PT first thing Tuesday then speedy turnaround back home to get into Hereford for Borderlines Film Festival film No. 5: That They May Face the Rising Sun. I didn’t really know what to expect, but loved it – the slow pace provided plenty of time to get to know the characters and their relationships.
Home for a late lunch then an hour of greenhouse enhancements with dad: adding door knobs and a shelf inside and, outside, replacing the missing downpipe for the nearer of the two waterbutts.
At teatime, a full valley rainbow.
My desk stands arrived. Spot on. A big thank you to Weldpress who made them for me. Super service. Recommended!
Grey Valley lived up to its name on Wednesday – misty on a bright sunny morning.
In the afternoon depotted all the houseplants (well, most of them), planning to repot with fresh, fungus gnat free compost, only to find that the “new” bag of compost in the greenhouse mustn’t have been completely sealed and was infested with them. Grrrrrrr. Handily, Phil was in Hereford so he picked up a fully fresh bag on his way back.
T called in as I was washing the roots so we had a bit of a catch up before tomorrow night’s drinks and nibbles.
Late starting PT on Thursday due to an emergency road closure in Ewyas Harold. Back at base, the army camp were making a lot of noise – big bassy booms, gunfire, helicopters. Overcast and windy with rain forecast so I settled in to do some more Nepal 2023 photos and notes, plus a catch up with Steffi. Early dinner then down to TJL’s for wine and nibbles. Lovely.
Gym first thing Friday then back make some scones, have lunch and repot the ferns in fly-free compost in the wind and rain. R & J arrived 3.30pm-ish – time for a cup of tea and a scone, a bit of a catch up and some CWF logistics planning then into Hereford for Wagamamas and The Promised Land, film No. 6 and the last in this year’s Borderlines Film Festival for us.
Up early Saturday to get to Crickhowell for 8.30am and the first of this year’s Crickhowell Walking Festival walks: Black Mountains North to South from Gospel Pass to Crickhowell.
A bit of ascent from Gospel Pass to Twmpa / Lord Hereford’s Knob (690m) then it’s a ridgeline route via Rhos Dirion (713m), Waun Fach (811m), Mynydd Llysiau (663m), Pen Allt-mawr (719m), Pen Cerrig-calch (701m) and Crug Hywel / Table Mountain (451m).
An easy route to follow but foggy to Waun Fach and brutal in the wind thereafter. Not cold, but brace-brace all the way to stay upright.
Having missed Latte Da’s closing time by a matter of minutes, we headed home for showers, tea and scones, beer and nibbles, soup and chilli. And bed!
Sunday’s CWF walk was 12 miles “Overlooking Llangorse” – and yesterday’s main ridges too. A smashing circular route from Bwlch – one to do again.
Handy parking on a lane out of Bwlch. The route took us up over Mynydd Llangorse, dropping down via Cockit Hill and then straight back up Mynydd Troed. Curving back towards Cwmdu for a ridgeline descent into the valley then back up again onto Mynydd Llangors and retracing our route back to Bwlch.
Much easier walking and conditions than yesterday’s Black Mountains North to South.
Back at base: showers, scones, soup, chilli and crumble – then bed.
Back to Crickhowell on Monday morning, via Abergavenny to drop off the single duvets at The Laundry Basket in my case. We reunited at CRIC for the day’s hike: Mynydd Llangatwg.
My first time walking this side of the Usk. A bit boggy on the top but fab views back down to Crickhowell, Llangattock and across to the Black Mountains – even on a grey day. A really varied route – roads, woodland paths, footpaths across fields and sheep trails over moors.
Farewell to R&J then home for the last pair of scones, shared with Phil.
Lentil soup for dinner with Spaceman on the telly.
In the garden I spotted the first leaves on the waterfall clematis, and the Bacton Stud wild garlic is going great guns.
More flowers on the daffs and the camellia. Snowdrops all gone.
