart of the Brecon Beacons, a water world of surprises.

Waiting to be discovered.

Our first watery secrets got us up at first light.

I hope it's worth it, it's so early!

-It's certainly a beautiful morning.

-Yeah, it's good.

'We're in search of the fabled Dragons' Breath -

'not fire, but water.'

'It appears just a few times a year.'

'Simon Powell has long hunted for the watery Dragons' Breath.'

-Simon, how are you doing?

-Great, thanks.

'Thanks to Simon's obsession,

'he's filmed the secrets of the magical vapour,

'which occasionally visits this valley.'

'So we are in for a rare treat.'

-Wow, look at that!

-Oh, my goodness!

It's just mist. Myth would have it

that the Dragon lives in the cave

obviously through the day

and then in the night, comes down to the valleys,

looking for unsuspecting souls.

And this is his breath after a good meal?

-I love that!

-After a night's hunting.

If you wake up in the morning and you see a good dragon's breath,

the dragon's had a good feed and we will all be safe for a wee while!

It just totally absorbs all civilisation.

-You sound like you really love being here.

-Oh, yeah. How can you not?

-Do you feel like it's part of you?

-Oh, definitely.

So while we're here, what should we try and see?

If you're brave and you're bold,

some of the caving systems around here are spectacular.

And there's a cave which is so far in that it takes a complete day to get in there,

and then you camp overnight - why you would want to camp overnight underground in a cave, I never know!

-That's one of my biggest fears!

-Ellie is little and nimble.

I might have a go at that.

You can then push over to waterfall country.

That's spectacular. Lots of large waterfalls.

Cascading waterfalls.

Llangorse Lake is a must. You've got to visit Llangorse Lake.

People have been drawn to Llangorse Lake since the beginning of time.

You cut me, I'll bleed Llangorse Lake!

THEY LAUGH

You've set us off on our journey beautifully.

I can't wait to get out there and see some of this.

You'll have a great time, you really will. And it'll stay with you for a long time as well,

this little patch of Wales.

-Thanks for sharing it with us, Simon.

-Pleasure. Enjoy your travels.

Simon is our springboard to aquatic adventure.

He's revealed a secret water world where sky is sodden.

And land is overrun.

-We can't wait to get on the water.

-And in it!

To explore its untold stories and drink in its secret delights.

With so many trips to squeeze in, we're going solo for a while.

I'm making for one of our top tips - Llangorse Lake.

This place is very atmospheric.

There's a warm wind and rather strange light.

Makes it feel rather magical.

I just want to soak it all in.

But what's so secretive here?

'My guide Mark Redknapp has a passion for the puzzles of this place.'

Mark, where are we headed?

We're headed over to this wooded island here, in actual fact, it's not an island.

An island that's not an island. That's quite a mystery.

People aren't normally allowed to land on it.

-But we've been given special permission.

-Wow.

What is this place?

We are actually standing on this completely man-made island.

Man-made? Wow! How did they make it?

You first lay out bundles of brushwood,

you pin those down with oak stakes, timbers like this.

So how old is it?

Well, luckily, we can use tree ring dating to date oak

and that tells us that some of the oak, like the one down there,

was actually felled between the years 889 and 893 AD.

Incredible.

'A post hammered in place over 1,000 years ago.

'That oak and many more laid the foundations.

'But who built this island from scratch?

'Their secret skills have stood the test of time.

'Now trees have taken over,

'but once this artificial island was crowned with grand wooden houses.'

The Royal Palace, built around 900 AD, made for a Welsh king.

But that King had a powerful English enemy.

Queen Aethelflaed -

her Anglo-Saxon warriors laid waste to this royal residence.

Now, 1,000 years on, it's the birds who lord it over the lake.

Water has been at the centre of life here for thousands of years.

If you know where to look,

you'll find that it's hiding all kind of secrets.

'Your suggestions for surprising stories are inspiring Ellie and me.

'As we explore the secret water world of South Wales.

'Whose mountains are massive collectors of moisture.'

Snow and rain saturate the ground.

Water that feeds mighty rivers.

Rivers that run with fish.

And fish attract fishermen.

Landing a prize catch is a closely guarded secret.

Those in the know head to the Brecon Beacons and the River Usk.

Hiding somewhere in these restless waters

are some of Britain's best brown trout.

