Walk number two of this visit to the Brecons (Bannau Brycheiniog), and after a day of fairly heavy and persistent rain, we stayed on the eastern side of the National Park, to avoid the worst of any showers coming in from the west. It worked pretty well and we only had one long ish batch of drizzly mizzle to contend with. For our day off, we had spent the day bimbling around a couple of record shops, including a particularly good one in Abergavenny (Music One). Our route today started from a small bit of roadside parking, not to far from the cute village of Llanbedr. We would head to this village at the end of the walk, but for now we started off along the road, before turning left and looking upwards. Ahead lay the steep concrete track which was unrelenting in its upness (yes I’m making that word up), before it eased a bit around Table Mountain, and then started upping its steepness again. As we were wondering where we would get any further energy from, the gradient eased a second time and we reached an outlier cairn. The summit was in sight, which gave us a lift and we set off for Pen Cerrig-Calch. Stunning views all around had been had so far on this walk, and the top was no exception as Pen Allt-mawr unveiled itself ahead of us. We stopped for a pasty which we’d bought earlier that morning (ironic coming from the south west of England, to eat a pasty in Wales, made in Cornwall!!), before heading off along the good path to Pen Allt-mawr. More great views of the hills to the north of Pen Allt-mawr were had on reaching its summit, before we dropped steeply off the back. As we walked along flat but sometimes slanted grassy paths, Linda slipped badly but no harm done. We headed around a curving path to Pen Twyn Glas, a pretty dull summit, where the weather closed in, drizzle started and the views vanished. We headed down a very boggy path to the quarries and it was here that the weather cleared again, leaving us with a very muddy, slimy path down to the road. All that was left was the simple walk along the lane to the car, before a drive to Llanbedr to have a look at the village.

Start – Roadside near Llanbedr

Route – Table Mountain – Pen Cerrig-Calch – Pen Allt-mawr – Pen Twyn Glas – Tal Trwynau – Old quarries – Penhoelmeirch – Llanbedr

Distance – 9.5 miles  Start time – 11.45am  Time taken – 5hrs 30mins Highest Point – Pen Allt-mawr 719 metres

Weather – Lots of sunny spells, cloud, drizzle as we left Pen Twyn Glas until the quarries