Brecon Beacons, 28th - 30th January 2011

Bentlawnt - Brecon - Bristol (310 miles)

Two wet ones in Clun Forest



We were itching to get out again. We'd had a last-minute, completely unplanned overnight in Clun Forest a couple of weeks before (the casserole was cooked and K suggested we might as well eat in The Rosabella on top of a hill somewhere, so off we went). It had belted down with rain and we'd had a quick traipse along a path, got soaked and gone home for Sunday lunch. Not exactly a load  of effort but nice to be out nevertheless. 



However, we still felt bloated after Christmas and decided that we should head for the Beacons where the hills are fairly easy but spectacular once on the tops.

T had been fighting with the water system in The Rosabella, water coming up in the wardrobe from the heater dump valve. Amidst much muttering along the lines of 'we never had problems like this when all we had was a bucket and a bottle of water..........' (T would never admit to being a Luddite - maybe its his age - and these kids of today, well..........!) he thought he had nailed the problem.



He picked K up from work at about 6pm on a bitterly cold, clear night, and after a fish & chip stop just outside Hereford we set off for Brecon. T had had a look at a satellite image of the area around Storey Arms, just south of Libanus, and had spotted a likely-looking pull-in on a minor road next to a lake and, lo and behold, there it was, just waiting for an old motor home and its inhabitants. A glass of wine, a couple of aspirin for T's three-day old headache and we were bedded down for the night. He was awake at 4-ish, head pounding and freezing where various bits of him had been sticking out from beneath the double quilt. Heating on, a glass of water and kip for another couple of hours.



Saturday morning dawned bright, clear and very cold. T turned the tap with a triumphant flourish - NOTHING, apart from the sound of water happily tinkling away under the van! A quick examination was enough to tell T that his work on the water system wasn't quite complete, and it was back to bottled water for this trip.



Copious amounts of tea and biccies were followed by bacon and egg and after clearing up we headed the mile or so back up the road to the parking area at Storey Arms.

 

Boy was it cold! As we climbed toward the summit of Corn Du a nagging wind froze our fingers and toes and once on the top we hurried to find a sheltered spot for sandwiches and a drink. Out of the wind, although it was cold, the sun was beautiful and we lingered with a few other people, enjoying watching the clouds boiling below us.



Brocken Spectre on Corn Du

While K wandered around on the top the mist filled the valley floor, and we were lucky enough to see a Brocken Spectre. The "spectre" appears when the sun shines from behind a climber who is looking down from a ridge or peak into a corrie filled with mist or fog. The light projects the climber's shadow forward through the mist, apparently magnified to giant-like proportions. The head of the figure was surrounded by a glowing, rainbow-like halo (a 'glory').

This was K's first view of the phenomenon - only T's third in over 30 years of spending time in the mountains. It made our day.

   

 


Corn Du and Pen-y-Fan

 

A breather on the track up to Corn Du



 







We hurried on to the summit of Pen-y-Fan, now completely in the mist, and back down again in to the sunshine on the saddle between the two summits. A slow amble back down, warming up with every step, stopping to lend a stick to a young woman who was struggling with sore feet - she returned it to us when she arrived back in the carpark.

Hot chocolate with Bailey's and squirty cream helped with the rehabilitation back to warmth and a quick trip in to Brecon to buy more bottled water and a hinge to replace one that had broken on the folding worktop (there's always something to do with a Rosabella!) and then back out of the town on a different road to find our Saturday night lodgings, a beautiful spot alongside Tal-y-Bont reservoir. Quiet (one car all night, and some ducks quacking), no light pollution so about a billion stars shining, cosy, well-fed (K had brought a rice dish she'd made at home the previous day). This is why we have The Rosabella and love the life the three of us share.

 

Our lovely wild spot on Tal-y-Bont





Another beautiful dawn, the water turning pink, Venus rising over the hill, followed by a sliver of old moon, absolutely freezing outside but warm and snug under the duvet. Obligatory cups of tea, lovely brekkie and on the road again to visit K's parents in Bristol. Home on Sunday evening after a really lovely weekend. Can't wait for the next trip - North Wales in a fortnight. But we can do without the water problem, thank you very much!!