Trout with a taste for flies.

Tempting me to reveal a secret of my own.

I got the bug for fly-fishing as a teenager,

and it's all very well having all the right equipment,

but what you really need to do is find the best spots to fish in.

Young me struggled to discover those secret spots for a big catch.

But now, I've got renewed motivation.

What I'd love to do is take my 12-year-old son Alfie,

who's just getting into fishing,

and go off and discover our own little secret places to fish in.

So I'm hooking up with a master of the mysterious arts,

a world championship contender with reel and line,

who is well practised at plucking trout from the River Usk...

..Kim Tribe.

I can say to people, "Think like a fish." How do you think like a fish?

Well, it's not easy. Nobody can speak fish.

I'd be out of a business otherwise.

Looking at the water, where do you think the fish might be?

You've got a big conveyor belt bringing food down to the fish.

Aquatic insects, the nymphs from under the stones, dry flies

that are hatching out, any insects that fall from the trees.

They are all coming down in that chute of water.

Fish predominantly like to stay on what they call a seam, or a crease,

-just where it changes speed.

-So it's a little bit slower.

-Yes.

They'll sit in the slow water,

when something comes past them in the fast water, they'll grab it.

The trick is making sure the trout grab our fly

rather than a real one.

So Kim is deploying his secret weapon.

I'm going to use a little caddis imitation.

They are quite bright, so you can see it on the top.

You can see it on the top.

That's what you want to be able to see in low light conditions.

But the fish don't see that yellow bit,

the fish sees the underneath of the fly.

I fished a lot as a boy, but not much lately.

It's not about distance casting, it's about controlling the line.

The closer you can get to the fish without scaring it, the better.

This is great fun, isn't it? But quite tricky.

Yes, we spooked a couple of fish there, you know.

The water is on its bones at the moment, it's really low.

If you want to catch a fish in low water conditions, it's tough,

so you've got to be able to move around.

I'd be delighted if you can take me to one of your little secret spots.

Would you let me into that? Will you?

So long as you don't tell anybody else, OK?

Rather surprisingly, we are turning our back on the water.

I'm no expert, but I didn't expect to find fish in a forest.

This is a secret.

Goodness me. That was a bit of a journey.

Is this it?

Oh, no, this isn't it.

-Where now, then?

-Follow me.

In between these stones now.

-So, has anybody fished this before?

-Only me, and only once or twice.

This spot is my last chance.

So, time to deploy my own secret weapon.

My childhood fly box.

As a boy, I was so keen on my fishing,

I used to make my own flies.

And in fact, I used to tie the feathers

onto the shafts of earrings and send them up to my sister in London

who used to sell them to her trendy friends.

I had a good little business going there.

Oh, this is quite a fiddle.

So, if I can catch one of these little wild brown trout

with my own flies, that will be superb.

Right, there we go.

OK.

It's got to go at the same speed as those in bubbles on the flow

and then they'll take it.

-Yes, get ready now, whoa, don't pull it.

-Yes. Yes!

THEY LAUGH

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Yes! So, what have we got there?

We've got a little salmon parr here, perfect. As nature intended.

-Yes, on my rod. Let's have a little hold of it.

-OK, so wet hand.

Well, there we are. A wonderful little young, wild fish.

So releasing the fish, hold it in the water, face it upstream,

let it swim away under its own devices.

Kim, thank you so much for letting me in on your beautiful secret spot.

My pleasure, Adam, my pleasure.

The spot most people make for in the Brecon Beacons

is the highest peak, Pen y Fan.

It's a great view, for sure.

But this heavenly slice of South Wales has much more in store.

If you know where to look.

Your tip-offs have set us hunting for hidden gems.

Special sites squirrelled away in this Welsh land of legend

that's soaked in watery secrets.

These hills were polished smooth in the ice age.

When the ice melted, people poured in.

Ancient folk, folk whose ways we struggle to make sense of.

This stone has kept their secrets for thousands of years.

Now, archaeologist Natalie Ward looks after it.

She's waiting for sun and stone to align.

And...she's waiting for us.

-How are you doing, Natalie?

-Hi. Good, thanks.

-Wow!

-That's a big lump of stone, isn't it?

-It is, it's a whopper.

-You can't miss it, can you?

-What sort of rock is it?

