Six - Powys - Pen y Fan - The Top Peak - Brecon Beacons (886m)

After a hiatus of several months decided that we needed to finish 2016 on a high note, so climbed to the top of Pen y Fan - 886 metres - the highest point in the whole of southern Great Britain (south of Cadair Idris). The actual ascent is 530m. It was a glorious day, and the fog which the forecasters had been muttering darkly about had burnt off by the time we rocked up at 11:00. Due to time restrictions we picked the classic Storey Arms starting point - such an excellent idea that the entirety of South Wales seemed to have had it too, and as we set off from the jam-packed car park at Pont ar Daf it felt as though we were back doing the Christmas shopping in a jumble of kids, dogs and bobble hats. However, the path is wide and has been stone pitched by the National Trust to accommodate the heavy pedestrian traffic, and we made good time up to Bwlch Duwynt (“Windy Pass”) . This is one possible route for the notorious military selection “Fan Dance” – the difference being that they get 30 kg packs to carry and mine contained just lunch.

Pen y Fan (left), with Corn Du on the right

The ridge to the right (Craig Gwaun Taff) looked tempting, but we saved that for another day and set off round the right (southern) side of Corn Ddu and up to the table top summit of Pen Y Fan where an orderly queue had formed ( so British!) to take photos of friends and family on the top of the cairn. Like Fan Foel, this was also a Bronze Age Burial Chamber, and Taffy gave it his usual mark of respect by peeing on it. From here we walked across the saddle of the ridge to the top of Corn Ddu , but as we came back down we forked away to the right and immediately lost the crowds.

Julie - at 886m - highest person in southern
 Great Britain.



A bit busy at the top! Queuing for the obligatory
 photo by the summit sign.

This route took us past a small Obelisk which was raised as a memorial to five year old Tommy Jones who died after becoming lost on the Beacons in 1900, and then onwards. We then looped round and back down to the Storey Arms car park, following (and occasionally not quite following) a combination of paths made up of bog, tussocks, tyre tracks and skid marks. Which makes it sound worse than it was – no one fell over and the isolation was splendid. 

Obelisk - Memorial to Tommy Jones

No pub this time as we had a bit of long drive home, but we did have some salmon and cream cheese and gammon and avocado wraps which seemed to have survived the yomp quite well.