The Black Mountain

Wednesday 3rd April 2002 

In 2002 most of my time was spent planning and preparing for a holiday that would change my life: my first visit to the Lake District. I spent most of the first half of the year pouring over maps and timetables, reading walking web sites and trying to come up with the best schedule. In amongst all that, at Easter, I went back to the Brecon Beacons. Due to foot and mouth disease I hadn’t been to the area since 2000 so I was keen to make a return trip to an area that I’d become quite familiar with following three previous visits. Unfortunately I didn’t write a report of the holiday at the time (unlike walks in other areas I never wrote reports of my walks in the Brecon Beacons), so all we have to go on is a couple of cryptic sentences in my diary. I said in my diary that I hadn’t planned anything before the holiday, although this might have been in comparison to the extensive preparation that was being done for my Lake District holiday. My diary doesn’t say what I did on my first day in the Brecon Beacons, on the Tuesday, which could have been a walk around Talybont Reservoir, just east of the Beacons. This is a walk that I remember doing at some point, but I can’t remember when. 

There is a record of the walk that was done on the Wednesday and that was a most memorable and significant walk. I wanted to improve my navigation skills in preparation for the Lake District so on a cold, misty and rainy day I drove to Usk Reservoir on the edge of the Black Mountain and parked just outside the forest that surrounds the reservoir. Heading south from the car park I followed the young River Usk across the boggy moor. I remember the weather being rather poor and I got my feet wet, but I also remember that I wasn’t following a clear path which made this a good practice for my navigation skills. Soon I reached the northern tip of the promontory that tops on Fan Foel where a steep ascent brought me up to the bitterly cold, wind-swept, north-western tip of the Black Mountain. By following the edge of the escarpment I managed to reach the trig point atop Fan Brycheiniog, the highest point on the Black Mountain. I remember it was so cold at this point that I took out my spare jumper from my rucksack and put it on straight over the top of my cagoule. Dropping down the western slopes of Fan Brycheiniog, still wearing my jumper over my coat, I came down to the saddle of Bwlch Blaen-Twrch where I followed the edge of the escarpment along the top of Bannau Sir Gaer around the top of the cirque that has Llyn y Fan Fach at the bottom. With improving views I dropped down the northern slopes towards the village of Llanddeusant but soon after reaching the road I climbed back onto the hillside to begin a pathless traverse of the bleak moor. 

This was the key moment of my walk: I set my compass in the direction for my car and followed it across the featureless moor back to the car park. At the time this felt like a scary thing to do as it was misty so I had no way of knowing which way to go except by using my compass. Nowadays this wouldn’t daunt me, but this was the first time that I’d ever relied solely on a compass to navigate across a featureless moor, and I safely made it back to my car. This walk was a really significant one in the development of my navigational skills and enabled me to confidently venture into places that before I wouldn’t have gone. I felt as if I had graduated from the Brecon Beacons School of Walking and was now ready to take on the Lake District.