Brecon Beacons, day 1 / 5

14 June 2021

An easy start to my five days of walking in the Brecon hills. I did the "waterfalls" walk, starting about 1 mile south of Ystradfellte.

I had the "Pathfinder Brecon Beacons Walks" book with me - hidden, of course: don't want anyone thinking I'm a tourist - and I was confused before I even left the car park. Not the best start. "Leave the car park," the book said, "And go through the left-hand of the two entrances opposite (signed footpath)".

How hard can it be? Well, I could only see one entrance, and that wasn't signed anything.

I sought out the gentleman who had informed me upon arrival at the car park that I'd have to stump up a fiver (presumably so they can pay him to tell people they need to pay to park. Wait...). I informed him of my predicament.

"Are you doing the waterfall walk?"

"Like John Cleese in Monty Python?" I was going to say, but I settled on the simpler "yes".

"Here's the route," he said, pointing at a board, "Follow that. There are posts showing the way."

Outed as a tourist before even getting out of the car park. I put on my "I'm not a tourist" sun hat and strode off, purposefully.

To his credit, the path was well signposted, and this was probably a good walk to start the week. It wasn't particularly hard although there were some points where the path was rocky - easy enough to traverse, but one's speed is reduced. I'd reckoned on a comfortable 3 mph walk; these paths brought it down to 2 mph.

There were three spurs off the route where one could descend to each waterfall, admire its beauty and the power of nature, and then haul oneself back up to the path. The second of the three such descents was 100m (330') vertically: that's a long way back up.

But the third waterfall held a hidden joy. One could walk behind it. There's a fine mist and spray as you approach the waterfall, but getting behind it was straightforward and, other than a few drips, I didn't get wet.

I finished the walk much earlier than expected, but that gave me time to plan the next few days' walks. They will be longer, more demanding and most certainly not suitable for tourists.

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