Home alone as the Big Freeze continues. A magical walk in the Brecon Beacons. Snowdrops.
Back down to -5C overnight on Monday / Tuesday, and we were up at 5am to get Phil to the 06.40 train to PAD. Very dry, so thankfully no ice on the roads and Steffi’s towel-on-the-windscreen tip meant no ice on the car either.
Back home to catch up on admin – a lot of LED posts on the website and Facebook. Emailed Val about Kanchenjunga trek this Oct / Nov…. although it’s still a placeholder rather than a plan at this stage.
Long work days Wednesday and Thursday. Still freezing outside and overnight. I kept the peanuts topped up in the bird feeders and melted the water in the bird bath.
On Thursday morning, this little fella / fellaette had a bit of a brush with the kitchen window and needed a spot of recovery time on the gate.
On Friday morning I drove over to Pengenffordd in the Brecon Beacons to walk the Dragons Back and Waun Fach Circular with Sonia, Sara and Grace.
A gorgeous day – snow underfoot and sunshine overhead. Cold and clear blue skies. Just magic.
Lovely to be back walking with my Manaslu and Nar Phu trek mates.
We did this DRAGONS BACK CIRCULAR – BLACK MOUNTAINS route in reverse: up the Rhiangoll valley to the ridge, north and east along the ridge to Waun Fach, north-west-ish and down to the cairn marking the turn west onto the Dragons Back, descending down the three bumps of the Dragon’s Back to the Dinas Castle Inn car park.
At the bottom of the Dragons Back we made a slight detour – worth it – up and over the remains of Castell Dinas hill fort. OS GetOutside tells me that “at 450 metres it is the highest castle in England and Wales”, so there you go.
And to top off a smashing day, we got to Crickhowell in time to celebrate with a large pot of tea and very tasty cakes at Latte-Da.
JUST FAB.
Driving to Malvern that evening to pick up Phil thanks to GWR terminating the Hereford train there was decidedly less so. I LOATHE driving in Malvern; navigating is a nightmare.
We took it easy over the weekend, late starts both days.
Freezing fog outside all day on Saturday, so a day to stay inside. The whiteout confused the sheep no end. Flickred Dragon’s Back photos, did some admin, cooked dinner.
The weather started to warm up a bit on Sunday – BBC reckons we nudged all the way up to 2C – so we strolled down to the Abbey and back over Thistly Field in the morning. Late lunch then an afternoon eBaying “stuff”.
Busy day of admin and projects on Monday including a visit to Wren Kitchens, preceded by lunch at Dough, which was neither admin nor project!
TV: Narcos (season 2), Life after Life, Happy Valley (series 3), Our Flag Means Death.
Podcasts: The History of England, Books and Authors.
Photos: Herefordshire week 160 on Flickr.
Phil: w/e 2023-01-22.