-Old red sandstone.

Gosh, all these lichens and mosses.

Who put it here? Do we know anything about them?

It's from the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age.

-That's about 4,000 years ago.

-That's a hugely heavy rock.

How on earth did they get it to stand up?

We don't really know.

It's a proper feat of engineering, but at least a quarter, or third,

of it must be below ground, so we're talking a big chunk of rock.

And what about the obvious question, why?

Exactly what it meant is sort of lost in the mists of time, really.

Actually, there's a myth attached to this stone

that on midsummer, in the evening, just as the sun is setting,

the stone actually moves and goes down to the river to drink.

If you look round, it casts a really long shadow.

We think it's the shadow that goes like a tongue down to the river.

Look at it, it's the nearly there now.

Is it lucky if it hits the river or anything like that?

I've not heard of anything to do with the myth.

So often with these sorts of sites, there is that sort of connotation.

We can start our own myths, can't we?

You come into fortune.

I'm going to go down there if it's going to be lucky.

-It's nearly there.

-It's not far off.

-It is nearly touching.

It must be 60 metres from the stream back to the stone.

I reckon it's on this rock.

I think we're there, Ellie. It's here.

The stone is now drinking from the stream.

Bringing me luck.

You've been licked by the legend of the luck stone.

My legend of the luck stone shall endure for another 4,000 years.

I doubt it.

In the high country of South Wales,

stone and water are surprisingly close companions.

The tiniest trickle will, over time, erode the rock.

Feeding rivers carving their course along the valleys.

Putting on a spectacular show for the tourists.

But the water also has a secret life few get to see.

When it seeps deep into the earth.

I'm going with the flow under the mountains

into a cave cut by water.

To get underground, I'm going to need help.

Gary Evans is with some members of the South Wales Caving Club.

I'm hoping they know the way in...

and out.

-Hello. So, where are we heading, then?

-We are heading to this cave.

This is called Ogof Ffynnon Ddu.

This is the deepest cave in the UK,

-just over 300 metres from top to bottom.

-Wow!

We're going to see a river running through the cave.

And what's special in here,

we're going to see formations called the Bee's Knees. And the Ballerina.

And they are just exquisite, they are really fine formations

and very few people have seen them.

Amazing. So we are going into this secret world.

-And these formations - all been created by water?

-Yes.

We've got an over-suit for you. That will protect your clothing.

It'll keep you warm as well. Do you like that?

-I'm not sure "like" is the word, but functional is absolutely right.

-OK.

I feel a bit nervous, you know.

Why do people do this again?

Soon, we'll lift the lid on a mysterious, pitch-black water world.

And they say it's not only what you discover underground,

but what you discover about yourself.

We are unlocking the cave's secrets.

OK, guys.

'And one of mine.'

Perhaps now is a good time to tell you that I'm a bit claustrophobic.

I even freak out in a tight wetsuit, I'm not even joking.

I'm not going to see daylight again for 10 hours.

Wish me luck.

It's a wall of cold air.

Oh, I don't like this.

To make things worse, we are not alone down here.

If you can hear that, it's running water.

It sounds like a lot of running water.

'Water with the power to carve this passage through solid rock.

'What more secrets are in store?'

Wow, what have we got here?

This looks like a solid waterfall.

I know, it's all calcites, so it's all limestone

that was dissolved and has reformed as calcite.

-But it does look like a waterfall, doesn't it?

-It looks incredible.

We're going up there.

-It looks treacherous.

-It's not.

-Look how shiny that is.

Let's get you into there. OK, take in.

Grab hold of this side, and pull it there.

-OK, on rope.

-Lines are ready.

-Take the strain.

OK. Do a bit of walking up here.

Crikey. Oh, wow.

It looks so slippery, but actually it isn't, is it?

-It's all right, isn't it?

-It's remarkable.

Sorry. Wow, look at that, I'm up, I'm up. Hurrah!

Crikey!

The environment of the cave has changed completely.

-It has, hasn't it?

-All this water wasn't on the floor before,

it's not just dripping down from the ceiling any more, it's gushing down.

That's right, we're in the main stream here. It's a bit low today,

but this is taking water from all the way up the cave.

It can flood over our heads.

How quickly have you seen it go from that to above head height?