Sunrise over Tal-y-Bont reservoir






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Snowdonia, 29th - 30th December 2010

Bentlawnt - Capel Curig - Rhos (230 miles)

We’d been really looking forward to getting out in The Rosabella again. A planned trip to Scotland for a wedding had been thwarted by the ‘Great Snows of December’ – if we’d gone as planned we would have been stuck overnight in a blizzard on the M6 (T was ruing another missed entrepreneurial opportunity – selling bacon sandwiches at vastly inflated prices to fellow stranded travellers).

We reckoned that we could do with a bit of exercise after the excesses of food and dearth of activity over Christmas, so we decided to head for Snowdonia, climb a mountain, investigate the sales in the gear shops and visit old friends in North Wales whilst also taking the opportunity for another night in our new van. An early start on Wednesday would mean that we could spend day one in the hills and do our visiting and shopping on Thursday.

We spent Tuesday fettling The Rosabella - we hadn’t so much as stepped inside her throughout the bad weather. We had the dehumidifier working full blast for 24 hours and a little heater warmed the cockles of her heart. We had taken the precaution of taking the cushions and bedding into the house and of draining the boiler down.

As usual, the plan for an early start went out of the window and by the time we’d loaded up, been to the supermarket for supplies and generally pithered about it was 11.30 before we were under way. Having given up hope of a good tramp up a meaningful hill we had a lovely, relaxed drive up to Betwys-y-Coed, sun shining, music on, nattering - one of those real good-to-be-alive moments.

Betwys was, as usual, packed but we still managed to have a rummage through the gear shops with K, true-to-form, being unable to come away empty handed, and T losing his glasses!

It was late afternoon and getting dark by the time we headed up the road to Capel Curig. The carpark behind Joe Brown's shop was icy but we decided that it was ideal for soup and sammos so while K put the kettle on T went and surveyed the mountain road for overnight possibilities, managing to slip and fall into a puddle while he was at it.. No appropriate pull-ins were obvious so we decided, after our snackette, to head down the the Caernarfon road to see if we could find a spot somewhere before Pen-y-Grwyd. There was a big layby a couple of miles past the National Outdoor Pursuits Centre at Plas-y-Brenin, flat, shielded from the road by an embankment - perfect.

We had a cuppa, read the paper, played cards until we realised that time was getting on and if we wanted to have supper at The Bryn Tyrch (one of our favourite pubs and one of the few that we would recommend to anyone), we would have to move, so off we went to Capel, making a mental note of exactly which fence post we were parked next to in order to return to this very comfy pitch.

Great food and drink, as usual and we headed back at about 10.30 to our home for the night. Damn! There's a car parked there! We were already in the layby so would have to just drive straight through. However, as we pulled in the car's lights came on and it accelerated out on to the road, disappearing at speed. We offered a silent apology for disturbing somebody's evening and drove to the spot we'd used earlier. There, in the hedge right next to us was what looke like a brand new Yamaha V-twin of some variety, number plate ripped off, obviously abandoned.


Bike enthusiasts ourselves we could well imagine the distress of someone losing their pride and joy so we did the right and decent thing and called the police. The controller asked us to hang around until a couple of officers turned up - we were a bit dubious, bearing in mind that the 'baddies' may come back to recover the bike, so we moved a little way down the road and sat with the lights on until North Wales Constabulary's finest showed up. We told them where the bike was and they said that they'd come back if they needed any more information from us. T had been a bit concerned that we may be told we couldn't stay overnight but they just asked us if we were bedded down for the night and wished us a good night's sleep. We stayed awake for half an hour or so, just in case, and then turned in for a good night's sleep, as ordered!




Next day we decided to forego brekkie and go for a traipse up to Llyn Idwal. As we walked up the hill the phone bleeped with a voicemail. It was North Wales police with a message at 1.00am, saying that they could find neither the bike nor us (despite the fact that their buddies had tucked us in, and that we were in a big van parked next to the road), and to give them a ring if we received the message before 3 in the morning - fat chance!!



We continued with our walk to the frozen lake and then a race back to Ogwen Cottage and a quick drive to Colwyn Bay for a good, long lunch with friends before driving home via more friends at Nesscliffe.


Llyn Idwal



 A pleasant, if eventually busy, couple of days.

(Post script: T telephoned North Wales Police ten days later to find out what had happened to the bike. They had eventually found it, it had been stolen from Trefriw and was now reunited with its grateful owner, minus a few bits and pieces - a good result under the circumstances.)



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