Way to Hill - Wales Weekender Pt.3

Despite being quite exhausted I slept rather uneasily. I wasn't used to a sleeping bag and the narrow mat anymore. It also took me a while to realize that there were no low flying military jets passing by every now and then but that the noise came simply from cars on the nearby A40.
There had been more showers during the night so I chose to pack my stuff at around 7:30 when it was dry for a moment. Peeled myself out of the tent to find a clear blue sky flecked with plump white and grey clouds.

Been there done that: Camp in a pub garden

Had some salami, cheese and sardines for breakfast then stuffed everything into my backpack ready to go - you never know when the next shower comes - only to realize my waterproof jacket was still in the inner tent. ARG!
Ross was still sound asleep so I went around exploring. Found a church that looked like a castle, but the gate was closed. Walked a bit ahead on the Beacons way, had a staring duel with a sheep and found a cafe that was open! Yeah!

Back at the campsite I studied the map for today's route and found an easy one a bit on the Beacons Way and then heading over to Abergavenny on the Usk Valley Walk.
Ross emerged at 9 from his tent, we packed, had a nice coffee/tee and some Welsh cake at the cafe and headed off.

Ross' preferred hiking breakfast: half frozen Beanz

First along a minor road, determined only to take minor roads or official waymarked trails. Not 15 mins later we came across a public footpath that was a serious short cut according to our map and only about 2km long. We decided to give it a try. So much for resolutions, ha.
Walked over some fields with grand weather and the scenery behind getting more breathtaking with every climbed metre.

Of course we came to a junction after a while with no waymark. Arg! Public footpaths! The map said to go straight on, but the small gate had no sign and we could see no stile at the end of the field behind.
After checking the road to the left and right we decided to just take the gate which proved to be just right.
Arrived at a farm with a very nice farmer greeting us from his truck and walked down into Bwlch.
I had a sudden lust for milk and chocolate so we walked on to the bigger and easier to pronounce Llangynidr to have a break at the postoffice/convenience store.
Sitting under the canopy outside we dodged the only hail shower of the day munching chocolate and drinking milk.Then set off to walk along the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal all the way to Abergavenny. The path was lovely and easy, the underground almost too hard for such a long walk with heavy backpacks and hiking boots.

It took us much longer than I had estimated since we were just getting too tired. Arrived at the first houses of Abergavenny around 5pm. Relieved and happy at first we still had to walk looooong 3 miles to the railway station which took another hour and the help of some painkillers for Ross since his blisters were giving him the hardest time by now. (Quote Ross: "Is there anything you DON'T have in your backpack?" Hehehe.)

It took all our willpower not to fall asleep in the train, but we managed and got home around 8pm. What a great trip that was! The disappointment of not having bagged Waun Fach with its snowy top was outweighed by the lovely views and the pure joy of being outside. I had indeed missed this a lot! That not everything goes according to plan and that you have to make decisions and change plans... well that's part of the fun.
We will definitely go again, we're a good team out there. He will soon have a car, me too in about June. That will make spontaneous tours like this even easier.
The Black Mountains offer countless opportunities for walks as long as a day or a week even with still so many places to explore. They will be a good training ground for my other ventures later on. I'll be back!

Way to Hill - Wales Weekender Pt. 2

There really was no other way then to turn back and head down to Table Mountain again. Luckily the wind blew now from behind and right so our faces were not exposed to the hail shower. Whenever I turned around it felt like a thousand needles hitting my face. Within just a few minutes the underground was covered in tiny ice grains all around. It felt almost as if someone had literally put some icing onto the grassy slope. A grin crept onto my face as I realized that I seriously enjoyed this. Whatever nature comes up with, there is beauty in all of it.
Still smiling we descended further down, the wind and hail stopped eventually and back at fateful Table Mountain I asked Ross to decide. Go around the east face and head down to Crickhowell, pitch at the campitsite and have enough time to get a pint at a pub or go around the west face, head back to where we came from but keep going on the Beacons Way to Cwmdu and pitch at the campsite. He decided to go for the second and thus longer option.
We walked along the south face of some hills more or less level. with really nice views of the valley. Saw some sheep and some ponies which are really really tiny and not much bigger than big dogs. Most of them were quite shaggy and didn't care about us at all. Lovely.