You wouldn't want to be here when it happens,

but I've been here in the morning and it's been fairly low,

then come back in the afternoon after heavy rain

and it's been right up here somewhere,

-you can just see it from above.

-Really?

-I know.

For now, we are the only ones who can see this.

And the rock has changed as well, it seems very dark now.

Yes, that gives the cave its name. So, Ogof Ffynnon Ddu

means "cave of the black spring".

And the black being this black limestone.

It's incredible, it feels like a secret world underneath the world.

I'm in the freak-out zone, Gary. You know I hate this.

-It does get a bit smaller here, as you can see.

-Yes.

So we're hands and knees for a little while now.

-You'll be able to drag your bag behind you.

-Right.

If your bag gets stuck at all, just kick it with your feet.

-It opens out further on.

-I'm better off not even looking at it.

I'm just going to deal with it as it happens.

At the moment I'm pretending the sky is just there.

After you. Go on, then.

He makes it look so easy.

Oh, my goodness, that's way more crawling than I thought.

'Be brave, Ellie. Gather your courage. We'll be back.'

If it's any consolation,

up top, things are also taking a turn for the worse.

The weather here in the Brecon Beacons

can change incredibly quickly,

with low cloud or mist coming off the tops

and wrapping round the hillside like a blanket.

Low cloud can be a killer for pilots, as you've told us.

You astonished us with stories of plane crash sites,

especially in the Brecon Beacons.

Wow, this is where a Lancaster bomber crashed

during the Second World War. This mangled burnt wreckage.

This is part of the engine.

And then down here, the twisted and bent crankshaft.

It would have come down with serious impact.

This is a memorial to the eight young men who lost their lives.

And the crash site is one of many on the Brecon Beacons,

scattered all over the hills.

It's a grim reminder of how the fog and mist and low cloud

can take lives up here.

But, incredibly, there's one man that was in a plane crash

up here in the Brecon Beacons and he survived.

Frank Stokes was an RAF radio operator.

Aged just 19, he was on a training flight.

It was January 12th, 1945.

Now 89, Frank knows the secrets

of surviving a collision with these mountains in low cloud.

-Hello, Frank. Lovely to meet you.

-Hello, nice to meet you too.

Whereabouts was the crash?

Well, on a misty day like this, we can't be very precise,

-but somewhere up along the top there.

-What about the plane?

Well, in fact, I've got a picture here to show you, there.

That's where the pilot sits, on this side.

And the radio operator on the other side.

-So just the two of you in the aircraft.

-Just the two, yes.

As we took off, there was snow all over the airfield,

it was a very cloudy day.

Did you have any indication that you were going to crash?

Well, no, the first hint that I got

was a change in engine noise.

And I took my gaze away from what I was doing and looked ahead,

that's when I first saw the mountain there.

And the impact was strong enough

to throw the pilot some distance out of the plane.

What sort of state was he in when you got to him?

Well, he was in deep unconsciousness.

He was breathing very heavily and there was blood coming from his nose.

There was nothing that could be done.

And you decided to walk off the mountain.

That was the best thing to do.

The ground sort of fell away in that direction, so I went.

Snow everywhere, the like of which I'd never seen before.

I got to a point, I could see the road from Brecon to Merthyr Tydfil

and it was extreme chance that this guy should come around

in his car and offered to take me to the hospital.

I got out about teatime, actually.

I seem to remember a young nurse coming along

and feeding me sausages and mash.

And they discovered that you had got a broken back.

It was only later on that an RAF doctor told me

that I'd fractured my spine.

Goodness me!

-And the pilot, sadly, did die later.

-They wouldn't tell me right away.

I had to ask a couple of times,

but then they told me that he died.

-Do you think luck was on your side?

-Oh, it must have been, yes, yes.

As a teenager, Frank faced a date with destiny on this mountain.

70 years later, he has three children, 11 grandkids

and two great-grandchildren...

..all because Frank lived to tell the tale

when lost in the swirling mist of this secret water world.

Even in clear skies, these mountains conceal watery surprises.

Some of the rain is stored, but more seeps deep underground.

That's where I am, Adam, in Britain's deepest cave.

Passages carved by the irresistible force of water.

And I'm told tiny water drops have also created amazing formations

and crystal jewels few have ever seen.

Secrets I can't wait to see.

That's the good news. The bad news is everything else.