MD comes to stay. Rach & Jon call in. Drinks with TJL. Dad and Jean come for Sunday lunch. A social whirl!
Started PT and did a lot of walking: 30.2 miles, 4540 ft elevation gain according to Strava.
I had my first PT session at the GV gym on Tuesday morning. So far so good. Then caught up with email and weeknotes in the GV cafe whiling away an hour and a half before my follow up physio appointment at Ewyas Harold Surgery. I am going to get my right hip properly sorted in 2024. It’s lazy right glutes and over worked compensating muscles….
Tea and crumpet in the sunny conservatory, then out into the sunshine (and cold wind) to walk down to Dore Abbey and back via Thistly Field. Lovely. Tea and cake back at base.
I’d not booked onto my usual Wednesday morning classes to allow us a whole day to get out for a good walk. Still too cold up in the Black Mountains so we opted for more walking around the lanes, to Bacton and then a new bit of footpaths to take us up to Tremorithic, showing MD more of the sights and working up a good appetite for a late lunch back at base. We didn’t quite get the new route right but we know better for next time.
A snooze on the sofa as sun set, then beers and crisps segueing into dinner in front of the telly introducing MD to the delights of Dectectorists.
To the gym on Thursday morning for LBT and my second PT session. Speedy shower back home then we headed out to walk to The Temple Bar Inn for a leisurely late pub lunch, washed down with a couple of pints, then back home via the Deer Field. Not as muddy as last Saturday’s GVWC experience.
Friday started with another visit to the gym then back to find Phil and MD playing the inaugural hand of Panda Top Trumps – my custom made Christmas present to Phil. Fiat Panda, not Panda Panda. Phil dropped off MD at Hereford train station for his onward journey and shortly after Phil got home R&J arrived for a late lunch en route to Pantygelli for a walking weekend with their club. Lovely.
Ticked off three garden jobs on Saturday morning: on the slope down from Mower Turn I cut down the leggy whatever-it-is tree that had broken the main supporting branch off the same breed of tree (a more mature version) closer to the path and taken out all the lower branches as it fell; bonfired; and, with Phil’s help, redid the compost bin base in an attempt to make it rat proof.
To be fair, Phil did almost all the work on this last one as it entailed digging out the compost-in-progress from the bin, wheelbarrowing that to its new home (the green bin I scavenged a week or so ago), collecting four paving slabs from the quarry and laying them on the cleared site. I set up the now-empty compost bin, and then Phil returned some of the compost-in-progress – and its worms – to the bin as starter culture.
And then he turned the grass cuttings and leaves that comprise compost corner.
Relaxing afternoon reading on the sofa, then down to TJLs for an evening drink and crisps. We walked back serenaded by tawny owls.
After a slow start to Sunday morning Phil and I headed out and walked Cockyard Anticlockwise. The light cloud gradually cleared and we arrived home under blue skies, lovely and warm!
Dad and Jean came for Sunday lunch. They arrived under beautiful blues skies and we had a lovely stroll around the garden looking at the snowdrops. The rain had set in by the time they left. FaceTime with S&S in the early evening, then cheese and biscuits watching EV reviews on YouTube.
I drove over to Pengenfford A479 on Monday morning to rendezvous with Sonia and Sara for a magic walk out in the Brecon Beacons. We headed up the Dragon’s Back via Castell Dinas, along to Waun Fach (811m), down to Pen Trumau and back down the valley to Pengenfford. 7 ½ miles, 19586 steps, 173 flights, 2156 ft elevation gain.
A gorgeous sunny day – beautiful under blue skies, but a bitter wind.
Welsh rarebit and a big pot of tea in Crickhowell afterwards.
Ah, this is why I stopped working!
Back home via Waitrose.
TV: Reservation Dogs (season 3. Very different and still lovely), Detectorists (series 1, introducing MD to the delights of), Ghosts (series 1, introducing MD to the delights of) and lots of YouTube video reviews of EVs.
