Brecon Beacons - 31st March - 2nd April
By Paul & Martin - you decide who wrote what!

Friday: Our pre-Easter holidays trip took us to the Brecon Beacons National Park, more precisely to Pen-y-Cae in the Upper Swansea Valley. An early start was necessary to arrive in Wales at a reasonable time. A perfectly sized group of 22 people had to rely on two Germans driving with their GPS satellite navigation systems through half of the UK – but everybody arrived well in the bunkhouse, peacefully set next to a mountain we walked up on Sunday (and which Michael already tried to – unsuccessfully – ‘climb up’ with the minibus); also worth to mention: a small plane in front of the bunkhouse – for general disappointment without wings so we couldn’t go for a sightseeing flight round the national park.

42 beds for 22 people gave us enough room, and as it was fairly late already, we decided not to search for a pub anymore, but enjoyed a relaxed and – for Walking Club measures – fairly early night.

Saturday: Due to an absence of experienced walk leaders this weekend, the hard walk was lead by Dan "just round the corner" and the easy walk by Martin and his GPS system (with some assistance/hindrance from Driving Paul).

The planned 9:30am departure was delayed (not unexpectedly) until around 10:20am, when the two groups set out on the walk together. The plan was to stay together for the first leg of the walk, then separate into the easy and hard walks later on. It soon became obvious though, that the pace of one group was much faster than the pace of the other group - and because of this, the "catch-up" stops were too frequent. So after leaving the main road and walking over the first hill, it was decided that the hard walk would go on ahead at their own pace - which they did.

The easy walk, which had almost as many leaders as followers, plodded along at a very steady pace. The weather was dry and quite bright, which made the walk enjoyable despite the speed. It also gave Martin the opportunity to try out his new GPS toy. Surprised at how much information was provided by this tiny gadget, Martin's confidence at leading (not to mention his excitement of having a new toy) soared, and he got more creative with the walk.

Being the easy walk, the terrain wasn't difficult. The hills were mild, and the river-crossings weren't too challenging for most. There was one particular river which required a bit of a jump, and only one person ended up with wet feet (and legs). The walk progressed over unaltering terrain for quite a while, until we started to curve around towards Abercraf. The ground was turning from brown to green, and we were approaching a small forest leaving the expanse of dry grass behind us. This small forest seemed to be home to a bear of some kind - at least this was Martins explanation for certain recurring noises heard by Driving Paul. However Paul remained sceptical and believed that the noises were actually coming from Martin, who may have eaten too much fruit and veg over the course of the day.

The walk lasted a good few hours though, and at one point it looked like we might not make it back before dark! The slower two of the group remained at a local pub to be collected later, while the others made a quicker move to the bunkhouse. Again, Martins GPS led the way until the bunkhouse was in site.

To say it was the easy walk, there were an unusual number of scrapes and cuts! Nothing serious though, and whilst it's probably true to say that not everybody enjoyed the walk, its fair to say that most did!

Sunday: After another relaxed night on Saturday evening which was caused by Saturday hard walkers ending up somewhere far away from the bunkhouse and due to questionable cleanliness after their muddy-river-crossing-walk waiting in the cold outside area of a posh pub for hours till the Beci & Martin-taxi picked them up (result: hot showers were the first thing everybody needed, before anything else could be undertaken), and then caused by a well-prepared tasty dinner which made everybody even lazier and simply ending up in a cosy common room with a fire place in the bunkhouse, Sunday morning wasn’t too promising weatherwise, but everybody – apart from Martin who couldn’t watch the 5am Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix due to the absence of a promised TV – was in quite a good mood and ready for action. In reality, this had the following effect: Paul happily led a very easy walk to the nearest pub and enjoyed, together with 3 of his fellow “walkers” an excessive Sunday lunch. And the rest of the group under the leadership of Dan (and later on Beci) was walking up the mountain 725m high Fan Gyhirych – the one which Michael tried to drive up on Friday already.

The walk was a really good one, thanks to a good spirit in the group as well as thanks to changing countryside, conditions and challenges. After a long and steady ascent on a dismantled tramway, the highlights of the walk certainly took place on the highest point of the walk: firstly, Beci on her first weekend trip as “President Elect” took over the leadership from Dan; then, short before reaching the peak, sometimes a little bit surrounded by fog, we could enjoy an amazing, almost mystic view down into the valley towards the area of Cray Reservoir; and after reaching the peak and trying to find an acceptable path for the descent (the described path on the map was way too steep), we were confronted with literally staggering elements of nature – a storm that one normally doesn’t experience. But we had fun, we made the downhill part which was probably steeper than most of us have ever walked before, and back down we could enjoy a comfortable way back to the bunkhouse.

From there, and after having picked up the pub people, we made our way back to Leeds – where the fastest ones arrived round 1.5 hours before the rest (and therefore happily enjoyed a cup of tea and watched the photos of the weekend). As soon as we were reunited, Nazam’s was calling – and the decision to follow the call was a good one as the Curry was tasty as usual.

Happy Easter holidays!