A Night Out Under the Stars

With the good (sunny) weather recently I nurtured the idea of wild camping in the Beacons during the week. Just getting out there after work and back next morning. After some research I had come up with half a dozen ideas featuring Pen-y-Fan and Corn Du at the very top.

Last Wednesday was gonna be the day then! Packed my warmer winter sleeping bag and my tarp and headed out to the hills after work. The sun was blazing from a spotless blue sky and after an hour's drive I arrived 7pm at the lay by car park Pont ar daf near the Storey Arms Outdoor Centre.
My 33l Osprey backpack was fully stuffed with not even space for a needle left. That sleeping bag took up way too much space! Without much ado I buckled up and headed uphill on a broad stony path towards Corn Du. View got better with every metre in height I gained, but I had only about two hours left before sunset. I practised the how-many-fingers-between-sun-and-horizon with every finger representing 15 minutes and I have to admit it was almost bang on!!! Great bit of knowledge!

How long until the sun sets?

Corn Du and Pen-y-Fan behind to the right

Arrived on Corn Du at 8pm after really pushing for the top with my heavy load. Winds started to raise up to gale-force strength as soon as I had reached the bwlch. On the top they were even worse. Facing the wind I could hardly breathe. There was no way I was going to camp up here tonight. I decided to head over to Pen-y-Fan in the beautiful though waning evening light and had just started the decent to the bwlch between both tops when my foot started to cramp. Ahhhh.... bollocks! I tried for a bit longer but it was no good.

Looking over to Pen-y-Fan from Corn Du

Went back up over Corn Du's top again and down the other side where I had a short break out of the worst of the wind.
Took off my boot and massaged my foot while I greatly enjoyed the fantastic view. Then headed towards the path that came up from the Storey Arms and walked along the ridge before I finally dropped steeply down into a gully where my plan B camp spot was just on the shore of Llyn Cwm Lwlch.

Wild camp spot down by the little Llyn

There she goes. Better hurry now.

There was already another tent. Arg. So much for solitude. It was occupied by two young guys who came over for a short chat after I had just raised my tarp and crawled inside. They were nice and seemed to have as much wild camping experience as me, haha. Only they had brought a proper tent.
Even down here is was windy, so I had pitched as low as possible with just one of my walking poles. Still the wind was rustling my tarp and just wouldn't let me sleep. It was as if someone was constantly making noise with a plastic bag next to my ears. Half past midnight I gave up, removed the pole, took out half of the pegs and just wrapped myself into the tarp farbic stuffing the edges as tight as possible underneath my ground mat. Ahhhhh silence!!! Just the surprisingly warm air on my face and a distant howling.
I still awoke several times during the night, but each time marvelled at the amazing night sky dotted with thousands of stars. Quite unusual for this time of the year, every other minute I saw a meteor dart across before it died. Wow.

Got up and packed my stuff at 5:30am after a rather sleepless night and headed up the steep path by 6am only to be greeted by the same strong gale-force wind again up on the ridge. Although my brain felt like mashed potato and despite the lack of food I made good time, veered off the path avoiding going over Corn Du's top again and instead walked around its base before I met the path down to the car park. Changed, gulfed down an apple and drove back to the office for an hour.

Looking back down to where I camped

Wow!

Morning guys.

I really enjoyed my little mid-week adventure and it's been a great workout as well! Perfect weather if it hadn't been for the wind. I do need more practice with putting up my tarp. Either way, if it's just a little bit windy, the rustling of the fabric is way too loud so it's either tent or bivy bag. Will remember this. Good opportunity to practice the finger technique for figuring out when the sun will sink below the horizon. Very useful little trick.
After all a great few hours out. If I can do this once every other week, I get plenty of outdoors practice and plenty of workout too.