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It had been quite a challenge looking out from my bedroom to the Black Mountains and Wales and realising they were out of bounds. Necessary of course but we were pleased that the reopening of the National Park coincided with a decent weekend of weather. Keen to avoid the busy spots we headed to the Black Mountain for one of our favourite walks.

Parking up in the east, following the infant river Tawe up towards Lyn y Fan Fawr/Fach and a circuit of the high peaks and edges

Intermittently cloudy and cool punctuating the sunny spells we walked on briskly looking for a spot for breakfast.

We eventually found a grassy shelf with a tremendous view over most of mid-Wales.

With a backdrop of the impressive edges of the Black Mountain.

I’ve really taken to the idea of breakfast in the hills. Makes the effort of carrying all the stuff around worth it when you have a view like this.

The shores of Llyn y Fan Fach were busy (only relatively) so we pressed on to the top. The view along the edges over the lake is truly magnificent.

Followed by what looks like a long walk along the edges but in fact the walking is so grand and easy its over all too quickly.

The sunny spells had increased and the air was amazingly clear. We could see a whole range of Welsh hills as far as southern Snowdonia. Looking the other way the view across the Gower towards Devon was equally fine. Looking closely I saw land out in the horizon – I could see the Lundy island out to the west of Devon. Must be close to 70 miles away – amazing.

We decided another long stop for a cuppa was in order on the highest point.

More sensational views, this time across Llyn y Fan Fawr, my favourite mountain lake.

On the way down you pass an impressive gully and narrow earthy arête that makes for a great photo foreground.

We had a brief stop by the shore for a paddle – well I did anyway. A truly superb spot.

The weather was just getting better and better and the Afon Tawe has some wonderful, if rather small pools that looked inviting for a dip.

We saw no point in turning down that invitation. It was brief and very cold but nothing beats a wild swim in the mountains.

It felt good to be back.

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It hasn’t been much of summer so far has it? Seemingly endless days of rain and sunshine a distant memory. Fleeting appearances between showers. Time to call on the isolated good memories from weeks gone by, this one from the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May. Another weekend that started of grey and wet but a promise of clearing skies on the Sunday prompted us to head our for a quick overnight wild camp. Parking up at the Dan yr Ogof show caves we headed into the limestone hills to the south of the main Black Mountain range.

It was still raining when we left home but once we set out on foot the skies had cleared to a breezy and sunny late afternoon. Its a quiet part of south Wales at the best of times but this late in the day we had path to ourselves.

It’s a fine green path across the white stone slopes, easy going is always a bonus when carrying an overnight pack.

Fine, expansive views across this wild and austere corner of the mountains.

TBF striding out and enjoying the scenery if not the heavy pack.

There a numerous sink holes in the area and several are filled with water. One gave us a somewhat harrowing experience of rescue. I paused to wait for TBF to catch up and noticed a sheep near one of these pools. Something about it looked forlorn so I went to have a look and found that it was stuck in the pool, unable to get out. The banks were boggy and the poor thing was shivering and completely out of energy. Between us, me and TBF managed to drag it out of the pool until it sat on the banks. There was little more we could do but leave it alone and hope that it had sufficient reserves of core body heat and energy to recover and survive. Sheep are pretty hardy so we hoped that it would survive. I hope that we at least gave it a fighting chance as it would surely have died in the pool had we not seen it.

We were headed back to a spot wed camped in a few years back. The Afon Gledd flows into a limestone valley and then disappears. Our spot was just upstream in a fine grassy shelf by the stream.

We set about making camp in a spell of rather glorious blue sky and sunshine.

Tea was drunk and evening meal cooked and consumed. No finer way to spend an evening back in the real world – TV and Netflix would be nice though! 🙂

We had some wonderful late evening sunset views after a short walk to a nearby outcrop to help with digesting the meal.

It was pretty chilly but we managed to sit outside until darkness crept in before retiring for the night.

Showers were more frequent in the morning so it was breakfast cooked inside.

As the morning developed so did the sunshine as we packed up for a walk back to the car via the maze of small limestone outcrops that litter the area to the south.

There are no paths marked and I had thought it might be hard going. In fact there were numerous sheep tracks and flat rock outcrops and apart from one short stretch of tussocks the going was easy.

In fact the walking was superb, the bright grey rock contrasting with the green grass and the moody clouds and blue sky.

It would make fine wild camping country if there was some running water. There are a few small tarns but you’d likely need to filter the water carefully as there are no outflows.

Our target was the unusual hill of Cribarth. Unusual in that its been very heavily quarried, carving some weird outcrops and shapes.

It was really cold and chilly up here and the only time since we packed up that it rained, albeit just for a few minutes.

We dropped down to the fields and found a sheltered spot for a picnic lunch and a brew.

The sun came out to glorious effect while we sat and created some stunning views to the Forest Fawr range and along the Tawe valley.

A short walk back down to the river and back to the car to complete a superb little outing in this remarkable and unusual corner of the Brecon Beacons.