Due to work and traffic, Steve couldn't get to the designated central rendezvous point (Marcus' house) at the original departure time, so we left around 20:30 hours, finally making it to Brecon around 23:00 hours...
WALES MISSION REPORT: Page 1
Due to work and traffic, Steve couldn't get to the designated central rendezvous point (Marcus' house) at the original departure time, so we left around 20:30 hours, finally making it to Brecon around 23:00 hours...
We chose our campsites at Pencelli Castle (I guess all you need is an old stone building to call it a castle?)...
...then drove back into Brecon for some Chinese takeaway for our very late dinner... ("Chinese takeaway for a camping trip?" says Britta...)
After a decent night's sleep, we packed up, ate some of my blueberry muffins, and headed out to Pen-y-Fan. Don't ask me what Andy is doing here...? Marcus took the picture when Andy was packing up his tent...
We parked near the main gate for the pathway, took this picture (which fools the eye on how tall everyone really is due to the hill sloping down to the left!), and headed for the top. You can see our goal behind and directly above us in this picture. It's the peak that looks like it has a bump sticking off to the side...
This is when I discovered that public pathways and national parkland often go through private land (see here for more of my observations), as you can tell here by Marcus standing amongst the cows. The cows mooed a bit, but they didn't seem to have any problems with us invading their space. Click on the picture to see a cute little calf with it's mom...
Once we got past the cows, we were still in a little foresty glade for awhile, but then we came out into the fields, where it was VERY windy...
I had warned the crew that I wasn't the world's greatest hiker, but I felt I had no problem when we tried to go up Halfdome the back way...Well, I guess I'm just a wimp, since my chest was heaving just going up the first steep hills, let alone getting to the top! I had to sit and rest quite a bit, as you can see here...
Yes, we kept going, so we're farther along the ridge that goes across to the summit. Some nice views, though...this is looking back the way we've come so far... The wind was blowing so hard that the clouds were changing faster than you could take a photo!
Here are Andy & me (Marcus took the photo, and Jonathan and Steve were far ahead of us) past the first steep part, looking at the nice view of the lake below. (click on the photo to see the view from this point) You can also see the green valley back in the corner where we parked the car! We've come a long way already, but we still have a ways to go...
Here I am getting ready for the last steep, rocky climb to the summit. Click on the picture for a view from this point...
This is looking in the direction we're headed up towards the top. You can see that not only are Jonathan and Steve still far ahead of us, but that Steve is wearing shorts! I never did get too hot with my stretch pants under my shorts, since the wind was blowing right through me up there. Click on the image for another view...
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