15th August 2010

15th August 2010.

Dear All,

I think we can recommend the Brecon Beacons, not only the scenery and walking but the weather was much kinder than expected for Wales. We stopped in Ross-on-Wye for lunch on the way down and they were holding a carnival. When we arrived at Brecon they were holding their agricultural show and Jazz weekend so it was almost impossible to park.
We stayed at Defynnog near Sennybridge in a small barn conversion and managed a walk almost every day.

Our House/Barn
On Sunday we attended Kensington Baptist chapel where a smallish congregation have raised £250K to match the sum granted by the Welsh Assembly to rebuild a large stone building with serious roof problems. We had lunch at the Jazz Festival then climbed Fan Frynch which was a long valley walk with a steepish climb to the top where it was boggy and difficult going.
On Monday we visited the Mountain Centre then walked across the moor to Mynydd Illtud. After we drove down to Methyr Tydfil in the only serious rain of the week to pick up Esther.
We travelled further west on Tuesday to the Black Mountain and climbed up to Llyn y Fan Fach reservoir followed by a long wait at the Red Kite feeding station. I think the large crowd deterred them coming too close but we saw plenty flying overhead both then and throughout the week.


Llyn y Fan Fach Reservoir
Wednesday we climbed Bryn, a round topped hill east of Brecon, with excellent views of Pen y Fan, the highest mountain in the Beacons. We then explored Crickhowell a pretty small town east of Brecon then climbed the Table Top mountain with a distinctive flat top.

Table Top Mountain
We rang the changes a bit on Thursday and visited Brecon Museum then hired a canoe for 3 hours on the Brecon Canal followed by a visit to Brecon Cathedral.

Brecon Canal
Friday was the highlight climbing Corn Du and Pen y Fan which at 886m is the highest hill/mountain in southern Britain. As we did not feel too bad we went on to Ystradfellde Waterfalls where we anticipated a gentle stroll round four waterfalls. In fact it was quite a hard slog so we ended up walking 6 hours that day.

View from Pen y Fan
The journey back was not too bad – just the usual delays on the M25 as we dropped Esther in Hutton having inspected her livestock, them home by 4.15pm in time to watch the end of the cricket.
Love

Mike & Kate