Oh, no.

I hate this, I absolutely hate this. Ugh.

I'm happy with spiders, snakes...

..even clowns, but squeeze me through a hole

and I'm going to pass out with stress.

Nearly there.

Don't like that at all.

Oh, my God.

SHE GROANS

Oh, I hate this.

Ooh.

-Even my bag won't fit through.

-You OK?

-Oh, thank God!

GARY CHUCKLES

Gary, I just don't know why you do this. Why do you do this?!

SHE SIGHS

I just hate that squeezing. Of all the things in all the world,

-I can cope with so much, but just...

-Do you know why?

What is it about it...?

I don't know, it's just innate, it's something deep within me,

even just the idea of it actually makes me

kind of want to look away, I can't even think about it.

-Well, you see, with practice, it'll get better.

-Good.

-Shall we practise?

-I suppose we should go on.

-Yeah, we should head on.

No more of those, thank you very much.

Knee up onto this one?

'Thankfully, as the passage opens up, after one last struggle,

'we're close to our watery secrets,

'known to cavers as the Ballerina and the Bee's Knees.

-'I hope my legs hold out.'

-Whoa, steady there.

-SHE LAUGHS

-Just ahead of us here,

this should be worth looking at.

Oh, wow.

They really are stunning. Why so white like that?

It's all just pure calcium carbonate.

They're almost see-through, aren't they?

So that's the Bee's Knees?

-SHE LAUGHS

-Yes.

-Is that why it's

called the Bee's Knees? Cos it's the shape of a knee!

-Exactly right. Were you expecting something else?

-I wasn't sure what I was expecting!

-And the Ballerina?

-Just step forward and look back at it again.

-Oh, yeah.

That's the Ballerina.

Really serene. Gosh, in this secret place. Gosh, aren't they incredible?

'The drip-drip-drop of eternity.

'Water working in secret.

'Each drop leaves a minuscule deposit of calcium...

'..the same mineral that builds our own bones.'

When we're all gone and the cave's quiet, they're just sat there,

quietly doing what they do.

We're so lucky to see these. It's very atmospheric.

-And there's more to see?

-There's more to see.

-Shall we keep going?

-Yep.

Oh, my word, Gary, this is something else!

Looks like snow all over the roof the cave.

GARY LAUGHS

-And sparkling as well.

-I know.

-Wow, what is it?

-This is gypsum.

'Crystal gems glistening like jewels.

'Hidden treasure of this Welsh water world, precious few have ever seen.'

It's just here in secret all the time until we come along

and throw these lights up, and the whole place just sparkles.

There have been parts of the journey where I wasn't sure,

-BUT...it was worth it.

-That's good.

SHE LAUGHS Even the squeezes. It's made it worth it.

BREATHLESS: Now just the small matter of finding my way out.

In the Brecon Beacons, it's water, water, everywhere.

Even the odd drop to drink.

This natural pool was here long before it was dammed.

It's known as Llyn y Fan Fach, a lake steeped in mythology.

Yes, the tragic tale of a beautiful lady born from this water

and betrayed by a man.

These showcase sites and their stories captivate allcomers.

But we're delving deeper.

We're told this dense thicket conceals a dark secret

for us to discover.

Ah, the legendary Witches' Pool of Pwll-y-Wrach.

-WELSH ACCENT:

-Yes, Ellie, the Witches' Pool.

That's not a bad accent, actually!

-I'm half-Welsh, you know.

-Are you?

-Yeah, on my mother's side.

Well, I thought you were Scottish with the red hair.

HE LAUGHS

So did you enjoy your journey into the underworld kingdom?

LAUGHING: I didn't see any goblins.

I was glad to have got there, but very glad to have got out.

You'll have a go next time.

HE LAUGHS

Hmm.

Well, we're looking for a pool apparently.

Yeah, and there's a waterfall by it.

Well, here's the water.

Ah, look at this.

These weird faces in the tress.

Whoa, that suggests the dark art of the occult, doesn't it?

-They look a bit modern to me.

-Yeah.

-And that's not much of a waterfall.

I can't believe this is it. There must be some more clues somewhere.

Goodness, look at this.

HE READS NOTICE ALOUD

-Have you found anything?

-A phone box, does that help?

-What?!

HE LAUGHS

-Look at this, no phone but loads of intel.

