Breakfast on the Caerfanell Circuit

Some brief words on a little stroll we had in June. I’ve done this walk a couple of times, clockwise a couple of summer’s ago, anticlockwise last autumn. You can look at maps and lots of my wittering stream of written consciousness if you follow the links to the previous visits. You can see from those posts and the photos below that this is a little cracker of a walk.

Waterfalls on the Nant Bwrefwr

“Oh what a beautiful morning”

This was another clockwise journey with TJS and TBF. We took advantage of TJF staying at a friends for an early start. As a special treat I cooked me and TJS a bacon sandwich halfway up the hill by the stream. It was a lovely spot and great start to the day

Nant Bwrefwr

Still time for a lesson learned though. Even with the little pot stand the heat given off by a Jetboil stove is ferocious. Enough to warp a Trangia frying pan, burn off its non-stick coating and melt the end of my daughter’s pink spork – she was not amused. Worth it for a cooked breakfast under a clear blue sky 🙂

Breakfast by the Nant Bwrefwr

We had to get back for a Scouts event for D so it was a brisk walk from there. It was a perfect day for walking, clear skies, abundant sunshine and a brisk wind to keep us cool

TBF on Craig-y-Fan Ddu

Caerfanell valley & Craig-y-Fan Ddu

The walk along the long edge above the Caerfanell Valley was simply superb

Caerfanell valley & Craig-y-Fan Ddu

Pen y Fan, Corn Du & Cribyn

The views across to the high summits of the Brecons and north to the perfect northern u-shaped valleys was as good as I can remember

North from Waun Rydd

Happy Walkers

Even the boggy bits were dry 🙂

Pen y Fan, Corn Du and Cribyn from Waun Rydd

Allt Llwyd, Sugar Loaf and Talybont Reservoir

As the route switches from the edges on both sides of the ridge so the views and aspect changes to great effect. The sense of height and space from these edges is something to behold. I love it up here

Edge from Gwalciau’r Cwm to Craig-y-Fan

As ever despite the perfect weather and the fact it was Saturday we saw hardly anyone. Pen y Fan would we mobbed on a day like this

Gwalciau’r Cwm from Waun yr Gorlan

The Caerfanell river and it’s waterfalls were as special as ever. Had we not been in a bit of a hurry I could have sat by the banks for hours.

Caerfanell Waterfalls

Delicately poised

Caerfanell Waterfalls

At the bottom of the falls there were several families playing in the river with some light gorge scrambling. Something to remember when I need some water based fun in the summer. The usual sting in the tail of this walk is the steep climb through the trees back up to the car. It was pretty hot by then and we were all suffering a little from the brisk pace. This waterfall with its carpet of bluebells gave us a fitting finale to the walk

Bluebells by the waterfalls

Short and sweet but I’m now only 2 weekends behind in my posts. A couple of great backpacking trips to write-up. Shame I’m off to Wales for a week and then France for 3 weeks. Looks like I’ll be writing in the past for a couple of months yet 🙂