I apologize for being out of touch this weekend, I was in the Brecon Beacons National Park here in Wales to do some backpacking! Though our excursion was only a two day trip, it definitely warrants two posts, just because of the sheer number of crazy, exciting, and spectacular things we went through. Bear with me if this post is long; it was a great weekend.
We left for the park on friday at 6:15 pm thanks to my unfortunately scheduled physics lab that goes from 2-5 pm on fridays. My traveling companions, John, Paikin, and Jackie, were waiting for at the bus stop at 4:15, praying that my lab would let out early so we could take the bus all the way to the tiny town of Bwlch (pronounced Boolchk). I got several texts in lab telling me that the bus was late; needless to say, I booked it out of lab only to receive another text that the bus had just pulled away. So, alas, we had to wait for the 6:15 bus that would only take us as far as Merythr Tidvyl (no idea how to spell it). When we arrived in Merythr, Jackie called us a cab. The poor man had no idea where Bwlch was, and failed to get directions from all of the other cab drivers. We took a detour to his house (where we saw his cute dog) where he got his GPS which gives directions in the voice of Sean Connery. We made it to Bwlch without glitch, and found the backpacker's hostel in town called the New Inn. We couldn't figure out which door led to the hostel, so we tried one that led into a pub. Paikin asked the bartender if "this is the place where people go backpacking from" (or something like that). Fortunately, we were in the right place, and were shown our room, which was very pleasant and had its own bathroom. We spent the rest of the evening planning our route for the next day, as well as watching Gladiator and reading Wheels, Clocks, and Rockets.
The next morning, we woke to a beautiful sunrise and perfectly blue skies for our Bwlch with Altitude hike. Basically, we decided to do a hike that had a cute little pamphlet and map with it that showed us the way to a town called Llangors, around a lake, and back to Bwlch in a 12 mile loop. We started the hike off in a minor state of confusion, because we couldn't find the trailhead. After backtracking, we finally found a gate to a small church that led up into the hills. Here, we experienced our first kissing gate; these gates are built in such a way that only one person can pass through at a time. I looked up their history on Wikipedia:
The name may be associated with a traditional game played when more than one person is passing through a kissing gate. In order for one person to pass fully through the gate they have to close it to the next person. At this point, when the two are on either side of the gate, the person in front "refuses" entry to the second person until presented with a kiss. Indeed in some circles it is considered good form for everyone passing through a kissing gate to exchange kisses in this way (provided all parties are sufficiently friendly with each other).
We walked up a beautiful tunnel of hedges that passed by horse pastures and through neighbor's backyards until the hill opened up to a awe inspiring view of the valley. We got a little lost at this point, but were able to get on track fairly easily. While enjoying the beautiful hillsides and views, we took plenty of pictures, chased sheep (Paikin attempted to ride one), chased Welsh Mountain ponies (!!!!), and stopped for many snack breaks. As we approached the northern end of our hike, the beautiful Llangors lake came into view. We didn't linger at the peak long; the wind was quite cold, even though we enjoyed a completely sunny day. We then had a long ( and sometime frightening) downhill climb to the town of Llangors, were we enjoyed PB+J sandwiches while listening to a man whistling happily from his countryside home. After lunch, we headed for Llangors Lake, which was consequently completely flooded. This didnt hinder us much, and we continued our walk through flooded fields where we completely soaked our socks. This was particularly unfortunate because we all had waterproof boots of some kind, but the water was so deep at points that it flooded over the top of our shoes. The scenery in the valley was just as lovely as it was different. The fields we trudged through were still green with great big trees and rows of hedges. In one field, we climbed a big fat tree that must have been the diameter of a redwood! We went through about 10 more kissing gates, ran into several cute dogs and their friendly owners, before arriving at Llangasty-Talyllyn. We were nearly attacked by Robin hood and his gang in the form of young local boys hiding under a bridge with carved bows and arrows. We were slightly embarrassed that we almost walked into a funeral by the old church. It reminded me of Waking Ned Devine, if anyone reading has seen the movie. We learned later from a local that the funeral was for a young man who worked himself to death. It certainly made me feel a bit ashamed for spending a long weekend relaxing in the Welsh countryside.
The next leg of our hike took us up another steep climb to an area called Allt yr Esgair. The views from the top were absolutely breathtaking; we had a full 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside and mountains, including Pen Y Big, the largest peak in south Wales. As the sun began to set, we made our way down through more pleasant hedgerows and fields full of sheep that responded to Paikin attempting to communicate with them. Our long but satisfying hike ended with a slightly frightening roadside hike along the A40 back to Bwlch. In the hostel, we took showers which were much needed to warm us up a bit, then we ate pizza and chips (french fries) like we were starving people. Honestly, the fries were the most delicious I had ever had. Maybe because they were piping hot. As we were waiting for our food, we befriended some local welsh men who were laughing at our attempts to dry our boots by the fire. It was very hard to understand their accents but they love Obama, hate Tony Blair, and hate the British. One man has a grandson who plays on the Wales rugby team! He laughed when I told him I thought I understood the rules of rugby.
After dinner, we watched 40 year old Virgin with two girls from Belgium. It was hilarious seeing their reaction to it. We then started planning our next day, which proved to be difficult; the VERY nice hostel worker offered to drive us to the mountains, but we had no way of getting back. We had our maps sprawled out on the table when we were greeted by Rob, our lifesaver. He asked where we were headed, and when we said that we had no idea, he offered to take us to the mountain range with Pen Y Big and hike with us for the day! He is getting Mountaineer certification, so he needs to hike a lot of miles in the mountain to get it. It seemed like he wanted some company, and we were delighted to provide it. We then went to bed, completely exhausted but ready for our next adventure. I learned very quickly how nice it is to stay in hostels; you really get to meet friendly and helpful people who are doing exactly what you are.
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