A week in blissful Brecon

Mountains. Baby lambs. Cider. Log fires. Just a few reasons why you can’t beat a holiday to Wales.

Each year I go away for my birthday - the past two years I’ve visited Barcelona (and was close to making it a hat-rick in 2016), however, after a manic few months I just couldn’t deal with the hassle of airports and people - if you’ve been to Barcelona you’ll understand the anxiety provoking Las Ramblas and Example district. Albeit an amazing place, and my favourite City to venture to, 2016 just wasn’t my year for Spain.

When I was young, I visited Brecon a couple of times with my family - having an ex-military Dad we were used to quite literally being marched up mountains and being taught the importance of surviving in the wild e.g. rationing a packet of chocolate digestives and a flask of tea between 4 people over a whole day.

I remembered the amazing views from the top of the mountains - bearing in mind this holiday was over 15 years ago, the views must have been quite incredible for me to still remember them. I wanted to relive this holiday and when I told my Mum, she was pretty happy to avoid airports and take a Spring break in Wales.

So, after choosing a cottage and purchasing some new walking boots (the most expensive yet hideous shoes i’ve ever bought) we packed the car full of fleeces, woolly socks (and a case full of prosecco) and set off to the Black Mountains.

Here is how I spent my week and why everyone should head to Wales for some well deserved R&R…


Monday

It rained, and rained and rained.

We headed to the local town of Crickhowell - a small and pretty town nestled between Brecon and Abergavenny. There are some nice local delis and craft shops, but most importantly some great pubs. We ate lunch, drank local cider and warmed up by the fire in The Bear - one of our favourite pubs when we visited years ago.

We did man up and go for a short stroll in around the local hamlet - unfortunately we came across an unknown animal's carcass and a red 'danger' army flag so we quite quickly headed home. I took a LOT of photos of the lambs in the nearby field as they were the cutest things i've ever seen!!

Tuesday

Sun is shining - yay. This means a hike is on the cards…Sugarloaf it is.

My mum striding on ahead of me!

At the time I found this pretty strenuous - the sun was blazing and I hadn’t walked at such an incline for sometime. However, after climbing Pen-Y-Fan later in the week - I should never have complained about Sugarloaf. In comparison, it’s a mole hill.

I recommend this for a ‘warm up’ hike if you are going to attempt the harder mountains in Brecon.

Taking more photos of the sheep!

Important fuel at The Bell in Skenfrith.

After lunch we went to Talybont-On-Usk and walked along the towpath - this was a lovely flat walk with some superb views.

Wednesday

Waterfalls. I have awful memories of this place after seeing a whippet chase a herd of sheep around the top of the cliffs when I was younger, but I couldn’t imagine this would happen twice in a lifetime so we headed to Ystradfellte to take on the Waterfall Country once again.

We were disappointed as the waterfalls resembled the hose I use to water the hanging basket in summer - when I mentioned this to the landlord in the local pub he informed me that we had in fact missed the best part - women and maps eh?!

We drove to Cwm Porth and walked to the first waterfall on the walk Sgwd Clun-Gwyn and decided to save the rest for another day….

Tip: make sure you park at Cwm Porth or Gwaun Hepste to see the real waterfalls!

Thursday

Pen-Y-Fan. My favourite place in the world. Why? Take a look at the pics and you’ll see why.

We started at Pont Dar and headed up a deceiving path to Corn Du and then along the ridge to the summit of Pen-Y-Fan. The photos below should convince anyone why the hike is worth it.

The view back down to the starting point (about 1/8 of the way up!)

You can follow the masses and walk from the Storey Arms - this route is known as ‘the motorway’ due to it being so busy- if you aren’t an avid walker then this is the best path to follow. Otherwise you can start from Cwmgwdi and incorporate Cribyn.

Cribyn

Taking in the views of Cribyn and the lakes.

The views from the top of Pen-Y-Fan are just breathtaking. I’ve never been anywhere in the world where i’ve felt so happy and grateful for life - as cringe as it sounds. Sat at the top of a mountain and watching the clouds pass you by is really quite amazing! You have to be careful of the quick changing weather conditions when so high up- when we reached the top the skies were blue and within 2 minutes the thick cloud (in the pic below covered the top of the mountain!).

We did it!

After Pen-Y-Fan we ventured to Hay-On-Wye - a booklovers dream. We stopped for some cider and then made our way around a variety of bookstores. I found a leather engraved ‘Return of the Native’ publication which made me happy. If you are in Wales and love books then Hay-On-Wye is definitely for you!

Friday

More Waterfalls. We followed the Four Falls trail to make sure we saw the famous falls we missed out on earlier in the week. This walk is hard- they do not lie when saying it’s ‘strenuous’. In total there are about 1000 steps, steep hills, cliff edges and swamps to go through to get to each waterfall.

The achey legs were worth it for the view!

That was all we had time for on this trip - I’m already looking forward to heading back later in the year to see more of this amazing country! I have returned home feeling relaxed and healthy without any unnecessary stresses that travelling abroad can often present.

If you have any recommendations on places I missed in Brecon or surrounding areas, please let me know.