Bank Holiday weekend took us to Braithwaite, where we enjoyed few days camping. One of the walks we did was up to Grisedale Pike and onto Hopegill Head. we took the path from the back of Braithwaite to head up to Steet How. Path was steep first and then it levels out before the last uphill to Grisedale. We had fine view from the top with wall to wall blue sky.
We then carried on the short distance to Hopegill Head before turning south to Sand Hill. Then we turned east to take the good path back down to the track which was part of the old mine.
On the Sunday we headed into the main part of the Brecon
Beacons hills for our walk. From Merthyr Tydfil it was a short drive to reach
the car park in the forests near the Neuadd reservoir. From the car we walked
along the road for a spell heading towards the reservoir, before taking a track
to our right, which gradually climbed up giving us excellent views of the peaks
ahead.
Having already climbed Corn Du and Pen y Fan on an earlier trip to the
Brecon Beacons, our aim this time was to go up Cribyn first, and then decide
after that. The track was easy walking, but was largely covered in snow and
some frozen snow, which made it slower going. Having reached the head of the
valley on this track, we then turned left to start the steepish climb up to
Cribyn.
There had been plenty of people there before us, and there was an
obvious route to follow through the snow. However after the climb, there was a
gradual slope back to the actual summit, and here the snow was frozen and
slippy, and more care was needed. Views from the summit were excellent, with
blue skies and good visibility. There were plenty of other people out,
particularly on Pen y Fan.
We retraced our steps back down to the head of the
valley, then climbed steeply up again to reach the summit of Fan y Big. The
route up through the snow to this summit was a lot steeper and less obvious, so
rather than descending this way, we carried on along the ridge for a way before
finding a much more gradual path back down to the head of the valley. From
there we retraced our steps back down the track to the road. However by then,
what had been frozen snow on the way up had melted a lot and turned into slush.
An easy road walk then took us back to the car.
On the Saturday we set off in the car for Tescos in Merthyr
Tydfil to buy a sandwich for lunch. Unfortunately the car park there was packed
out, so we went to Asda instead, only to find they had no sandwiches. We
eventually found a petrol station that had a small food section attached and
bought sandwiches for the next two days there.
We then drove down the valley to Pontneddfechan to do a
waterfall walk that had been recommended to us. We went in the visitors centre
there first and bought a route description. This is a very popular walk,
particularly with people doing short sections of the route, visiting one or two
of the numerous waterfalls.
However we set off to do the full walk. This was
largely following alongside a river, with diversions along the way to visit
waterfalls. Trees along the way provided shelter from the wind and it was a lot
warmer walk than the previous day’s.
The waterfalls were spectacular, and on
the surrounding rocks there were plenty of icicles and frozen water. As recommended
to us in the visitors centre, where the walk route left the river, we climbed
up out of the valley on a small road, then dropped down the other side to pick
up a path running alongside a second river to take us back to the car. Again there
were some spectacular waterfalls along the river, culminating in a steep drop
down and the Sgwd yr Eira falls, where the path passes over rocks behind the
waterfall. From there we climbed steeply up out of this gorge and away from the
river, then a good path contoured round the side of the valley, bringing us
back to the car.
We stayed at the Weatherspoons in Tewksbury on the Thursday
night – good location to split the drive up. On leaving we found a nice deli
doing sandwiches called ad1471. For anyone into cheeses its worth calling in.
Our plan for the Friday was to do a walk en route to
driving to Merthyr Tydfil, where we were going to be based. We found a walk in
the Cicerone guidebook ’Walking on The Brecon Beacons’. We picked walk 40, the
shorter version. We started in Crickhowell where we headed up to a farm and
across fields to a wooded area. The path climbed up along the river through the
woods. In the book it was noted that in spring the ground is covered in spring
flowers but due to the cold weather everything is late. Where the river tumbled
over the rocks the water had frozen into little waterfalls. Once out of the
woods we climbed up to a rocky outcrop called Darren before climbing to the
summit of Pen Cerrig-calch.
The going was tough as the snow had frozen and it
looked like it had rained at one point and then frozen on top. So every time we
stepped on the snow we crashed through the ice. However from the summit we had
good views looking out over the Black Mountains, although an icy wind meant we didn’t
stay for long. From there we retraced our steps, back through the snow and ice,
before picking up the path back through the woods and down to the car.
Today I was out with the walking group and Helen was home with a bad cold. The plan for the walk was to start from the Car Park on the A58 near the White Horse pub, but due to the snow the road was closed so the leader started the walk from the lake area. The was about 8 miles long and took in many lanes that were blocked with drifted snow. many of the farms were cut off from the main road. We encounter 36Mph plus winds and this stopped us going onto Blackstone edge. The wind did make some interesting snow patterns. Overall a good walk.
