Brecon Beacons November 2010

Sunday 31st October
Warm up walk. Parked near Allt Mawr Uchaf and walked across to Pant y Llyn reservoir. It was a dull, dark day although it did brighten up as we returned. The reservoir seemed quite gloomy to me. We ate our lunch on some tussocks on what felt like a bleak bit of moorland. Essentially a short warm up with almost no climbing but nice not to see anyone at all.

Pant y Llyn

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=pant+y+llyn&aq=&sll=53.075614,-3.794921&sspn=0.032485,0.104628&t=p&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Pant+y+Llyn&ll=52.109299,-3.405161&spn=0.015814,0.025749&z=14&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=300&h=300]

Monday 1st November
We selected the only forecast day in the whole week suitable for climbing a mountain with a beginner. This proved to be correct as the weather was fairly rubbish all week.
After parking up in a big car park just down from the Storey Arms, we tracked back to the Storey Arms, which was much more ugly than I remembered it and took the path leading up to Pen y Fan. The path is very clear and wide, in fact at the summit it evens becomes tarmacked – I wish this was a joke.
We plodded along with the summit of Corn Du visible all the way, various men in army uniform overtook us and we stopped frequently for little breaks.

Generally a very easy walk, warm to start off with and then cooling as we ascended. Corn Du is as you would expect from its profile, very flat on the top. It’s a short hop from there to Pen y Fan, along the previously mentioned tarmac, to gain great views of Cribyn.The weather started to come in so we wrapped up a bit more and it was time to get out of the wind. We short cut round the side so as not to have to reascend Corn Du’s plateau and then it was an easy path all the way down. We lunched on the way as various people struggled up and decided to tell us all about it.

I should have insisted that we snacked on the way up as this might have kept one of the party a bit warmer. She suffered a bit from the cold and found it a long walk. But she did do it with a bit of encouragement. Good effort for the first one.

Corn Du
Helicopter landing strip
Cribyn
Proof!

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Pen+y+Fan,+Glyn+Tarell,+United+Kingdom&aq=1&oq=pen+y+fan&sll=52.109325,-3.405192&sspn=0.016605,0.052314&t=p&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Pen+y+Fan&ll=51.884015,-3.436832&spn=0.031788,0.051498&z=13&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=300&h=300]

Tuesday
Went round Brecon, shopping and looked at Cathedral.

House behind Brecon cathedral

Wednesday
Went round Abergavenny and Monmouth, shopping! Finished off by visiting church under Churches Conservation Trust care at Llanrothal. This involved walking across a field to get to it. It was dusk as we arrived and I didn’t particularly like being inside but Carol spent what seemed like ages absorbing the atmosphere. Lovely spot and we stayed long enough to release 2 birds that had been trapped.

Abergavenny
Charles Rolls without car, Monmouth
Abergavenny
St. John the Baptist, Llanrothal

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=llanrothal&aq=&sll=51.883972,-3.436805&sspn=0.066754,0.209255&t=p&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Llanrothal,+Herefordshire,+United+Kingdom&ll=51.857093,-2.75259&spn=0.031807,0.051498&z=13&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=300&h=300]

Thursday 4th November
We parked up at Cwm Du and walked a round across country lanes and muddy fields to Maesyronen Chapel (owned by Landmark Trust) where we have stayed, Carol has stayed there twice. Then back along the empty lanes. We tried to use a footpath going through a farm but no sign of where it was, must remember to report this.

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Maesyronen+Chapel,+United+Kingdom&aq=0&oq=maesyronen&sll=51.85714,-2.752566&sspn=0.066794,0.209255&t=p&g=llanrothal&ie=UTF8&hq=Maesyronen+Chapel,+United+Kingdom&ll=52.062148,-3.202515&spn=0.007915,0.012875&z=15&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=300&h=300]

Meals in pubs
We ate at:
the Castle Inn at Pengenfford, I had tuna which came on a VERY hot stone to the table where it continued to cook, it was accompanied by some raw vegetables which I had to cook. I was quite tired and not really in the mood to have to cook my own dinner. It was a bit of a novelty act that just wasn’t what I wanted at that time.

Peterstone Court, Llanhamlach, this had 2 AA rosettes so I was expecting it to be very good and it just wasn’t. We got an unidentifiable starter whilst sipping our beers in the lounge, it seemed to be vegetable. Then I had steak which was cooked to a bit more than medium. C had 2 starters, one was risotto which looked nice and the other was beef in rounds but she didn’t get very much.

Baskerville Arms, Clyro, this was just regular pub grub so not very exciting. I stupidly went for boeuf bourgignon which I cannot spell and of course it was nothing like my BB.

To sum up: the meals we cooked at home were much nicer!

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

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