-Here we are, "You are here."

-Look, waterfall is there.

-Oh, nice one.

-Not there yet.

You going to change into your Superman costume?

As long as you put your fairy outfit on - or are you a witch?!

THEY LAUGH

'Following the tip-off from the telephone box,

'we're on track for the Witches' Pool.'

Swirling with a dark secret, fed by a waterfall.

This must be it, Ellie.

It's beautiful, isn't it? It really is.

Lovely, rusty red colour all down the waterfall.

Yeah, beautiful sandstone.

-Not much light, though, is there?

-No, it's quite enclosed.

It's Welsh name is Pwll-y-Wrach - "Pool of the Witches".

So the dark legends are that this pool was used to try witches,

they would have been drowned because of their craft.

I was going to go for a swim in that pond,

but, um...not sure the mood is right.

'I could well believe it was a witches' pool.

'We'll never know for sure.

'But what a beautiful sight for such a heartbreaking secret.'

It's spurred me on to find a more suitable spot for a wild swim.

Not a witches' pool, no, I've got a bit of a hike, but at the end

of my walk there's the promise of finding an enchanted fairy pool.

While you're away with the fairies,

Ellie, I'm on my own amazing journey.

For a farmer like me, it's no surprise to be in a field.

But just you wait.

Unlikely as it seems, hidden in these trees are old farmsteads.

Apparently, cattle grazed here for centuries. But where?

A traditional way of life's been lost.

The evidence lies in secret somewhere in these woods.

I want to uncover one family's forgotten story

that's generations old.

And there's some clues over here. That wall is definitely man-made.

Ah, this is what I'm looking for.

This is one of the old farmsteads that was here before

the wood was planted.

And now it's tumbled down, and the bracken and thorn

and bushes have taken over. But it's got great big thick walls.

This looks like it would have been quite a big room in here.

Before the trees were here, of course,

this was all grassland with grazing animals, they would have

planted their own vegetables, and it wasn't all that long ago.

The trees were only planted late sixties, early seventies,

so they've grown up very fast,

and this old farmstead has just disappeared into the undergrowth.

Nature has forgotten the farm, but, fortunately,

a few people do remember.

Edwina Cartwright carries those memories

from a century ago with her.

Great to meet you.

'Her mother's told Edwina the secrets of life on this old farm.'

-So remote, isn't it? So who've you got there?

-That's my mother.

How old do you think she was then?

She was, I think, 10, 11. She was living here at the time.

-So she'd have lived in the house here?

-Yeah.

-Incredible, isn't it?

-I know. And my grandmother.

-My word, what an outfit.

-Gorgeous, isn't it?

-So slim as well. My grandfather.

-What's his name?

-Christmas.

-Christmas?!

-Yeah.

-What a great name.

-Yeah.

We're quite remote, they'd have had to run everything on candlelight

-and those sorts of things.

-There was an outside toilet,

and I think they had to get water from the stream.

Make their own bread, their own butter.

My auntie and my uncle used to go over on a horse and cart

to Penderyn, on to Aberdare,

to sell milk, in churns then.

And how old is your mother now?

-She's 91 in October.

-And does she still talk about the place?

Oh, yeah. She'd love to come up here herself, but...

Well, it was a job for me getting here!

Can understand why a 91-year-old wouldn't be able to make it.

'85 years ago, Edwina's mum discovered her own secret spots

'in a magical landscape, as she began to explore.'

She used to walk to school,

across the river and down into Pontneddfechan.

-How long was that?

-I think four miles.

-Goodness me, there and back every day.

-Rain, hail or shine.

Come on, let's go and retrace her steps

-and see which way she would have gone.

-OK.

'Edwina's mum, when she was just six years old, often set off alone.

'A wonderful walk, but a challenge for those young legs.'

My word, Edwina, that's a serious river to cross!

-How did she get through here?

-When it rains, it rises very quickly.

-Making it even more difficult.

-Yeah, yeah.

'But the secret path to cross the river took that little girl

'to a breathtaking sight.'

Memories of this glorious waterfall still sparkle for Edwina,

and her mum.

There's a path right behind the waterfall,

and that's how she travelled, she walked behind.

My grandfather used to go behind there on a horse,

and he'd take cattle and sheep.

-The only way to cross this valley.

