This is the second time I've done this walk which links together two beautiful lakes in the western Brecon Beacons - Llyn y fan fawr and Llyn y fan fach. The last time I'd done it, it was a dry day but clouded over halfway through and I'd done it solo. My dad and I set off after parking halfway up on the Trecastle road (as you turn off from the A4067 at the Tafarn y Garreg). It was a really clear day - I've never been able to see Fan Brycheiniog from the road before.
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| View from the road. |
There's a small gravel car park on the left side of the road and the path to Llyn y fan fawr starts here (there are a few). You cross a stream and the river a bit further up and keep heading uphill. In wet weather, the ground is really boggy and you can end up knee deep in mud (okay, maybe shin deep in mud). It had been relatively dry recently for Wales, so the path was easier to follow.
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| Crossing the stream |
It's not far at all from the road to the lake but it always seems to take forever to arrive, probably just a combination of the gradient and the terrain. We'd set off a bit later in the day than usual so stopped at the lake to eat some lunch. We hadn't been there 5 minutes and a group of offroad bikers turned up, churning up the landscape and generally disturbing the peace. It's irritating how disrespectful some people are of this beauty. They didn't stay long and sped off to destroy the scenery somewhere further downhill. We also bumped into a couple fell running who had started at Pen y Fan early that morning and had run all the way down and were on their way back! Craaaaaaaaaaazy people. Huge respect for such an awesome achievement though. I struggle to walk these hills, never mind running them.
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| Trying hard to eat a cheese roll without being mauled by the beagles... |
We finished up eating and my dad took a few more photos - walking with a photographer is both great and annoying at the same time. It takes twice as long to cover any ground because they stop to take so many photos or wait for the "right light," but on the plus side, you also get some awesome photos on a way more expensive camera than you might own (see above for case in point)!
We climbed up the steep stony path that leads to Fan Brycheiniog. On the way up, we bumped into a couple and their daughter who clearly enjoyed hiking a lot. My dad got involved in a lengthy discussion about bagging Scottish Munros and they regaled each other with familiar tales of bothies they'd stayed in and places they'd been. They all sounded far away and mystical and I decided conquering all the Scottish Munros sounded like a good thing to add to my bucket list now Tryfan was ticked off, so I eavesdropped with interest. We made it to the top and stopped for a water break at the trig point, although it was really windy.
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| Trig point at Fan Brycheiniog. Gracie looks rather depressed! |
We broke off left and followed the path which leads down the hill towards Picws Du and the next leg of the walk which comes around to Llyn y fan fach. I was powering down the hill and realised I'd lost my dad, so just assumed he'd stopped to take a photo. I waited at the bottom and shortly after, he came into view. He then promptly disappeared from view as he fell down a rabbit hole. Unlike Alice, he managed to get back up quick and he didn't injure himself, which was fortunate.
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| Heading towards Picws Du, shortly before he fell down a hole. |
We knew Picws Du would be the last steep climb of this walk and indicated we were almost halfway around the loop, so we ploughed on towards the summit, although we definitely stopped several times to "admire the view"(catch our breath, rest our aching legs).
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| On the path towards Picws Du. |
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| Yet another photo stop meant my dad was lagging behind (he's the small speck heading down Bannau Sir Gaer) |
The landscape is really impressive here, I love the look of the hills and how they roll away so steeply into the valley where the lakes are. Time was ticking on into the afternoon and it was about half 3 so I picked up speed and headed down Bannau Sir Gaer to the path which leads around and down to Llyn y fan fach. My dad was thrilled with the arrival of the "right light" though, so I lost him for quite a while as he took several photos of the lake and scenery.
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| The mountains dwarf us. |
The sun had been shining gloriously when we started, but the mountain weather forecast had said that rain would be coming in in the evening along with some hill fog and it wasn't long before the mist started to descend.
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| Llyn y fan fach |
We followed the path which winds down the steep edge of the mountains around Llyn y fan fach and walked past the bothy at the bottom. From here, head straight on and branch left onto the path which runs next to a small stream. You cross a stone bridge and then head left onto a more indistinct grassy path which heads slightly uphill to wind back around the hills towards Llyn y fan fawr.
The last time I walked this route, I felt pretty lost even with following the GPS in the rough direction I knew I needed to go. As you come around the side of the mountain, a well worn dirt path materialises which winds around all the way back to Llyn y fan fawr. This is the path I wanted to follow again, as I knew it, and it made for easy walking so I set off in that direction. My dad flagged me down and told me it was adding a huge amount of distance to the walk and that we should just head across country and cut off the extra mileage. I was a bit reluctant as there were sheep everywhere and Dexter was already going mental and there was no clear path that way, but agreed just to shut him up.
We spent the next hour trudging uphill and downhill through bog and awful terrain. The weather turned and visibility became really poor as we were engulfed in a thick mist and it started to drizzle. I was feeling pretty miserable by this point and to top it all off, stepped in a hole and thought I'd sprained my ankle. So, instead of following the distinct well-worn path to where I knew we'd arrive full circle where we started at the lake, we were now offroad following a shitty sheep path uphill and downhill and stumbling along around the contour of the mountains. It is SUCH a long walk back (made a lot more difficult by the terrain this way). I mean it can't have been more than a mile or so but it felt like an eternity in this weather. I was getting more and more annoyed that we hadn't just followed the path I knew we should have stayed on and my dad was getting more and more annoyed at me being annoyed. We both have fairly short fuses. Eventually, we just descended into hysteria and laughed it off although I'm not sure how we managed to get back to the car as my legs were exhausted.
The landscape is so featureless here, navigating is really difficult in thick mist, even if you've walked this route a million times before and we felt pretty disorientated. We managed to make it back down the hill and arrived almost back at the car but couldn't see the car. Delirium then well and truly set in as my dad was denying the GPS and saying we had gone too far one way and weren't where we needed to be. Luckily, after we climbed up the next tump, the car was there, right where we left it. What a welcome sight! It had turned into a pretty epic walk (not that 10 miles is ever really easy) and the dogs were soaked. Never been happier to dry off and sit down when I got home!
This is a great walk to do if you have all day in the hills. It took us about 5 and a half hours (but this was with stopping for a lot of photos and bad weather). Make sure you have a map and compass as the path from Llyn y fan fach back isn't easily identifiable, but in good weather conditions you should be okay. Trouble is, even on a glorious day you can never bank on the weather staying that way, it blows in and out so quickly!
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| At the cairn on top of Picws Du. |
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