The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Saturday 21 March 2015

Mynydd y Betws and Mynydd Uchaf

Saturday 21 March

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It came to my attention last night that today was quite an important day in the world of Six Nations Rugby. Whilst Mick had only suggested that he would be pleased if we could be somewhere with TV reception in time for the England match, I knew that his preference would be to watch all three matches back-to-back. As he has been so kind as to be my personal chauffeur for the last week and a half, it would have been mean of me to drag him up hills instead.

So, a rest day was declared and after a lie-in, an extra day at our campsite (electric + excellent TV reception) was booked as soon as the office opened at 9am.

That gave us 3.5 hours before the first kick off and I reckoned that we could just squeeze a couple of hills into that time (I would have been right too, if it hadn’t been for a stop to refuel Colin and a bit of a traffic jam on the way back).

I think we can still count it as a rest day, mind, as the entire distance walked in bagging these two hills was under 1.5 miles. Mynydd y Betws was a particularly quick outing, as the top lies adjacent to the road, although we did span it out a bit by walking over to the grassed-over mounds and dips which are clearly still discernable as the site of a castle, plus there was a bit of wandering around in searching for the highest point.

Mynydd Uchaf involved a little bit more effort, involving around 150’ of up (compared with about 10’ for the first hill).

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Whilst the day may have been short on walking, it was big on views, with very few signs of civilisation (if we overlook the wind farm) being evident around us. Surprisingly, there were still a few little patches of snow sitting on the south side of the Brecon Beacons.

1 comment:

  1. What about the rugby then? Even If you don't have much interest in it, at least this day was perhaps the game's event of the century.

    How many Ms have you done now? Are you ticking them off on Hill Bagging or Harold Street? On the former you have to enter the date climbed which I could not always do, but I suppose you can enter a nominal date. I am using Harold Street.

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