Lost the path at some point as it just vanished and no waymarker pointed us in the right direction. I knew it just descended down for a bit before it would eventually come up again. So I led us along rather easy paths normally only trodden by sheep until we saw our foot path again and kept on going and going and going.
I must admit that the short bit we walked on the Beacons Way was really beautiful and the whole of it is definitely worth doing. Mental note.
Still, as the day was waning, its constant winding around farms and thus taking - in our exhausted state - unnecessary detours was a bit unnerving.
The thought of a pint in a pub kept us going at a more or less steady pace. I was already looking out for halfway decent places to pitch our tents as we had maybe half an hour of daylight left. A public footpath forked off to the left leading straight into the village presenting us with a nice short cut. We took it and ended up at a closed gate. Yay... Climbed back up to our path having lost precious 15 minutes and too much of the little strength we had left.
Passed by another public footpath and didn't even bother checking it. It was almost dark and the Beacons Way would lead us definitely into the village at some point. Then the path again led upwards instead of straight down into the village. No! From the looks of it, it just avoided another farm.
I left my backpack with Ross, ran back to the public footpath to have a quick look while there was still some light left. Not far down it met a tarmac road! Yes! That meant civilisation! Ran back to Ross and there we stood at that road not long after not knowing if we should head left or right. Took out our torches and decided to ask for the way at the farmhouse to the right.
I knocked and could see an old man hunched over a pot in his kitchen. He looked at me, I waved, he chose to ignore us and went out of the kitchen. Errr..... ooookay.
The other way then. After a few minutes we hit a dead end on a farm... again! We had more than enough. I was ready to pitch right here on the field. It was level, no livestock present and we would be gone in the morning. Then Ross remembered seeing a car on the farm, so the old man *had* to have access to a road. We went back and indeed, hidden behind a wall the tarmac road continued down! Yes! We had made it. We would not leave that road now, no matter how long we would have to walk. Ha!
Arrived in the village proper and met two ladies on our way to the campsite. Of course (!) it was still closed at that time of the year. I was determined to climb a fence if necessary, but they had a better idea and dragged us quite willingly to the pub. The nice owners offered us straight away to camp in the garden. Ha! Jackpot.
So we did. It was level and there was even light out there, perfect! We went inside after pitching our tents and had a few pints and a decent (for us the best) rump steak each. They had a fire burning and we could've just slept there right in front of the fireplace.
Eventually left the cosy warmth of "The Farmers Arms" pub and finally crawled stiff and aching into our sleeping bags.
What a day. We had walked a good distance - about 30km - and lost a lot of time re-routing for a number of reasons. We had enough of public footpaths and would definitely take an easier route tomorrow.

Way to Hill - Wales Weekender Pt. 1

Arrived after a reasonably short and uneventful journey on the train in Abergavenny at around 8:30am. Wow. It's only an hour away from Bristol and you're right in beautiful countryside at the foot of the Brecon Beacon National Park.

We waisted no time since we had a long day ahead of us. The plan was to bag Sugar Loaf Mountain first, then head over to Table Mountain and start the long walk on the ridge from there all the way to Waun Fach before circling back to Grwyne Fawr reservoir and spend the night in the bothy there.

That was the plan. Of course, we ended up somewhere completely different. The forecast promised a mix of sun and heavy rain and hail showers with even some thunder and lightning involved. The perfect weather for a ridge walk, haha. Headed off for Sugar Loaf anyway and decided to just go and decide what to do when it hits us.

One of too few sign posts

The sun warmed us, made us even sweat a good deal as we climbed higher. We could just don our rain gear before the first hail shower hit us. What a difference! It even turned into snow and was over after like five minutes, which proves my theory that hail never lasts long. Kept on going uphill with the view back down getting better and better.

Sugar Loaf Mountain (596m)

Didn't linger long on the exposed top and made our way down heading for Table Mountain next. So far map reading was easy. Now there were much more paths than on the map. We should've checked back with the compass. Ross had been on Table Mountain before and was sure he could spot it in the distance so we went for it.
After at least an hour of signs pointing to villages we couldn't find on the map and roads that didn't really match either, we finally arrived down at the A40 at a campsite that shouldn't be there. Time for the mobile phone and GPS. Turned out we had walked straight south instead of straight west. Arg! Luckily there was a bus stop with the next bus picking us up just 10 mins later. Phew. Jumped off at Crickhowell to start for Table Mountain. The whole episode had cost us at least 1.5 hrs maybe more and we learned our first lesson of the day: Double check, if one of us got a funny feeling about the direction, even if the other is 100% sure we're right.

