It would be impossible to retrieve his prized possession, nor his missing bones. But Caradoc was a curious man, by nature. Perhaps if he could just get outside. Free of his body, he pushed upward through the randomly-laid rocks, weaving through their cracks and the gaps in-between, until he could again see the light of day.

Caradoc breathed in the cool, fresh air. The world had changed yet again. The tall metal trees with wheels were gone, and though the small stone houses remained they were not crammed with people like they used to be. The blackness was gone, covered by a blanket of thick green grass which the sheep seemed happy to graze upon. There were more trees growing around him, too, reaching up to the clear blue sky just as they did before. A tall, thin metal pole in the distance caught his eye, appearing as though a giant had thrown his spear into the ground in anger. The thought of such a sight filled Caradoc with joy, particularly as there were no giants to be seen.

Yes, this world was not perfect. Caradoc sensed that the world had been, and still was, afflicted by war, famine, and disease. In fact, such a disease seemed to be on the minds of most of the people he observed below. But that too would pass. His own people had dealt with disease, and war and famine, and yet thousands of years later they persisted, for better or for worse. To observe a view like this, Caradoc thought to himself, the existence of people here in co-operation with the earth was surely for the better, and would last for thousands of years more.

*

At the end of this series of photos and short stories, I have two confessions to make. The first is that I actually took all three of these pictures with my phone. The reason for that is simple; it was at around the 300ft mark of my 1000ft ascent to get up to the Crug-yr-Afan burial cairn that I realised I’ve left the memory card for my camera in my computer, and I had no desire to go back, fetch it, and cycle another 300ft of elevation. The second admission I have is that this isn’t taken from the top of the cairn, though it is in the same general area. The site on which Crug-yr-Afan cairn is the high ground separating three valleys in South Wales; the Afan, the Ogmore, and the Rhondda. While the cairn is right at the top of the Afan valley, this shot looks down the neighbouring Ogmore valley, towards Nantymoel, Ogmore Vale, and all the way down to Bridgend, and the flat ground of the Vale of Glamorgan.

Hope you enjoy!