-Yeah.

Let's go and take a look.

My word!

-It's absolutely beautiful, isn't it?

-I know.

-It's gorgeous.

-With the sun shining through.

-Yeah.

-To think your mum used to do this in her school clothes every day!

-Yeah.

-I'm not sure I want to ride a horse through here.

-Oh, no.

I suppose after a while the livestock

-and horses would have got used to it.

-Yeah.

It's called Sgwd-yr-Eira, and it means "falling of the snow".

So thank you so much for sharing your family secrets,

it's been wonderful, and please send my love to your mum.

I will, yeah.

-Your secret stories...

-Take us to special places.

This isn't the only watery short cut we've heard about.

A secret tale from the banks of the River Wye sparked our interest.

Crossing this great divide put us in contact with a couple

who had a story to share.

-I'm Maggie.

-And I'm Graham.

-And our secret is...

BOTH: ..we bought a bridge!

-Why DID we decide to buy this bridge, Graham?

-Well, it was over lunch.

MACHINE BEEPS

I said, "We're going to buy that." Your reaction?

"Oh, no, not another one of your harebrained schemes."

-We fell in love with it. Something different in our lives.

-Absolutely.

Let me introduce you to the bridge, our beautiful bridge.

It was built here in 1774, the secret route between

England and Wales.

The bridge is definitely a secret to a lot of people, and we find

that when they arrive and say,

"But the sat nav brought me here. I didn't know this existed."

Over two centuries old, the bridge has been bypassed by new roads.

Now it's a secret short cut, but it isn't a free ride.

For unlimited crossings by car, it's just 80p a day.

-Hello, there.

-Hi, you all right?

80 pence, thank you very much indeed, and that's the return...

Money that pays to keep the bridge going.

Good afternoon, how are you doing today?

Parliament grants the bridge owners the right to charge,

but not to charge what they like.

For us to increase the prices of the toll requires us

to get an Act of Parliament passed.

So it would have to be

a very significant increase for us

to make it worthwhile to apply for that, which we have no plans for.

-Hello there, that's just 80 pence, please.

-There you go.

There's a steady stream of income.

But it's not all plain sailing making a bridge your home.

-We've had probably four, five floods?

-Each year!

Yeah, since we've been here.

But it doesn't come into the house, fortunately, it's just very damp.

And the biggest issue is the debris we catch on the bridge.

We have had some very large trees wedged on,

we then need to get guys with chainsaws out to cut them up for us.

You never know what's going to flow under your bridge.

But it's a constant joy to relax and soak in the secret life of the river.

We had wanted to move to the sea,

and we'd been talking about getting nearer to the water,

and we said, "Well, there's more water here than we could ever want."

What a beautiful spot.

Particularly the views from the bridge upstream

are just out of this world.

Living near the River Wye is just magical.

We're on the trail of hidden, secret stories.

It's a quest that's brought us to South Wales

and the Brecon Beacons, a realm of watery delights.

Right now, I'm on a one-man mission to immerse myself completely

in this watery world -

the best way I know.

Since we're sharing secrets, one of mine is that when I was growing up

I wanted to be the youngest person to swim the English Channel.

I didn't actually do it in the end, but I still love swimming,

and now I really enjoy discovering secret wild swimming spots.

What makes the lake that I'm going to so special is that it's

a watery gateway to another world,

and who can resist a legend of the lake?

Not this lady?

Ho-ho!

Wow! It's so unexpected,

walking all the way up this mountain, you don't

even see it until you're right on top of it.

SHE SIGHS Looks glorious.

There's always something quite special about water

that's collected high up, because obviously it always floats downhill.

So to have this secret pool hidden from the world...

gives it a real magical quality.

'I'm not the only one enchanted by this fairy-tale pool.'

-How are you doing, Neil?

-Hi there, Ellie, how are you?

-I'm good.

-Have a seat.

-Thank you.

Cor, what a spot!

'Believe it or not,

'there's a magical rock sitting in the middle of this lake.

'Sadly, we can' see it, because, of course, being a fairy kingdom,

'the rock's invisible.

'I have conjured up man of mythology Neil Thomas to tell me the tale.'

On the first crow of the cockerel on each May Day,

the rocks would cleave apart to reveal a magical tunnel which

took anybody who wanted to go on to the kingdom of the fairies,

and see the great beauty of the place.