We were in good spirits still and after a short break hit the well-known Beacons Way that passes by Table Mountain. This one should be waymarked and easy to find. Not 10 minutes later it lead straight through a farm - which is not unusual. Unfortunately there was a group of cows just right where we were supposed to pass. They didn't even bother looking at us. For a good reason. They had a massive bull in their midst, almost twice as big as the cows with horns as long as a man's arm. Huh! Oh, and the gate was open. Huh!!!
Ross was hesitant. There was easily enough space to walk around that group, he seemed to consider walking by.
I respect cows, they're big and curious and normally very harmless. A bull is a whole different matter. The way he looked at us so lazily almost like saying "Guys, this is my herd and my property and I got a horn for each of you." There was no way I was taking just one step closer!

So we took another detour quite voluntarily heading over fields, through a small wood - thus dodging the next hail shower - finally ascending Table Mountain whose top the Romans flattened to build a fort up there, giving it its distinctive shape. Sometimes it took us a while to find the next stile but in the end it was not hard to find our way, now that we knew where we were going.

Ross was tiring quickly, having underestimated the level of fitness needed. When we finally arrived at Table Mountain I left my backpack with him at the foot of the final steep ascend and literally ran up being freed of the heavy weight. Took a few pictures from the top before we headed up the slope to the first peak of the ridge we originally intended to walk.

Looking back to Table Mountain

The first part of the climb to Pen Cerrig-calch (701m) was rather steep, the second bit a loooong stretch going slightly up. The wind picked up a good deal and the clouds darkened around the cairn as I was approaching it. Not good. I knew then for sure that we were never going to make that ridge. When Ross arrived he was knackered. Even if the rest of the ridge was a lot easier to walk, it was just too late being almost half 3 now. We had about 3 hrs of daylight left.

Then hail set in. With those strong winds up there: not funny! What should we do? Keep on going in this mayhem? Bag another peak or two and then descend down into a valley? The map showed no real escape route.

Part two coming soon. :)

Let's get dirty!

The alarm clock went off at 5:30am. Still I was wide awake as I couldn't wait to get going. Amazing how much I take for just two days out, but as I don't know what state the bothy we're hiking to is in I better take the tent with me which uses most of the space in my backpack.
I was woken by heavy showers during the night so I won't expect an easy walk with nice dry paths. More the other way around. I got so used to it that I'd rather be disappointed if there's no mud to wade through, haha.
Just had my egg and bacon breakfast which had kept me going on last year's Ireland hike way into the afternoon. So many beautiful memories, it feels like I'm already on the trail again, hehe.
My friend Ross will be here in a few minutes, then we head off to Bristol Temple Meads to catch our train. I hope we can make the change in Newport as we have only 10 minutes for it.

Spontaneous Trip

Been in Bristol almost four months now and apart from a short trip to Cardiff and my try of completing the Frome Valley Walk I haven't been to the surrounding countryside yet. So it is high time to go for some outdoor action.
When I walked to work yesterday I felt that strong urge again to be in the wilderness, just enjoying the views and freeing my mind. So I made a very spontaneous decision to go to the Brecon Beacons over the weekend. Just pack up and go.
Looked up train connections and Abergavenny is just little more than an hour away billing £22 open return. Found a bothy at Grwyne Fawr just a day's walk away, perfect. Called a friend who's keen on hiking and he was in instantly. Bought a map of the area and started packing my stuff last night. Good opportunity to put my new 33l Osprey pack to good use.
Will leave Bristol tomorrow around 7:30am, have a quick look at Abergavenny and then plunge into the Black Mountains, as the Beacons are called there. Forecast is mixed but we always expect rain on the British Isles, hahaha.
This is probably the most spontaneous hiking trip I've done so far and I quite enjoy the fact, that I didn't bother planning the exact route but will be making that up as I go. Good way to practise map and compass navigation. Cool.

Will be back Sunday night then, probably all covered in mud but one happy camper, hehe.