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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Friday 28 April 2017

May Bank Holiday Weekend - The Brecon Beacons

The Brecon Beacons – Up to 5 Days of Walking

Book trains now, cheap Advance tickets are available now for both legs (13/02/17)!
For Abergavenny: to get the cheapest possible Advance tickets, you have to book split tickets London - Newport and Newport - Abergavenny, due to different operators on those lines. 
More detailed postings for the individual walks will follow…    

Arrive in Brecon anytime on Friday 28 April, either by car, or by train and bus:
·         Paddington – Abergavenny plus Bus Line 43/X43 from the bottom of Station Road,
·         Paddington – Merthyr Tydfil or Cardiff plus Bus Line T4,
·         Paddington – Neath (or Swansea) plus Bus Line T6 from Neath Bus Station [5 mins away]).

If you arrive early in the day, check out the Tourist Information, they have brochures for whiling away the afternoon (a town map and guide, a town walk, a couple of woodland walks etc.), as well as some useful stuff for the days ahead, should you want to opt out of below group walks (a 'Mountain Walks by Bus' brochure, Maps, Commercial Walking Guide Books etc.). Stay either in Brecon  (lots of B&B’s, some hotels), or in the Llwyn-y-Celyn Youth Hostel (some distance away, but on Bus Line T4 and also an alt. start for the walk on Day 2 and 4) or anywhere else in the area if you have a car.

Preliminary proposed schedule, based on the current bus schedules (picnic lunch on all but one of the walks): 
 
South Britain’s best ridge walk, an exhilarating expedition into ‘the last wilderness’ in the Brecon Beacons, featuring some of the most spectacular upland scenery in Britain.
09.15 Bus T6 from Brecon Interchange to Glyntawe (Tawe Bridge), arrives 09.46.
21.9 km (13.7 mi), 1000m ascent, 10/10, or 15.6 km (9.7 mi), 720m ascent, 8/10, or even shorter/easier versions, just out-and-back to one of the first tops on the ridge or 20.6 km (12.8 mi), 760m ascent, 9/10 (Alternative Ending via Shake Holes Route). Return buses: 15.25/16.25/17.25/19.25. There are two pubs in Glyntawe to while away the time...

Ridge walk linking four distinguished table-top peaks (Pen y Fan, Corn Du, Cribyn and Fan y Big), best started from a remote car park, then it’s: 15.3 km (9.5 mi), 740m ascent, 8/10; else with a choice of 8 (!) different approach routes to the ridge, adding some distance and ascent to the core horseshoe walk, some busable (10.51 bus T4 to Storey Arms, arrives 11.07), one starting from the Youth Hostel mentioned above, others starting straight from Brecon; we’ll decide the evening before, based on weather forecast and appetite for distance and height, which route people prefer, and may well split up right at the start (the write-up is in the usual detailed SWC-style, so that no one should fear getting lost if they walk a different route than the main group).
There is also the option of doing the  horseshoe plus an extension loop  along the Waun Rydd upland peat bog, of course, the possibilities are endless…

An idyllic Country Park on the River Tawe, a clifftop stretch above the river, a spectacular wooded ravine up to South Wales’ highest waterfall, and back via lanes, fields and bridleways, with a very good lunch pub and a proper tea stop. 08.50 or 10.55 Bus T6 from Brecon Interchange to Craig y Nos (alternative start: Glyntawe, same bus), arrives 09.27/11.37 respectively. Last return bus: 16.03! 13.4 km (8.3 mi), 270m ascent, 3/10.
Want more distance and height? Join me in exploring a variation of the morning route by climbing up to the Cribarth plateau first to pick up the route in Ynyswen.
Want still more distance and height? Walk SWC 279 again, but with the other ending (08.50 bus, but last return bus is 16.09, so no dawdling…)

·   Tue 02/05  As you wish, any walk from any walking book or just anything else we fancy, but I would suggest to try SWC 278 again, but chose one of the 8 ascent routes we haven’t walked on the Sunday, spend some time on the ridge w/out doing the full horseshoe and walk down a different descent route. The weekday bus schedule also brings into play a Talybont-on-Usk start of finish (line 43/X43 Brecon – Abergavenny, as above).
  
