One sunny early July day I left home at 4 am and headed up into the Brecon Beacons to do a walk I’ve been wanting to do for some time. I’d had a false start doing this walk a year before when unfortunately the weather closed in rapidly bringing visibility down to a few feet in a matter of minutes. However, the forecast looked good and it was with much excitement that at 6 am I left the Upper Blaen y glyn car park and started my ascent towards Craig y Fan Ddu.
The early morning sun brought out lovely green and yellow colours along the easterly facing escarpment of Graig Fan Las as I continued northward crossing relatively flat ground to pick up the path that follows the Craig Cwareli and Craig Cwmoergwm escarpments towards my first destination peak of Fan y Big.
After a quick brew on Fan y Big I pressed on towards Cribyn. Temperatures were rising rapidly by this point and were heading towards 20 deg C, with several hours before midday, it was going to become a fair slog as I climbed up Cribyn’s steep ascent of 795 m (2,608 feet).
With temperatures continuing to rise, I took on more fluids and snacks before dropping into the col on the western side of Cribyn and starting the pull up to Pen y Fan 886 m (2,907 feet).
From Corn Du it was an easy and gently sloping downhill walk followed by a short and sudden descent to the Lower Neuadd reservoir.
A really great day’s walk, loads of people out taking part in a variety of charity walks and challenges. Pity those with their overnight bergens, dehydration will have been an issue for many people walking in the hills that day.