Well, I was supposed to spend last weekend kayaking in North Wales.  But then the British Weather happened, so it got cancelled.  Frozen rivers, snow everywhere, icy roads, etc etc.

Gloucestershire, of course, has done its usual clever trick of almost entirely avoiding any snow.  Freezing cold with freezing fog, oh joy..

Luckily there was a backup plan, so my weekend was not entirely ruined - a walk in the Brecon Beacons on Sunday. 

From the Storey Arms, we walked up Corn Du, across to Pen y Fan, and back down the main tourist path.  6 miles, 4 hours of walking.
We had planned a different starting point, but the roads up to the reservoirs were disgusting sheet ice that no-one fancied driving on.  Don't blame them!

The mountains had knee deep snow in places, with an icy crust.  But oh so pretty and sparkly!  Well, when the sun was out - this being the Beacons, there was also a lot of cloud about.  White snow, white cloud, crap visibility.. hah!

We stopped for lunch on the summit of Corn Du, and the cloud finally lifted.  And wow was the view good

I can't remember the last time I stood on top of Pen y Fan (at 886m, the highest point in South Wales), but I'm almost entirely sure it involved thick clouds and horrible rain.

The descent was a bit busier - loads of people wandering about with skis and snowboards.  We made do with sliding down the slope on a survival bag.

Once again though I'm not entirely impressed with the GPS on my phone... for once it did behave enough to get a decent trace of the route, but was also insisting that Pen y Fan was at 940m.  Which is quite a large error really..

tags: photo Wales walking weather