Afan - Day 6 - Afan Forest Park

Thus far, most of our days had involved driving 40-50 minutes to various destinations but today was a much local local affair. A 10 minute drive to Afan Forest Park. We were living in the middle of the forest, so it made sense to explore our local area. The day started off with a trip to Neath Masjid for Jummah before lunch at the house. So it wasn’t until very late in the afternoon before we headed out. Things didn’t start off well as when we got to the park it appeared that the car park closed at 6, giving us 90 minutes. Luckily, the visitor centre said that there was no limit and the council never locked the car park, so we could stay all evening….. which we pretty much did.

A quick walk revealed an amazing riverside picnic area where we camped out before the water games began!

Tarek carefully watching Sabera as she comes down a steep slope….. rather than walk 10steps to her right and come down a gentler slope like everyone else.

There was a lovely rock on the opposite side of the river and do naturally everyone wanted to go over. Luckily, like every day so far, is was a scorcher, so getting wet was a good thing! Once the 'men' had conquered the island, we headed back to help the kids across and so that I could get a photo of our achievement.

I then rearranged a load of rocks to create a seat in the river and we used that for photos. Bhai was a bit reluctant to get wet but luckily BhabiJaan was there to help him.

Once we had Bhai in the water, we decided to give quick wash to help him cool off in the heat…

Sabera waited patiently for her husband to join her…

We had a lovely time chatting by the river and some of the boys planned to return on Saturday, our last day, to go mountain biking. The forest is famous for mountain biking and you can hire out a bike and then go on one of the various trails they have from Beginner to Are You Kidding Me… You Want Me TO Go Down This Mountain On a Bike??!!!!

Dinner was chicken kurma and jalfrazi style courtest of Shamima and Taman and the evening was a games night for some of us….