Tuesday 15 September 2020
[Note, I have been very tardy it writing up my hillwalking blog and this is actually being written nearly one year after the event, so my memory maybe a bit sketchy].
So, 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic and for much of the year we have been in lockdown and unable to travel. But now restrictions have eased and we are allowed to travel from England to Wales, so I decided that as it is nearly a year since I was last out on the hill and after six months working from home and basically only going out to the supermarket once a week, a solo day-trip to Wales would be good for my well-being and sanity in general.
I arrived at the Taf Fechan Forestry Commission car park just before 11:00am after a 2¼ hour journey. I probably should have departed earlier. Anyway, the weather looked set fair for a cracking day. None of today’s hills would be new to me though, I did this route with Vince way back in August 2002.
There was construction work taking place on the Neuadd reservoirs, so there was a lot of contractor’s fencing around the the site, but the walker’s route was well sign-posted to direct me on to the hill. Initially I had a choice of route, either keep to the left and follow the forest edge up to Twyn Mwyalchod (the route Vince and I used 18 years ago), or follow a stream to the right and then steeply up to the ridge. I chose the latter as it was the route Nuttall suggest.
A bit of a hard slog in the heat to get up onto the ridge, but once there most of the hard work of the day was done. After a kilometre or so of walking along the ridge I stopped for a quick break and WhatsApp’ed a photo of the magnificent view to my work colleagues to make them jealous. I did not mention to them that I had chosen flying-ant day for the walk and that I was being plagued by the little critters!
This is a wonderful ridge walk as I continued towards the first summit, Craig Gwaun Taf. This was not a Nuttall when I first did this in 2002, but was promoted in November 2016. I stopped near the top for lunch.
These are popular hills, so there were plenty of people about on the summits of Corn Du, Pen y Fan and Cribyn. I stopped on each one to admire the view and take photos. I left the crowds behind after Cribyn as nobody else continued onwards to Fan y Big, my fifth and final summit of the day. Here I did bump into and chatted to another walker, who turned out also to be a runner and had completed the Marathon des Sables. He kindly took a photo of me standing on the little rock platform that juts out on Fan y Big.
He was heading back to the Storey Arms, but my walk continued for a short way along Craig Cwmoergwm before descending diagonally down Tor Glas to pick up the track that led back to the Taf Fechan car park.
A grand day in the hills, and certainly worth the long drive.
| Summit | Height (m) | Status | ||
| Craig Gwaun Taf | 824 | Nuttall | ||
| Corn Du | 873 | Sub-Hewitt, Nuttall | ||
| Pen y Fan | 886 | Hewitt, Marilyn, Nuttall | ||
| Cribyn | 795 | Hewitt, Nuttall | ||
| Fan y Big | 719 | Hewitt, Nuttall |
More photos here