On Wednesday and Thursday I walked the first two days of the Beacons Way with Sonia and Sara. Thankfully we had two days of good weather – and on Thursday we could see the downpours deluging everywhere else!
Great walking and well signposted once we got onto the footpaths and into the Brecon Beacons National Park.
We’re aiming to do the whole of The Beacons Way (map), which traverses the Brecon Beacons from east to west, following the established itinerary, but bit by bit rather than all in one go.
Day 4: Llangynidr to Storey Arms
Distance: 23.5km / 14.5 miles
Ascent: 1110m / 3640ft
Difficulty: Strenuous
Time: 7 hours
Includes Fan y Big, Pen y Fan & Corn Du
Wednesday 19 July 2023: Beacons Way Day 1 – Abergavenny to Llanthony (Photos)
Sara, Sonia and I rendezvoused in Abergavenny at the Bus Station and started walking from there, setting off around 9.30am.
Gorgeous sunny day. No hint of any rain, which was a relief after so many wet weeks.
The day’s two peaks were Skirrid / Ysgyryd Fawr (486m) and Hatterrall Hill (531m) so I was on familiar territory. I’d walked almost all of the route, albeit not in one go, and Sonia and Sara had walked the section from Llanvihangel Crucorney / Llanfihangel Crucornau to Hatterrall Hill (531m) doing the Offa’s Dyke Path, and that filled in the gap.
The roads out of Abergavenny provided a good opportunity to see more of the town beyond the centre, and from the golf course onwards we were onto footpaths and following the Beacons Way waymarks.
We got amazing views from Skirrid – all the way to the Bristol Channel and the Severn to the south – and had a stop at the Trig Point….
… before setting off down Skirrid’s slopes, which were covered in lush green bracken.
After a section on a very narrow lane, the route to Llanvihangel Crucorney was through fields. And crossing the busy A465 was easier than expected. Sadly The Skirrid Inn wasn’t open for a lunchtime pint, so we carried on and had a late lunch on the upper slopes of Peak No 2, Hatterrall Hill.
It was on one of the quiet lanes heading up Hatterrall Hill that we met Anton, who was doing the Offa’s Dyke Path and was staying the night in Llanthony too.
More bracken, and sheep, brought us to the top of Hatterrall Hill.
From Hatterrall Hill we were walking north along Hatterrall Ridge, and so the going was easy.
We had great views east over Herefordshire (any beyond) and west into the beautiful Vale of Ewyas, home to Llanthony Priory.
The footpaths down into the valley bring you alongside Llanthony Priory. Grey stone, green fields, blue skies, white clouds. Beautiful.
We were staying at Treats, where Sue provided a warm welcome and showed us to our room. It was basic, but everything you need – bunk beds, towels, tea/coffee/biscuits, comfy chairs, plenty of things to hang stuff up on, power sockets, and a bathroom/shower just for us albeit not en suite. Not dissimilar to a tea house on a Nepalese trek.
Anton arrived just as we were having a mug of tea…
It was a gorgeous evening, and after showers we all headed back to Llanthony Priory and down into the Cellar Bar for a pint (or two) of Blorenge Golden Ale and dinner – a surprisingly tasty Spicey Bean Goulash which came with an array of veg.
I used the Strava app on my iPhone to map my route and track my stats. The first stile, into the golf course, was when I realised I’d not started Strava, so I’ve added an extra 3km / 1.86 miles / 30 mins for that section of Beacons Way Day 1: Abergavenny to Llanthony, via Skirrid / Ysgyryd Fawr (486m) and Hatterrall Hill (531m).
Distance: 12.46 miles (14 ½ miles from Abergavenny)
Elevation Gain: 2,636 ft
Moving Time: 5 hours (5 ½ from Abergavenny)
Elapsed Time: 6 hours (6 ½ from Abergavenny)
Thursday 20 July 2023: Beacons Way Day 2 – Llanthony to Crickhowell (Photos)
Distance: 13.3 miles
Elevation Gain: 3,109 ft
Moving Time: 5½ hours
Elapsed Time: 6 hours 40 mins
The day started with a big breakfast courtesy of Treats: an array of cereals etc followed by a fried breakfast, plus a cafetière of coffee.
