More Brecon Pictures

Whilst we're waiting for the first trip along Hadrian's Wall to start (see below), I just thought I'd fill in the gap with a few more pics of the "main" Brecon Beacons ridge. Inevitably, most of these involve the camera being pointed towards Pen y Fan which draws the eye magnetically, (not like an etch-a-sketch yer great daft wazzock*). I'm showing the pics coz I finks its nice.

Really attentive readers may well note that one of the pictures is a tree and not a hill. This is one of the very fine oak trees encountered on the approach to Sugar Loaf, an almost 2000 foot hill just next to Abergavenny. These trees are in the care of the National Trust and you just want to hug and kiss them and have their saplings. I fawn over their acorns. I stroke their gnarly roots and I rub myself against them in a rather embarrassing manner.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pics.

Notes: Hadrian's Wall - I start tommorrow at Wallsend and, hopefully, end at Heddon on the Wall where the 685 Stagecoach bus will take me back to Newcastle. I'm really looking forward to this. I might pick up a bit of latin, or maybe a Gregg's Cheese salad sandwhich.

* Wazzock - A colloquial Yorkshire dialect word invented in a bus queue in Batley at 11:30 pm on a Saturday night in February 1967 when, due to an over-enthusiastic night of beer swilling, one chap dropped his wife's fish chips and peas in a mucky puddle and ruined both the supper and his chances of a bit of rumpy-pumpy on Sunday morning.Use as in "yer great wazzock" A "little wazzock" is a child who has just covered your new trousers in chocolate fingerprints or has had a toilet accident in the back of the car despite being told time and time again to have a wee before you set off..

Add this to your dictionaries.

Next week, we'll be exploring the words "Spawny Wart" Maybe we could get all this translated into latin.

Brecon Bagging Bonanza

In order to prevent repetition, and for space to move on to new things next week, I’ll just make the one posting about the little trip to the Brecon Beacons.
I must say, though, that in terms of the number of things ticked off the list and, generally, “things to be achieved”, this was quite a successful expedition.
It started out in the usual unpromising kind of way with a specially easy bag of the spectacularly unexceptional but not unapproachable but possibly underrated Long Mountain, somewhere quite close to Welshpool in the rain. I expect that if you live in Welshpool and have more time to explore, that this fine ridge would be just the thing when its not raining
Then, after putting up the tent and festering for an evening, the time came to bag a Hewitt. In view of the driech wetness and general clamminess all round, Carreg lwyd was chosen and this, in turn repaid the effort by being a bit dull. I bet it would be nice on a warm summers day in, say, early July. But not today.
And then came Corn Du, Pen y Fan , Y Cribyn and Fan y Big. Anybody visiting these parts should be minded to visit evil and unpleasant things (ribbet, Rachel!) on any person even thinking about suggesting that these hills ought to be or even could be missed out of a visit to the Brecon Beacons. They really do just have to be done. They’re great. Fantastic. The highlight of the week. I’ve only included one pic, just for illustration. They’re very popular, so I expect that vast swathes of the readership( hah!) will have already been up these, so you won’t miss a few photos. I might use some later on when an irrelevant picture about something or other is called for.
And one of them has a rude name, so even more reason to go up it. (Not Corn Du)
Fan Lia and Fan Fawr with a few other grassy things came next, and then Waun Fach and a little Dewey by the name of Brian or something, followed by a plunge through oakwoods due to a path disappearing when it shouldn’t have. Some people find this kind of thing a bit annoying. I quite enjoy the challenge. And a decisive approach gets things done, even if you turn out the other end just a bit scratched. There’s always a danger that you might get shouted at, though, by some irate farmer or the occupant of a bungalow who is just getting ready for his bath. Or something.
Lastly, I had a day Marilyn bagging near Abergavenny. Sugar Loaf was done in mist and a bit of rain, but through superb and spectacularly beautiful oakwoods, with quite a few “veteran” trees. I followed this with the diminutive but green and also beautiful Bryn Arw, with mewing buzzards, a man scything bracken in the old-fashioned way (with a scythe!) and showers queuing up along the valley.
Lastly was Ysgyryd Fawr (The skirrid), a steep lump which seems to be a volcanic plug, very similar to all of those Central Scottish plugs. Steep and wooded and brackeny with a bit of archaeology on the top in the form of “St Michaels Chapel” St Michael being the patron saint of ladies pants and had his chapel, apparently on the top of an older cairn. Two ladies were looking for this place and we had a nice chat. They remarked on the fact that the view was now from the Gower to Shropshire. I couldn’t confirm or deny this. I expect they were right.
These little border hills are just the thing for a jaded hill bagger, though the thigh-muscle wrecking properties of the steep little buggers shouldn’t be underestimated. Fab stuff. I’ll be back.

43 miles, 11000 feet of uphill , 10 Hewitts, 7 marilyns and 3 deweys bagged. + 1 lamb Balti and 1 fish and chips (apologies to the lass in the chippy who thought I asked for two fish and chips. Sorry, pet)