Saturday, October 13, 2012

Hiking and Photography in the Brecon Beacons


I thought I would go and climb a mountain today, it's something I haven't done for a long time and when I looked on the map I saw the Brecon Beacons are under 2 hours away. So it's very easy to jump in the car drive there have a good hike and drive home in time for tea!

The net is pretty well set up these days with walking routes websites, I grabbed the route from here http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/book_3/walk_85/index.shtml put some food and a waterproof in a rucksack and headed off. On a simple route like this, besides some decent boots a hike like this is really that simple (when the weather forecast is very good and clear like it was me)

You start off on the road as in the above photos and you can clearly see the peaks you intend to climb in front of you and then about 2 hours later you are at the top of Pen y Fan which is the highest peak in South Wales at 2,905 feet


The mountains here are different to those in North Wales, which tend to be quite rocky, these are more smaller grassy sculpted lumps. If I remember from my GCSE geography what happened is a long time a go a big manly glacier trundles along and basically tears the back out of the curvy beauties, resulting in some stunning scenery and when you have the changing light like today, quite good for taking the following pictures too.





One of the advantages of going on your own is you definitely talk to more people, I hiked for a while with a German guy who often goes to the Alps, and I laughed at his jokes with him at how pathetic these little hills were whilst trying not to sound too out of breath. He told me all about ski touring where you stay in basic remote mountain cabins with only wood fires and you hike up the mountains with snow shoes and then ski or board back again, much cheaper than your usual commercial skiing holiday and more of an adventure too. Something to definitely add to the to-do list and it seems great that the more you do the more people you meet and new ideas you get.

On the way back down you head towards the little reservoir and as you can see in this photo it had a small strip wood on the left side.


When you reach this I think its Scots Pine and Beech and with the combination of autumn light, water, peaks etc, it's another great spot for some photos (see below) and a nice contrast to the steep hills to finish the walk which I would be happy to do again and guide anyone who wants to try it (but not great for mountain bikes really) Weekdays are great, I probably saw about 20 other hikers but I reckon it would be crowded on nice weekend days.



But the cream teas at the cafe are even better (if not a little posh for a grubby lone traveller)




3 comments:

  1. Great Blog! (Found your link on Lloyd Khans blog). Good luck with the 1000 months, looks like you'll have a ton of fun along the way!

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  2. Hey thanks! Yeah Lloyds blog brought me lots of visits, great to have you here, Tom

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  3. Nice photos and awesome holidays! I wish I could get brecon beacons cottages right now and get to explore that wonderful place too.

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