Couple of Zwift spins throughout the week. But on Friday, I was in love. On Friday, Phantom and I headed to Grwyne Fawr bothy in the Brecon Beacons as part of an opportunistic recce. My buddy Mr Odge got me a book entitled 'Bothy' for Xmas and this sparked the interest to spend a night here. We decided to 'check it out' before a potential group visit. Pleased to report the planets aligned and Phantom and I successfully navigated our way to said bothy.
The bothy is considered remote and is tucked away in an (allegedly) deep and dark corner of the Black Mountains. The bothy took us just over an hour to reach from the car park at the base, even with our heavy back packs. So many trees were snapped and fallen at the start due to recent inclement weather.
The bothy was not difficult to find at all. Once a dam was in site, we knew we just had to follow the reservoir. Before we could shout 'Grwyne Fawr', the bothy came into sight. How awesome it looked and how excited we were! There was no 'real' path to the bothy and it was wet, rocky, steep and challenging underfoot.
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| Have no idea what this says |
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| Left a post card of my mother (storm trooper) as proof of visit |
We so hoped the bothy would be empty when we reached it and had decided to set off early for this reason. Bothy anxiety was quickly erased once we knocked the door and peeped inside - it was empty. Yay, we had 'bagged the bothy' and soon set about setting up our sleeping bags in the mezzanine bedroom area (reached by climbing a ladder).
This bothy was tiny, about the size of a small closet. Even so, it had 4 chairs around a tiny table on the ground floor with a wood burner to boot. Previous visitors had left baked beans, loo roll and similar goodies but we had enough goodies of our own. A couple of shovels and 3 brooms were also at our disposal.
Around lunch time we had our first visitors. It was a couple who were hiking round and about. They did not wish to stay in the bothy overnight, rather just have a sit in the bothy to eat their lunch. They gifted us with a Victory sweet before heading off.
After lunch, decided to go for a swim in the freezing reservoir. Oh man, this water was cold! So pleased I braved the waters though, I did not wish to leave with regret. Sadly, This was the last time I would ever swim in these shorts - I melted them later in the evening, trying to dry them out on the wood burner.
Later in the day, after our feast of Huel and pork pie, we had more visitors. 2 brothers came by and had wanted to sleep in the bothy overnight. The one brother took a look inside and agreed there was not room enough. The other brother never said a word. The brothers camped in a tent just across the stream and I could feel their disappointment. The chatty brother visited us after he set up camp and gifted us some wood burning fuel. Sweet!
Later still in the evening, a solo hippy girl passed the bothy and the brothers. She had no interest in the bothy but could be seen camping in the hills. She had an awesome spot high above the reservoir.
Phantom and I were chilling out, eating (fry up) and drinking (whisky and brandy) when we had 2 more visitors in the evening. A head peeped around the door and asked 'room for 2 small ones', there really wasn't. These visitors soon scrambled away in the deep dark night.
The night was amazing. The wood burner kept our bothy super warm. Taking a look outside blew us away with the incredible starry sky we could see. Amazing and awesome in equal measure!
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| He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power. Psa 147: 4-5 |
The night was super cosy. In fact, maybe a little too warm. I was wearing merino PJ's and was tucked inside a sleeping bag liner, inside a down sleeping bag (the one SJ made) inside my Alpkit down sleeping bag. Was tempted to remove my woolly socks but didn't. Phantom complained about my snoring and I complained about his!
In the morning, we celebrated our bothy stay by drinking the Milky Way drink I was gifted for Xmas (thanks Manisha, it was proper tasty). We then packed up and left without leaving a trace. We passed the dam and headed for the car park. On route we noticed a land slide that was blocking the ride on the other side of the river - this must have happened overnight, it wasn't there yesterday. After about an hour of trekking we reached the car park. Pete (taxi driver) was waiting for us and took us back to Abergavenny for further adventure.
Would love to visit the bothy again and to check out others too. I'm led to believe there are 8 bothy's in Wales. This was the smallest and the most difficult to bag, due to the high numbers visiting. I'd love to visit again with Phantom, plus Mr Odge and Jamie. If we were visiting this particular bothy, I'd be happy to take my tent and camp nearby. There's no way 4 of us would fit. We took bivvy's on this trip just in case, but the planets aligned and we bagged our bothy and completed the mission!
Despite the awesome adventure already had, Phantom and I decided we would fit in another hike before we headed home. This climb took us to the summit of 'The Sugar Loaf' (Myndd Pen-y-fal). This is a lovely hill situated NW of Abergavenny in Monmouthsire, Wales and sits within the Brecon Beacons National Park. The hill rises to 1,955 feet and once at the top we were in the clouds.
Suffragette Lady Rhondda gifted The Sugar Loaf to the National Trust. Who knew?!
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