Cloudwalking in Wales

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We love Wales! So when we had another free weekend, we decided to head back to the Brecon Becons for another weekend of walking, this time with Prehn and Rich for company.

This time we headed to the west Brecon Becons (an area sometimes overlooked by walkers - so much so that the guide the tourist office gave us said "We'd like to thank you for coming to the area, an region of the Brecon Becons not often visited"). We felt happy to have helped.

The trip there was not entirely eventless - the traffic was terrible and a 3.5 hour drive ended up taking 7 hours (shocker).

We had planned a walk around the 'Black Mountain' (not to be confused with the 'Black MountainS', which are in the East Brecon Beacons - talk about unoriginality in the naming process...), which goes along the ridge line and is apparently famous for amazing views. I say apparently, because while the rest of the UK basked in unseasonably warm October weather, the west Brecon Becons was blanketed in mist and cloud and a continuous light drizzle. We could not see a thing. On the plus side, I think the army dudes who were doing orienteering training, found the conditions perfect for their training - they were forced to rely on their maps and compasses. Another good thing for us that the fog made it impossible to see how steep the hills we had to climb were! Again on the minus side, it was absolutely freezing - especially as there was a light drizzle the whole time.

The next day, we were luckier. The weather, in a massive turnaround from the day before, could properly be described as balmy, the sky was blue and the walk, while not as spectacular, was lovely. We even managed a bit of bush bashing - although I was not so keen on the blackberry bush that we ended up smack in the middle of - spiky!

Anyway - here are some pictures.

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