After a good 6 months in London with various levels of lockdown and some pretty serious hours put in at work, a chance arose to head off on a long weekend trip with Angie and two of her friends. I was the only one that could drive and I have been dying to get out of London and do some hiking so I took charge and planned a trip to the Brecon Beacons, and off the four of us went. Day 1 saw a comfortable drive out of the city and an early afternoon arrival to Merthyr Tydfil for some lunch and an exploration around the area. Pontsticill Reservoir, Pontsarn Bridge and Cyfarthfa Castle featured that afternoon before back to the house for some wine and homemade risotto from the Italians. The weather for Day 2 was still misty and fogged in so we decided to push the hike to Saturday which had much better weather forecast. We started Friday the right way by heading to the local bakery and getting a selection of Welsh Cakes which included biscoff, chocolate, cream and jam, lemon curd and so many more. Off to Three Cliffs beach to enjoy a misty walk and exploration along the coast, definitely no swimming. A quick drive further around the coast and we had lunch in a town called The Mumbles and then back home for a chilled afternoon and an evening in the outdoor hot tub with beers.
Saturday dawned glorious and we left the house around 7 to drive into the Brecon Beacons and begin the Pen y Fan Horseshoe hike. We hiked the loop clockwise and so ascended up to Twyn Mwyalchod first, getting the steep section out of the way early. We marvelled at the glorious view down into the valley and the rolling green hills stretched out in front of us before making our way along the ridgeline to Craig-Gwaun-Taf, Corn Du and the to the highest peak in the Brecons, Pen y Fan. Pen y Fan isn’t all that arduous a climb, with many people running in the shallow mountains of the area so we easily made it to its peak of 886m. It was quite busy here with many trails all converging at this peak so onwards we went to Cribyn where we stopped for some lunch and then continued up and down the rolling saddles and peaks to Fan y Big and then down across the mountainside with the local sheep to end up back on the trail near the start. 6 or 7 hrs of easy, slow hiking and around 19km summed up a beautiful day in Wales. Sunday we again started the day with Welsh Cakes and coffee before driving into Cardiff for a wander round, some lunch and ice cream and then an afternoon drive back into London.
All said and done, a fantastic weekend away which has brought back the itch to run some mountain trails. I’m already looking at the next country adventure, perhaps Snowdon and Scaffel Pike will be next on the list.
