Walk to Pen Y Fan (Brecon)

Hello!

Since I moved to Cardiff I have discovered some great places for riding my bike, but just outside Cardiff there are also several nice hills to visit if you want to. It has been a while since Will and I had a weekend off together so we decided to explore some of the areas around Cardiff by doing a walk up to Fan Y Bren followed by camping in Will’s new tent.



You can't see the top from here, but it is up there somewhere



Here we go..

We set off on Saturday morning and headed towards Pen Y Fan which is about 45 minutes away from where we live. Pen Y Fan is the highest point in Britain south of Snowdonia – 886 metres. We had never been here before, but the path up to the top was easy to follow so we couldn’t really go wrong. Initially I thought it looked fairly “easy” to get to the top, but I soon realised it was steeper than I expected several places, my gluteus and calves definetely got a hammering as I was trying to keep up with Will! Will is used to do a lot of mountain biking climbing so for him it was piece of cake, but my heart rate was definitely rising as we got closer to the top. The views on the way up were amazing.

Very windy so my hoodie had to come up:)

At the top we had to take a pictures to prove that we had actually been there  - 886 metres.

On the way down we decided to follow a slightly different route, but going downhill is definitely harder than uphill! The amount of eccentric work your quads needs to do in order to stop you from falling forwards is massive. Towards the end my quads were shaking, and my knees were also taking a pounding. Going downhill emphasises the importance of having strong quads to be able to control your knees and help you slow down.

After the walk we headed to a campsite just outside Brecon called. It was a really nice campsite, but unfortunately the weather was not the best. Will put up the tent quickly and sorted out the stove for us to cook some food. I had beef casserole which is normally not my favourite, but when you are so hungry you could eat your left arm anything tasted nice:)

Jamie Oliver in action:)

It has been several years since I last went camping, but listening to the rain pouring down on the tent is nice as long as you are dry and warm inside the sleeping bag. A nice weekend doing something different to what we normally do.

Hope everyone has had a nice bank holiday weekend:)