The weather forecast for today was the most promising of the week so we did the walk that we came here to do - the Brecon Beacons Horseshoe.
We parked at Cwm Gwdi, in a National Trust car park at the end of a long single-track lane. We did the circuit in a clockwise direction, first heading south along Cwm Sere - a beautiful valley - to the foot of Cribyn. We climbed to the summit up the steep and quite challenging north-east side, then across to Pen y Fan and Corn Du, before heading north down Cwm LLwch and back to the car along quiet lanes.
This walk has been described by OS as
"...arguably the finest mountain walk in South Wales and one of the best in the country." We wouldn't argue with that because it really was varied and incredibly scenic.
Soon after setting off from the car park:
Near the start of Cwm Sere, with Cribyn (left) and Pen y Fan (right) in the distance:
After a long pathless trek up to the foot of Cribyn we're about to begin the climb. I don't suppose it qualifies as a scramble, but two hands were often needed and the surface was slippery in places. The summit was also much further away than it looked from below!
Having a breather at the top of Cribyn. We were pleased to have the summit to ourselves:
We left Cribyn (left of photo) and headed up nearby Pen y Fan on a very much easier path. (Cribyn looks easy too from this side.) Despite there being a good couple of dozen other people on and around Pen y Fan I managed to take a photo without a single one of them in it!
Me on Pen y Fan... and at that moment I'm on higher ground than anyone else in the whole of southern Britain!
The summit of Corn Du was just a gentle stroll from Pen y Fan and, as with Cribyn, we had it all to ourselves. That's the flat top of Pen y Fan to the left:
The sun was behind hills for the long descent down Cwm Llwch and this was my final photo - across to Pen y Fan and Corn Du, with a lovely lake below.
This was our first visit to the central Beacons and we chose the circuit from Cwm Gwdi hoping that it would be quieter than (what I thought would be) the more popular route to Pen y Fan from the south-west. And that's exactly how it turned out. Pen y Fan was far busier than any peak we've seen so far - except for Snowdon, but we hardly saw anyone before or after we were in the vicinity of the peaks. It was a good choice and a great day!