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Now retired but busy still living..

Thursday 28 January 2010

YES-EVEN MORE......ALONG THE BEACONS WAY















Continuing with my April 2007 solo backpacking trip along the Beacons Way- some more of the photographs from that file.
Starting from the bottom picture which is a view taken from the track leading to the gap known as Bwlch ar y Fan between Cribyn and Fan y Big. Pen y Fan can be seen in the distance.
The next picture is a bit further along the track and is looking down on
Upper Neuadd Reservoir.
The next shot is looking up Pen y Fan and shows the erosion that to some extent ruins its appearance.
Then we have a picture of Liwyn-y-celyn Youth Hostel where I met the rudest and most obnoxious Youth Hostel Warden I have ever met in the fifty years that I have stayed at hostels.
My plan was to camp in the grounds of the hostel- (according to the hostel web-site that I had checked two days before I had left home this was possible). When I arrived at the hostel the warden was out so I waited for over an hour until he returned. When I spoke to the Warden he informed me that he didn't do camping anymore and he informed me of this in a very rude and offhand manner. He offered no advice regarding an alternative place to camp and he seemed more interested in families arriving by car and mini coach than a traveller arriving under his own steam. Oh how hostels have changed since my first YHA visit at the age of eleven. After the poor treatment that I had received at Liwyn-y-celyn I vowed that I would not visit a YHA hostel ever again..!!
I set off again -up through a nature reserve and on to the hill side above where I found a good spot for a wild camp. The top picture is of that pitch. As it turned out it was a great spot-really quiet with super views. The grouchy old warden had done me a favour-but I still won't go near a Youth Hostel ...!!

3 comments:

Ratdog said...

Youth hostels aint what they used to be.
Used to be you could take your own wine, but now its a profit center. They tell me Its a good idea, but good for Who???
The LLanddeusant hostel was great, but frankly the Brecon (Ty'n y caeau) one sucked
Anyway Happy hosteling
BTW I saw 4 wild horses up above that lake, have a grat pic of the lake with the horses in the foreground

TrevorW�� said...

Yes-they seem to be run like mini hotels these days.There was a time when you couldn't stay at a YHA hostel unless you travelled there under your own steam-times change and everything these days is about maximum profit.
I'd be interested to see that photograph at some time.

Ratdog said...

Hey Trevor, sorry for the delay, but I just published the pictures of Neuadd resevoir complete with the wild horses. there on my blog at

www.hikethecoast.blogspot.com
--Ratdog

Six weeks off.

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