Cribyn

9th August

We’ve been saving this walk all week! Our last full day and time to explore some of The Beacons before heading home tomorrow. The weather is perfect! Cooler than earlier in the week and it’s forecast to be dry until later in the afternoon.

We’ve parked up at the National Trust car park at Cwm Gwdi…I’m already ahead on the day! We follow the old quarry track that heads up the valley until we reach the long steady climb of Cefn Cwm Llwch. The weather is spectacular today and its the great views that keep stopping us, honestly! Halfway us we pass a (more) elderly couple who we’ve been tracking for the last 30mins. They very generously encourage us as we pass just before the final steep scramble to the top of Pen Y Fan…where a shock awaits us both. The top is thronged with rotund, smoking 20 year old ladies from the South Wales Valleys…apparently they’ve all walked up from the A470 car park.

A few minutes later and we’re joined by the climbing pensioners of earlier. We chat a bit about our proposed routes. It turns out they’ve already walked 6-7 miles before climbing Pen Y Fan…we both feel humbled! By now it’s midday and the heat is brutal as we descend Jacob’s Ladder from Pen Y Fan before climbing to the view from Cribyn. From Cribyn its on to Fan Y Big and the discovery that one of us has lost our glasses somewhere. It’s too hot to track back for them. We’re saved by Linda, who we’ve just met, and is heading off to Cribyn next. She kindly collects them on her way down and texts us to dig Sue out of a hole! The final part of the walk is the longest but easiest and unremarkable part of the walk…apart from a close encounter with some farm dogs (thankfully muzzled) as we walk though Neuadd.

It’s late afternoon by the time we arrive back at the car park, tired by the best walk we’ve had for quite a while. An 11 mile walk in the summer sun but it’s been well worth saving this walk for the end of our holiday.

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Cribyn picture gallery (more pictures on Flickr):