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Sunday 4 July 2010

A bit more Brecon bagging

a campsite chicken
Tuesday, I think it was, was blazing hot – quite a bit hotter than Monday, which was fairly hot.
I decided to have a drive-around bagging day and so went off to the West for a neat little group of Marilyns on the edge of the Black Mountains.
On the way I came across a buzzard hopping along the roadside with what appeared to be the bloodied carcase of a fox. I stopped the car (slowly and eventually due to the delicate braking system) and it flew off, being mugged by a couple of field crows on the way. it was during this brief bit of excitement that I realised that I’d left the camera in the tent….  dhuhhhh….  So there’s just a picture of one of the campsite chickens who visited for breakfast. (We both had porridge, but mine had been cooked. She preferred it scatterred around….)
sugarloaf is a nearby hill
And so I parked the car on the bwlch or bealach between Mynydd Troed and Mynydd Langorse, climbing the very steep 250 metre heave of the first one of those two first. There was a fine, green view of the Welsh borders from the top.
After reading the paper for a while and scoffing my lunch, I went up the less steep or demanding Mynydd Langorse, who’s top is somewhere in a patch of heather. I made a circular route back to the bealach or bwlch….
After reading the paper a bit more (I was on holiday, remember) I drove the few miles to the hamlet of Pennorth, where, after driving around for a while, I managed to find the village hall, which isn’t exactly in the village, but which has a car park and information boards for a walk to the cafe by the lake and another up the Allt yr Esgair – a fine, wooded spine of rock with a brythonic hill fort on the top and also the roman road from Brecon to Abergavenny, which is now a bridleway.
Another fine view of the valley of the River Usk (?Uskdale…) and the Brecon beacons. Worra cracking hill for a solstice party, or just for looking at the view of Uskdale….
And that was that. Three Marilyns ticked, 7 miles and 2000 feet of up.
Tonight a Welsh Lamb casserole and a bottle of Chilean plonk. The chickens had some more oats……..

4 comments:

Laura said...

I see you've been out enjoying yourself! Nice chicken.

Mike Knipe said...

The hen in the picture was quicker than the others and managed to scoff most oats. She was, though, a bit henpecked. I think she'd probably be quite delicious....

John J said...

Is the camera getting better?

JJ

Mike Knipe said...

Not really, JJ - the only thing it does is take pictures on one setting. Sometimes it just can't be bothered and just sulks.
I think its a bit depressed.
I'm giving it sanatogen.
Someboy should buy me a new one.