Having said farewell to Anton, we headed off for the first ascent of the day, up the lovely Cwm Bwchel valley to Bâl Bach, then south along the Ffwyddog ridge to Garn Wen – the beehive cairn.
A little further on, past the woods, we reached the Revenge Stone, Dialgarreg.
The stone marks the spot where a Norman knight, Richard de Clare, was ambushed and murdered by a band of Welshmen in 1135. Jeremy Bolwell provides more detail on Geograph:
Gerald of Wales (1146 – 1223) writing a short time after the event records the incident in 1136 that gave this location its name thus: ‘It happened a short time after the death of King Henry I, that Richard de Clare, a nobleman of high birth and lord of Cardiganshire, passed this way on his journey from England into Wales, accompanied by Brian de Wallingford, lord of this province, and many men-at-arms. At the passage of Coed Grono and at the entrance into the wood, he dismissed him and his attendants, though much against their will, and proceeded on his journey unarmed; from too great a presumption of security, preceded only by a minstrel and a singer, one accompanying the other on the fiddle. The Welsh awaiting his arrival, with Iorwerth, brother of Morgan of Caerleon, at their head, and others of his family, rushed upon him unawares from the thickets, and killed him and many of his followers. Thus it appears how incautious and neglectful of itself is too great presumption; for fear teaches foresight and caution in prosperity, but audacity is precipitate, and inconsiderate rashness will not await the advice of the leader’.
Typical Gerald. This was an upland route in medieval times, followed by de Clare, despite current unrest, against advice and was a crossing of paths at this point, so a likely place for a commemorative stone. The landscape was presumably more thickly wooded than today. The Welsh knew which route he was taking, either through watching his progress or through informers and lay in wait, ruthlessly dealing with a Norman in a way that Normans often dealt with them.
So there.
At the Revenge Stone, we dropped down off the ridge and into the valley of the Grwyne Fawr. Across the river, across the road, and up a green lane towards Patrishow – where we managed to miss the church so intent were we on going up!
Fields and a bridleway brought us out onto the lower slopes of Crug Mawr, more up brought us to the only trig – and the highest – point of the day: peak 2, Crug Mawr (550m).
At Crug Mawr we met a couple out celebrating a birthday and a family of wild ponies.
We also got great views, and looking east we could see heavy rain over towards Garway. Amazingly we dodged the rain all day, despite seeing downpours in all directions at various points in the day.
From Crug Mawr we dropped down into the valley of the Grwyne Fechan, following the route I’d taken at the end of the Llanbedr Horseshoe, over hillside and then through woods down to the road. There we turned north for a spell on the lane before taking field footpaths down to the brand new bridge across the river. On the other side, a steep up through some woods brought us out onto another lane where we headed back south turning off into a green lane to start the main section of ascent to Crug Hywel / Table Mountain.
We’d felt a few plops of rain so we lunched by a tumbledown barn and outbuildings near the top of the green lane before emerging onto the flanks of Pen Cerrig-calch where the footpath made its way through emerald green bracken to the Iron Age Celtic hillfort, and third and final peak of the day, Crug Hywel.
It took a good hour to descend through moorland, fields, woods and residential roads to get into Crickhowell where we headed for Latte-Da and celebratory tea and cake – and had time to start planning days 3 & 4 before catching the X43 bus back to Abergavenny.
Sonia and Sara set of back to their respective homes, and I hopped on the X3 to Wormbridge!
Beacons Way Days 1 & 2. Gardening. Off to Essex. Day trip to London.
More Rain.
Rain returned Tuesday. A good day for admin, and then into Hereford for more admin-y type things. LED call in the evening, followed by my first post-retirement KMCA catch up.
