A nine-year-old girl from Talgarth walked twelve miles in less than eight hours to raise money to help protect endangered animals.

Self-confessed mountain and walking lover Emma Griffiths walked from her home in Talgarth to Dragon’s Back, across to Rhos Dirion and Tampa before finishing at Hay Bluff.

Completing the whole walk in about seven and a half hours, the determined young nature-lover finished the last five miles in her socks.

Despite the sweltering heat wave and blisters on her toes, Emma refused to give up and finished the entire route on Saturday, July 17.

When asked why she decided to take on the long walk, Emma said: “Because of the endangered animals.”

Emma, who’s favourite animal is the critically endangered silverback gorilla, said she is angry about the state of the planet and worried about the future for animals like the gorillas and Javan rhinos - of which there are only 72 left in the wild.

Emma, who lives with her parents Sarah and Rhys as well as her brother Owen and sister Alice, has so far raised £660 for the World Wildlife Fund.

With aspirations to be the next Jane Goodall or David Attenborough, Emma revealed she started thinking about the environment around Christmas last year when her and her brother adopted an animal each for Christmas.

Emma received a gorilla adoption in her name from the WWF.

Mum Sarah said: “They had an animal adoption each for Christmas and it’s since then she has been getting really passionate about the planet.

“I’m really proud of her - she inspires me all the time to do better. When she’s started getting upset about the state of the planet, it was good motivation to starting doing out bit. At the end of the day, it’s their future.”

While the family had always recycled, Sarah said they started to do more including making their own compost at their allotment and making more effort to walk small journeys rather than drive, including walking to and from school.

Sarah said: “We’ve added a wildlife pond to our garden and we’ve just got our first frog - we rescued some frog spawn from a puddle and the first frog has just emerged. The rest are still tadpoles at the moment.”

A fundraising event had been building for a while - Sarah said that Emma was always coming up with ideas and schemes to raise money and awareness.

However the final idea to walk the 12-mile-route to raise money was relatively spontaneous as it was only decided upon in the weeks leading up the walk.

Sarah said: “Emma loves going up mountains a lot. We first went up Hay Bluff when she was only five - we went up as a family and only did half way but my sister, Lindsey and her dad had to catch up with her because she got up so quickly.

“It’s a bit of a passion and so mountains and the her love for animals just came together. It was a real challenge. We didn’t plan for long to be fair, it was quite spontaneous as it was only two weeks before.”

Sarah’s sister Lindsey James, who is also Emma’s auntie, planned the route and accompanied them on the walk - guiding them with her experience of the area.

Emma and Sarah, who were both “really nervous” packed up all their stuff at 8.30am before walking for a couple of hours just to reach the bottom of the Dragon’s Back.

They stopped for a refuel before proceeding up the mountains after the initial four miles to the common.

Sarah said: “There was a lot of water and a lot of sun cream. We had kept some water in the freezer so it would defrost through the walk and keep us cool.

“Emma’s grandparent were waiting in the car park for us so they could give us a lift home afterwards.”

Emma said her grandad bought her an ice cream and had extra water waiting, which she was very thankful for after the walk as was relieved mum Sarah.

The young activist also said she was happy because she got to see donkeys and horses during the walk.

Emma said: “I was naming all of the ponies while we were walking. I named one Coco and another one Bean because they were both twins.

“The hardest part was the gravel paths at the end because I was walking in my socks. My favourite part was going down Hay Bluff because I was sledging on my bum down the grass.”

Sarah said that when Emma started developing the blisters and hurting, she had “almost tried to persuade her to stop” walking - especially when they got to the last dip.

Sarah said: “I kept saying ‘are you sure you want to carry on’ and ‘you’ve already done so well if you stop now’ but she wouldn’t have it - she kept us going.

“I don’t think I could have done it without her pushing me on and Lindsey. I am so proud of her.”

After the walk, both Emma and Sarah slept well before having Emma’s favourite breakfast of Danish Pastries to celebrate the next morning.

It is not too late to donate to Emma’s fundraising page on Just Giving called Emma’s Epic Mountain Adventure which you can get to by clicking here.