Tuesday 20th May 2025
Before this walk I spent the night in the Chartist Cave, Ogof Fawr, which was not a pleasant experience as I had trouble sleeping and made me want to reduce the nights I was sleeping out as I prefer to sleep in a proper bed. It was a fabulous location and I spent a lovely evening there in warm, sunny weather and the following morning it was soon just as warm when I set off along the Cambrian Way again trying to avoid my mistakes of last year when I first attempted to do the trail. However, soon after the Chartist Cave the Cambrian Way comes off the clear path and it is difficult to keep precisely to the sketchy paths that cross the moorland, passing Garn Fawr cairn and heading west. Eventually I successfully crossed the moor and onto a wide quarry road where I turned right and followed it to the edge of a conifer plantation where a track skirts the wood with many fallen trees blocking my way. I was feeling very tired and in need of a drink, so when I reached a stream I stopped to have a rest and a long drink of water while gazing at the calming views ahead of meinto the valley of Dyffryn Crawnon while behind me were the exposed rocks of Cwar yr Hendre limestone quarry. Last year the weather had been poor at this point with low cloud but now I enjoyed blue skies and warm sunshine.
After a long rest I set off again beside the stream between a field and the quarry until I eventually emerged onto pathless grassland where navigation had been difficult last year due to low cloud and this year, despite much better weather, I still had difficulty keeping to the trail until I surmounted a rise and had a view across the head of Cwm Callan of a faint path, merely an indentation in the grass, heading towards the ridge west of Bryniau Gleision. A tedious, exhausting slog across the grassy hillside brought me onto the ridge that undulated with views to my right into Glyn Collwn and down Taybont Reservoir over terrain that was no better than what I had seen the year before due to scarring from off-road vehicles. I ploughed on passing the trig point on Pant y Creigiau and steeply down to the Torpantau Pass where I crossed a road and headed up a path that had been very wet last year, but was now dry and eventually brought me to the Nant Bwrefwr and the clear path of the Beacons Way. The path uphill was torture in the hot weather and my weakened state, sweating buckets and struggling to keep going, so when the gradient finally, mercifully eased I stopped to have my lunch. The weather from this point on cooled as clouds began to build overhead, which made my pictures less spectacular, but made walking easier for me. When I set off again I followed the eastern edge of Craig y Fan Ddu until upon reaching Blaen Caerfanell I turned left onto a sketchier path that led me across the hilltop to a cairn and then turned north until on the edge of the escarpment awesome views were suddenly revealed down Cwm Oergwm.
Sunnier weather away from the hills and dappled sunshine in the valley made this a stunning sight that had me gazing in awe, while taking many pictures until eventually I turned towards the Brecon Beacons where dark clouds lingered above Pen y Fan. Slowly, I made my way around the escarpment edge heading towards Fan y Big, however, the Cambrian Way avoids the top, which I was more than happy to do, crossing the slopes on a gradual descent to reach Bwlch ar y Fan. The Cambrian Way now climbs Cribyn, which I did last year, but now I elected to follow the Beacons Way around the southern slopes slowly climbing to the col and beginning the ascent of Pen y Fan. I took my time on this, stopping frequently for a rest while the dark clouds above me dropped their rain. The cloud cover and light rain made this climb much easier than it would have been if the hot weather had persisted, to which I was thankful, but it didn’t seem to have had any effect on the large numbers of people who are attracted to this particular mountain for no apparent reason. I didn’t stop on Pen y Fan, but kept going to the neighbouring top of Corn Du and down the other side, ignoring the Cambrian Way’s diversion to the Tommy Jones obelisk by keeping to the main path that descends the broad grassy slope that eventually led me down to the Storey Arms.
On the descent I reflected that it would be a while before I climbed anything higher than Pen y Fan and was astonished when I tried to work out when that would be. The Cambrian Mountains have nothing higher so I would have to wait until I entered Eryri, that is Snowdonia, and Cadair Idris, which is just seven metres higher. However, I had a lot of walking ahead of me before I would get that far, so it would not be for another ten days but, in fact, bad weather intervened when I got there so I didn’t do Cadair Idris, which means I didn’t climb a mountain that is higher than Pen y Fan until Yr Wyddfa, better known as Snowdon, more than two weeks later. This left me feeling happy for being tired as I had clearly just climbed a major obstacle on the Cambrian Way and it was all going to be relatively easier for the next couple of weeks. At the Storey Arms I turned right to follow the Taff Trail along a track that gradually descended into Glyn Tarell until I eventually reached the Brecon Beacons Youth Hostel. This was a very tiring day, which had started with my being very tired, so I never had a chance. Last year I had walked even further and even that was less than the recommended length of this stage, which is probably the most strenuous of the whole trail. I had gone to excessive lengths to prepare for the Cambrian Way this year after my experiences last year, so I was worried that it didn’t seem to have helped. On my first two days on the Cambrian Way I was excited to be on the trail with almost three more weeks of this, but the next two days had proven to be extremely strenuous and knocked my enthusiasm, so I was now thinking, “Not another two and a half weeks of this!”