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.

Dovedale

Friday 22nd February 2002 

A walk that I did early in my walking career when I was still quite naïve and green as far as walking was concerned was ten years ago on a Friday while on a four-day week at work. I had planned to get up at the usual time for work, i.e. very early, and be ready to start walking by seven o’clock. I had thought that would be before sunrise, but as it turned out it the day had already broken by the time I arrived at the car park. This was a good walk, but it didn't really start very well. I spent ages getting myself ready once I had arrived at Thorpe, (this often happens when I drive to walks: I am itching to get started but I have so many things to do first such as changing into my walking boots and getting into my waterproofs that it seems to take forever. It doesn't feel like I have this problem when I start from Youth Hostels as I can make sure I’m ready to go before I ever leave the dormitory) and then when I was ready to go I realised that I was in the wrong car park! 

I had parked in the Narlows Road car park but soon I realised that a much better starting point would have been in the Station car park at the bottom of the road (in my defence the old map I was using at the time doesn’t have the station car park marked – unlike on newer maps). When I tried to move I found that my car was stuck in the mud. Like an idiot I had parked at the bottom of the slope and so I was unable to use gravity to get me out. Eventually I gave up trying to move the car and started to walk, dropping down to the old railway line before taking a footpath back up the hill into the delightful village of Thorpe. After walking through the village I descended along a muddy path through Lin Dale into the fabulous Dove Dale. It was simply wonderful to be in this narrow valley again for the first time since I was a child. Dovedale is usually, deservedly, packed with people but because of my early start (of the day and of the year!) I never saw anyone all the way up the valley despite this being such a popular area. I met one guy walking his dog at the bottom of the valley near the hill of Thorpe Cloud and that was it. [This picture of the Dove Dale stepping stones was not taken during this walk but on a later one] 

The weather for my walk below the towering sides of the valley was quite good: sunny and pleasant, and just a little windy at times. The narrow valley was providing me with a handy shelter from the full force of the weather that would attack me later in the day. The River Dove was really full and completely submerging the stepping stones at Thorpe Cloud (this was long before the stones were controversially raised by concreting over them), but the path was mostly clear. The only place the path wasn’t clear was on a short section near Ravens Tor where it was covered in water, but I was able to just wade around the flood. North of Milldale I walked along a narrow road for a short distance before rejoining the path at Coldeaton Bridge. At this point however I had more problems as the grass path was completely submerged and I had to climb up the hillside in order to get past. When the valley narrowed again I climbed up a short clough onto the old railway line of the Tissington Trail. There the wind, which had been merely a little blustery in the dale, was tremendous, so much so that I could hardly make any progress against the strong head wind. I had to cover myself in waterproofs as if it was chucking it down with rain in order to keep me warm and able to resist the wind. 

The walk back to the car by the Tissington Trail was actually quite easy except for the strong wind. The weather didn’t get much better as I trudged slowly along the old railway line going in a wide circle around the village of Tissington to return to the car park that I should have parked in. Finally, I wearily climbed back up the hill to the car park that I had actually parked in. Back at the car, despite my fatigue, I now had to try and rescue my car. After a lot of failed attempts to push or pull the car out I realised I could, with great effort, move the concrete dustbin that was blocking my escape. At first this didn’t seem to help but eventually I managed to drive out of the mud to great cries of relief. That was not an experience that I want to repeat. I had started this walk at about 7-30 (later than I had planned due to my long prep and messing about with moving the car) and I got back to my car between 11-30 and 11-45 so this wasn't a very long walk despite being probably about twelve miles but I suppose it was mostly flat, especially the return along the Tissington Trail, so I was able to cover the distance quickly. I had my lunch in the car before driving back home. 

I have been back to Dove Dale many times since this walk, exploring the surrounding countryside as well as the valley itself. But this walk will stay in my mind as the first time I had been there on my own. The valley has always held happy memories for me and this walk simply added to them. I loved the way I’d started the walk early in the morning so I was able to get a jump on everyone else which enabled me to enjoy the valley all to myself. It is so often the case that really popular areas such as Dove Dale are ruined by their sheer popularity. This walk showed how the crowds can be avoided.