On Wednesday and Thursday I walked the first two days of The Beacons Way with Sonia and Sara. Read the write up in my blogpost. Thankfully we had two days of good weather – and could see the downpours deluging everywhere else!
Phil and I made the most of the third (and final) day of dry weather on Friday to do some garden jobs. Phil scythed (and encountered many toads large and small) and I:
Pulled up plum growth below the pond
Transplanted 4 baby yews I found near the quarry into pots
Cleared the fenced edge of the large pond of bindweed, dead cow parsley, ground elder, giant nettles etc etc etc
Cleared the ground elder under the yew tree by the hedgehog house
Swept the tree house deck (lots of yew leaves and seeds)
Pruned the coffin gooseberry and planted larger cuttings in pots
Picked peas (6 pods) and dwarf beans (4) and 2 strawberries and 4 sweet peas
Planted out the last of the leeks into long plastic planter. Rough and ready but better than the shallow tray there were in…
I also took some photos of the large fungi at far end of lawn – never seen those before.
Before dinner I spent an hour working out route options for day 3 & 4 of the Beacons Way. Most of the time was spent on trying to work out bus routes….
Rain returned with a vengeance on Saturday.
Good weather for another hour looking at days 3, 4 & 5 of the Beacons Way. Again, most of the time was spent on trying to work out bus routes…. until I found Transport for Wales’ super handy TrawsCymru Bus journey planner. I’d wasted a lot of time on Stagecoach’s website which only shows their services (which took me a while to realise).
As we were eating our early breakfast, we were treated to a pair of hares in Kiln field…..
… and a green woodpecker adult showing its young where to find the best bugs on our verge and drive.
I went dad’s return route this time (M50 M5 M42 M6 A14 M11 A120 A12) and it was a million times less stressful than the M25, and faster / easier driving than our cross country route via Milton Keynes.
We got to Witham around 1.30pm and had a couple of hours there before I left Phil with his folks and continued on to Wivenhoe, which proved to be a more painful drive thanks to roadworks on the A12. And meeting a bus on Wivenhoe’s narrow, car-lined High Street.
Tom and Jo supplied an ice lolly on arrival which improved things no end.
By 7pm I was sitting out by the river with a glass of wine.
Not bad.
Monday, train into London for the Persia exhibition at the British Museum (excellent) and a tour of the outdoor shops in search of a new pair of trekking boots (in vain).
We took the Elidir Trail from Pontneddfechan village to Pont Melin-Fach picnic site, walking alongside the lovely Afon Pyrddin to Sgwd Gwladus (Lady Falls) and then up the Nedd Fechan to Pont Melin-Fach via Sgwd-y-Bedol (Horseshoe Falls) and Sgwd Ddwli Isaf and Sgwd Ddwli Uchaf (Lower and Upper Gushing Falls). Purple on the tourist map and signposts.
From Pont Melin-Fach we followed one of the Waterfall Link Paths to the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority car park and picnic site at Cwm Porth. This isn’t as well walked as the main trails and the route was tricker to find and to follow. Grey on the tourist map and green on the signposts. Soggy feet after crossing the fields.
Another (much – much – more obvious) Waterfall Link Path led from Cwm Porth to join the The Four Falls Trail that run above and then along the Afon Mellte taking in Sgwd Clun-Gwyn (White Meadow Falls), Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn (Lower White Meadow Falls) and Sgwd y Pannwr (Fuller’s Falls) – and some super balanced stone piles. From Sgwd y Pannwr we climbed back up through the forest and dropped down to the Afon Hepste for the “you can walk behind it” delights of Sgwd-yr-Eira (Snow Waterfall). Red on the tourist map and signposts / Green for the Waterfall Link Path sections. Very, very busy.
The Sgwd yr Eira Trail then brought us back to Dinas Rock (yellow on the tourist map and signposts) and a short stretch along the road back into Pontneddfechan – for a perfect pint at The Angel Inn.