Date: 13th-15th January 2017
Accommodation: Rhydins Fawr Barn, Llandovery, Wales
Attendees: Maggie (organiser), Alan, Claire, Keyna, James, Mark, Marion, Dave W, Andy M, Simon P, Jill, Martin
Staying at a barn on the northern edge of the Brecon Beacons, all arrived fairly early on Friday evening (the advantage of not having a long car journey) and settled into the recently converted barn with not one but three comfy sofa’s and with a log fire!
On Saturday we set off from the village of Cilycwn to head up to the plateau, Mynydd Mallaen, to do an 11-12 mile walk. However, the start was exceeding slow as we spent ages avoiding mud, mud and more mud in various fields and farmyards. We finally headed up to higher ground where there was some snow, but definitely not crampon weather. After sheltering from the wind under a fallen conifer tree for lunch, we continued on a bit further but with the cold weather and rain coming at us sideways we opted for a slightly shorter route down. With time to spare we tried to find a pub open, but after trying two that were closed we gave up and headed back to our warm comfy accommodation.
We started the evening by celebrating Keyna’s birthday with sparkling wine with the barn having been secretly decorated by James. This was followed by a superb meal of lamb shank and veg cooked by Marion, finishing with birthday cakes.
On Sunday the weather didn’t look brilliant so Mark, Marion and Jill headed into Brecon. The rest of the group went on a ‘Waterfall walk’ from Pontneddfechan (once we had found the path up). Led by Claire, we wadded through yet more mud, whilst Andy and Dave nearly drowned (so they had us all believe) in the badly waterlogged field until we got the path that wound around the spectacular waterfalls. The rain held off but we all got wet traversing under the last waterfall but we didn’t mind one bit 🙂
