In the shadow of the twin peaks

Arriving just before lunchtime for this one-night stay in the Brecon Beacons, my first port of call was the National Park Mountain centre, six miles south of Brecon. This is a delightful place, not for its relatively low key display area, but for its situation adjacent to a large area of common land on which the visitor is free to roam.

This largely level piece of land has broad green paths cutting through bracken and gorse giving particularly fine views of the surrounding mountains. From the different viewpoints shown on the site leaflet it is possible to see, with minimal effort, the full sweep of the three mountain ranges comprising the national park. But the dominating feature of the landscape hereabouts is the twin peaks of Pen y Fan and Corn Du, highest points of the Brecon Beacons range.

There is an excellent cafe at the centre, serving home-cooked meals at reasonable prices. An unexpected feature is the Millenium garden, an attractive courtyard garden displaying hand-made ceramic tiles, plaques and pots produced by South Wales potters.

A sheep-free zone

Having spent around three hours at the mountain centre I drove the short distance to the hostel, parked the car and set off to explore the nearby Craig Cerrig-gleisiad nature reserve.

This rocky glacial valley is managed by the Countyside Council for Wales and visitors are free to walk on a number of 'courtesy paths'. I picked up a guide from a box by the first stile and decided to follow the path crossing the stream to the left. The thin trail climbs the hillside just back from the crags, steep but not requiring the use of hands.

The reserve is run on the principle of restricting grazing to allow plants to flourish. The success of this management plan is very evident on the level ground above the cliffs. As I walked along the path near the boundary fence the contrast between the grazed and ungrazed areas was startling; the usual short cropped grass where the sheep grazed, while in the reserve a profusion of grasses of many varieties with tall reddish-brown 'flower heads'.

There are apparently rare alpine flowers growing on the steep slopes and I did see splodges of colour, white, yellow, purple but you would need binoculars and a good botanical guide to identify them. Having walked around the head of the valley I returned by a less steep route, occasionally sampling the tiny but delicious bilberries growing in abundance there.

This excellent short walk took about 1½ hours.

High-point

The following morning the sky was overcast but there was no immediate threat of rain, so I stuffed a waterproof in my rucksack, pulled on my boots and set off with the intention of climbing Pen y Fan, but quite prepared to turn back should the weather deteriorate.

A new path from the hostel crosses National Trust land to reach the old coach road. This walkers only section of the Taff Trail climbs gently up the valley to the pass at Storey Arms Outdoor Centre. I took the path from here which leads directly to the summit of Corn Du. There is no need for route-finding here, just follow the obvious path, sometimes in its badly eroded natural state, sometimes carefully repaired by stone-pitching. The gradient is generally modest but the final ascent to Corn Du is relatively steep; from here it is an easy stroll to its slightly higher neighbour, Pen y Fan (886m).

I reached the summit at 11 am, around two hours after leaving the hostel. There were as yet few people around and I slowly wandered around taking in the views. It was a still, overcast morning, phosphorescent white clouds were suspended over the lower ridges towards Brecon, the Black Mountains could be seen in the distance, and was that the Bristol channel, far away to the south?

The return was by the same route to Storey Arms, where I was pleased to find a snack van in the lay-by; a hot dog and a cup of tea have never tasted better!