Pen y Fan, GW/SW-001 - 886m ASL - SO 012 216 - OS Explorer OL12 - 8 SOTA points           

Wednesday 20th April 2022 - Mynydd Eppynt GW/SW-018 & Pen y Fan GW/SW-001

Lunch was triple decker bacon cheeseburger - “belly buster" - from butty van near Storey Arms.

Now for an activation of Pen y Fan GW/SW-001 - highest peak in Brecon Beacons.  Easy walk up - normally an hour - but took slightly longer in the sweltering heat of the day.  All radio contacts on 2m FM with handheld.

Back to hotel in Builth Wells for a shower and change, then out to a favourite of ours - The New Inn. Newbridge-On-Wye.  Great to see the landlady Sian again, and lovely faggots chips and mushy peas for tea.  Liam was chuffed because it happened to be bingo night.  Good job there was a pool table in the other room!

Day 3 would kick off with a visit to Black Mountain GW/SW-041.

Talgarth Trip Day 3 - Wednesday 3rd August 2022

With improving weather and enthusiasm from Marianne and Liam, we headed south for an afternoon walk up Pen y Fan, the highest mountain in the Brecon Beacons.

It's normally 8 points - but zero for me today, having already activated it (with Liam in fact) earlier in 2022.  But it would be Marianne's first time on this hill.

Liam and I could not resist the Belly Buster Burgers from the van in the car park!

We walked up the pleasant and easy path to the summit.  Marianne enjoyed it - that was the main thing!

It was a lovely day and our walk was punctuated with lots of photo stops.  The dramatic steep slopes of this and the surrounding hills were obvious camera fodder.

There was even more drinking in of the views once the summit was reached.  Liam had been twice before, right back to being a little lad, but as I say, this was Marianne's debut in the Brecon Beacons.

I just operated on 2m FM using the handheld, but that was perfectly sufficient, and five QSOs were made - including a summit-to-summit up to Walton Hill G/CE-002.

We descended as we started to contemplate evening dinner.  I started to contemplate a third consecutive early morning outing - this time to Allt yr Esgair GW/SW-023.