·   Wed 03/05  As you wish, Sugarloaf maybe?

p.s.  if the suggestions for the Saturday and the Sunday sound too tough for you, why not try the ‘Tourist Versions’ of the two walks, as featured on our website: SWC 86 and SWC 85 ?
p.p.s.  for a mountain weather forecast for the area we’ll walk in, either check our very own website on the respective walk's page, for example here, under the tab 'Mountain', or try the ever reliable Mountain Weather Information Service (funded by the Scottish Government) and their forecast for the Brecon Beacons here. There are also live webcams at the Brecon Beacons National Park’s Visitor Centre, available here.
p.p.p.s.  your options for getting out of Brecon by bus on the Sunday or the Bank Holiday are fairly limited: either  take the T6 to Neath or Swansea (15.37 and 17.37 straight from the waterfall walk ending in Craig y Nos, or at 15.00/17.00 from Brecon after going back there first to fetch your luggage), or  the 16.51 T4 from Brecon to Merthyr Tydfil.

14 comments:

Thomas G said...

accomodation booked, 4 nights from Friday

JuneT said...

I booked a room in the YHA - it seems to have bunk beds & I'm open to sharing with anyone who wants a cheap place to stay

I will probably drive there and could offer a lift to two or three people with fairly compatible music tastes or good earplugs.

Leave me a comment if you're interested in either / or offer

Anonymous said...

Four nights booked - the room costs appear to be going up so suggest any others that are going book soon...

SarahS said...

I've just booked x4 nights accommodation at the Markets Tavern.

Anonymous said...

Hi JuneT, I'm interested in sharing, you didn't say if you are a male or a female?

And did you book for two?

I also have to be back to London on Tuesday by 12pm on Tuesday.

Please email me: redchylly@hotmail.com

Regards
Barbara

Thomas G said...

I have sent an email to all walkers known to me as having booked accomodation to establish an email list (just now primarily for car sharing, but later also other organisational stuff). If anyone else is intending to go, but has not received a mail from me, can they please contact me? Don't have my email or mobile number? Send a mail to 'saturdaywalkersatwalkingclub.org.uk', replacing 'at' with '@'... Ta

JuneT said...

Hi everyone,

I've cancelled the room in the YHA as my plans have changed. Sorry about this

June

Sandy Gordon said...

Evening all
Following a discussion on yesterday's walk, I'm up for this. I've provisionally booked into a B&B but if anyone has a spare space in a cottage or something, that would be great. I'm house-trained and know the Beacons quite well
Sandy

Thomas G said...

at least 5 people are staying until Wednesday 3rd of May afternoon or evening, to get in 5 days of walking

Thomas G said...

acc. to the info available to me, we'll have enough cars out there to get everyone to and from the walks w/o using buses, which is great for our flexibility, especially on the Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday

Ranjna said...

Hi Thomas - I would like to come along. Can you contact me my email to discuss. Thanks

Ranjna

Anonymous said...

try Beacons guest house

Thomas G said...

Ranjna: Please send a mail to 'saturdaywalkersatwalkingclub.org.uk', replacing 'at' with '@', so that we do have your email address. Ta

Thomas G said...

Further to the individual walk posts for the first three days:
8 walkers stayed on for Tuesday and Wednesday, all of whom joined up on Tuesday to walk a Forest Fawr Traverse (Craig y Nos to Llwyn-y-celyn Youth Hostel or to Storey Arms Outdoor Centre). As tough as the Black Mountain walk and as rewarding, if in a different way: lots of changing scenery, if not as dramatic as the Black Mountain, but still with three big ascents, some quarries, tramways, far views, a standing stone, and some birthday cava on the top of Fan Gyhirych. It will be a very good SWC walk.
6 then opted for an easier walk on Wednesday, seeing that 3 still had to drive back to London the same day, with the other 2 doing a short woodland walk through the Priory Groves along the Honddu River. The 6 did a Brecon Circular via Pen y Crug Iron Age hillfort (from where ALL the previously walked hills of the weekend were visible) and Y Gaer, an old Roman Camp by the banks of the Usk River. This would make a very good, short opening walk on arrival day, if ever there were another Brecon trip.

Thanks to everyone for attending, and I hope all got home ok.