But a local man came to see the fairies,

but his wife was very ill at home and she didn't come.

And he thought he would take some flowers

back for her from the fairy kingdom.

So he left, taking with him some flowers,

and the entrance sealed behind him...

DOOR GROANS AND SLAMS

They never opened again.

And that's because he took the flowers,

even though he was not supposed to.

That's a sad story.

It is in a way, but what an ideal place to have a fairy kingdom.

-Exactly, this is where it would be.

-Yes.

That makes me want to swim even more now.

Neil slips away as silently as he appeared, leaving me alone.

Well, apart from the fairies.

This place is amazing,

so it's time for my own magical transformation, into a wetsuit.

'Tiptoeing into the fairy kingdom,

'you soon discover it has its own guardians.'

Oh, there are leeches everywhere!

There's a big one and loads of little ones. I'm going to get in quicker.

I've been told it's 27ft deep in the middle,

so there's plenty of room for the fairies to hide.

Oh, my goodness, it's really slippy.

I'm just going to have to launch,

that's the only way over the slippy bit. Agh!

Oh, that's amazing! This is awesome.

Like being a child again.

SHE SIGHS CONTENTEDLY

This is unlike any place I've ever been before.

Totally secluded, and the mountains just bear down on you as you swim.

For this small snapshot of time, it's been my own secret, magical world.

We've been soaking in surprising stories from a secret water world.

-It's so rich in treasures...

-We're struggling to sum them all up.

-So we're stepping out of the water...

-And into the fire.

With a man who's here to inspire.

If you're looking for someone who's good with words,

who better to ask than a poet?

A poet who loves this landscape and its secret delights.

-Christopher Meredith lives here...

-And writes here.

So we're taking this man of words aloft...

-For a poet's-eye view...

-..of this magical, mythical kingdom.

-The heat from the burner is just extraordinary.

-Incredible, isn't it?

This is a first for me, in a balloon. Fairly terrified.

I like things with engines.

THEY LAUGH

Farmer's-eye view from up here.

ADAM WHISTLES TO SHEEP

Away! Sheepdog's going mad down there now.

LAUGHING: It's bringing the sheep in!

-How high up are we, skipper?

-4,500ft.

-4,500ft.

-That's...

Just an old wicker basket and a balloon.

Don't say that.

So every time we look down we're just getting this feeling about the place.

You can see why it's inspired so many people, it must inspire you, Chris.

It does, yes, and last March I was down there with my son,

we were looking at the peat bogs on the top there,

and we got completely lost in some of this cloud,

in a landscape that we know really well.

I think we made an eight-mile walk into a 20-mile walk by getting lost.

THEY LAUGH

Somebody I was with one day picked up a Neolithic arrowhead from the

top of the ridge, so somebody walked along that ridge 5,000 years ago.

Man, this is a fantastic place to live.

Chris, your poetry is about this area,

this seems like the best place to hear some.

Well, this is a poem about the Black Mountains,

and it's about the ridge that's just cloaked in cloud

to the north of us there.

Taking colour from those clouds that blow across the sun

Falling and swelling to where that edge of upland bites the sky

Goes home Resolves at last to almost silence

In white noise of living air.

Goodness me, the hairs have stood up on the back of my neck!

-Floating in the sky, you can just savour that moment.

-Yeah.

Actually, travelling this slowly over the landscape you can

contemplate the pattern.

Human beings are makers of patterns, and also,

to make a poem is to make a pattern.

And so it connects with that idea too.

As a farmer, it's really interesting looking down

and seeing the patterns of the fields, with round bales

and sheep, cultivated land down in the valleys,

and then up into forest and these wild, desolate hills.

I'm going to bring the tone down, I've got a poem now.

There once was a farmer from Leeds Who swallowed a packet of seeds

It soon came to pass He was covered in grass

But has all the tomatoes he needs!

THEY LAUGH

-A wonderful limerick!

-You're so welcome.

-We'll let you know.

Yeah. "We'll call you."

What a journey we've enjoyed.

-Your suggestions for your special secret sites...

-Haven't let us down.

-We've been inspired.

-And admired a wonderful Welsh water world.

-We've got to land yet.

-I know.

With all our hot air, we might stay up here for a lot longer.

LAUGHTER