Trekking in Brecon Beacons

We don’t get bored of trekking in Breacon Beacons.

It isn’t a particularly harsh or remote landscape, and you are never truly alone, but even though we have been back many times we still find new places to explore.

 

This was, what we would consider, our first proper trek since we started our trip, a full day out in the landscape. We chose a route which the guide said was the toughest, with warnings on navigation in poor visibility, right up our street. We started the walk at 10.00 am. The trek started with a long climb up to an escarpment that traversed the range. For a couple of hours, we had a challenging way up as the path was rocky, steep and slippery.

The landscape was absolutely stunning. It was a typical Brecon Beacons day: moody, bleak, cloudy and windy, accompanied with intermittent drizzle. Further up the escarpment the landscape opened up to reveal huge tracts of featureless terrain. As we were going up, the weather turned cloudier and darker. We continued to climb into the mist until we reached the summit of Fan Brycheiniog at 802m. We couldn’t enjoy the impressive landscapes promised by the walking guide as we were enveloped in cloud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The escarpment continued to Twr Fan Foel, where we unfortunately, took a wrong turn, by dropping off the ridge and descending a couple of hundred metres. As the mist cleared we were able to eventually re-orientate ourselves. However we reckoned we lost about an hour in the process. Despite the frustration, we couldn’t stop admiring the breath-taking scenery all the way along the trek.

This wouldn’t be the last time when poor visibility coupled with lack of proper sign posts on the paths made navigation challenging and we had to backtrack a couple of times to pick up the right path; some of the time we went off-piste, where the tracks had disappeared due to lack of use and had to trudge through fairly heavy vegetation, not the fastest way to travel.

We didn’t stop for lunch until 14:30 and we were only just over half way, so decided to take a more direct route back to the road. Despite shortening the walk, we still had a good 10 kilometres away to our final destination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Descending on the boggy, sloshy and muddy path was quite tiring and what was meant to be a couple of hours back it turn out to be three. The village, which had been on the horizon for so long never seemed to get any closer, and there still seemed to be no clear paths heading towards it. We eventually arrived at the village at 18.00. We were knackered but satisfied; it had been a long, challenging and beautiful trek, just how we like it.

We found a local leaflet with the a taxi firm in it. Firm really being the wrong word, and the owner driver was in Cardiff and would not be able to pick us up for another two hours and a similar story with his mate. We think the shop keeper had had a quiet word with one of his customers, as they offered to drop us further up the road, lovely couple, who were on their first night away from their 18 week old son. They eventually took us all the way back to Dora, half an hour detour, so many thanks to them, and they gave us recommendations to the local pubs. Back at Dora we headed to the  PUB.

The pub garden had a small zoo, with meerkats, goats, South American marsupials, monkeys, cranes and ducks! We had a nice shower in the car park, before enjoying a nice meal and a well-deserved glass of wine. We found a beautiful spot for the night below the escarpment we had climbed that day.

Start:                                     Tafarn-y-Garreg

Finish:                                  Cwmllynfell

Distance:                             25 km

Walking Time:                   8 hours

 

SM & GDR

 

Next stop: The Waterfalls Country, Wales