After a lovely weekend in Yorkshire, we set off on Monday morning for our site in the Brecon Beacons. And what a fantastic site it turned out to be – four or five wildflower meadows, hedged with hawthorn in full blossom, and stunning views to the south of Pen y Fan (of which more later). Nothing to be heard but larks, sheep, and the occasional thump of the mallet as the bloke next to us tried a different orientation of his wind break. Each field just had a few tents or campers, well-spaced out along the edges, each supplied with a fire pit. There were no electric hook-ups, but our solar panels and the glorious Welsh sunshine (three words never before used together in a sentence in the English language, ever) kept us well equipped with electrons.
We’d arrived pretty late, so stayed in camp and tried our new board game, Gloomhaven, Jaws of the Lion. Very good, though round 2 was considerably less beginnery than round 1. Supper was a quick burger on the BBQ, as J was knackered after not sleeping well in Yorkshire.
On Monday night, R started suffering with a very painful back. At first we thought he’d twisted it when he had a fall on our Sunday walk. He dosed himself with all of Denby’s finest painkillers and did feel quite a lot better as he started moving around on Tuesday. J was also much refreshed after not sleeping well over the weekend, and so we set off to climb Fan Frynych (629m). It turned out to be a lovely walk on a lovely sunny day.
However, it was a little bit too easy, and we were back in the campsite by noon for lunch!
After our picnic of Époisses, pâté, tomatoes and toasted Yorkshire bread, we headed to the visitor centre to pick up tourist bumph, and to indulge in post-climb ice creams (distinctly average, but they did supply a dog one for Flynn. I suspect he prefers it when they don’t, and he gets vanilla).
We then tried our second new game, Era Medieval Age, which was good and very well suited to playing outdoors in a breeze, as the bits peg into small player boards.
Dinner was merino lamb loin, peppers and courgettes cooked on the fire. They were served in wraps, with a yogurt, harissa and garlic sauce. Yum.
Denby 