Goteborg

The clear blue skies and excellent visibility on the outward bound flight from Heathrow east of the capital, allowed a clear view of the Olympic Stadium in Stretford ahead of the London 2012 games that take place in July. The site looked enormous and is now a significant 'landmark' in the capital city below.



As we crossed the western seaboard of Sweden the Scandinavian Air Services flight allowed us another spectacular view of the archipelago’s that stretched out below.

After the obligatory bus transfer from the airport to the city centre we were able to stroll the short distance to our Post House Hotel to check in before a quick walk around the Nordstan.



The local knowledge of Wandering Junior, who lives and works in the city, helped considerably with the choice of restaurant for our evening meal.

Sir Ian Botham's Charity Walk 2012

International cricket legend, Sir Ian Botham was walking on the Taff Trail in Cardiff today raising funds in aid of leukaemia research.

Cardiff is the seventh city in Beefy’s Great British Walk 2012 – part of a series of walks made by the former England all-rounder in aid of the charity Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

In all, Botham will cover over 150 miles in 10 cities over 10 days. The walk took in sites around Cardiff before members of the public joined Botham for the final four miles along the Taff Trail.

Among those taking part were members of the Glamorgan County Cricket team and Wales rugby star Jamie Roberts.



Speaking ahead of the walk, Botham said: “I’ve been to Cardiff a lot and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be walking along the Taff Trail so as a keen fisherman I’m looking forward to being by the river. I always love coming to Cardiff. They’ve been good to us and in return we’ve been good to them. We’ve had a fantastic response and raised about £175,000 in six days and that speaks for itself. We’re hoping to get hundreds, maybe thousands, of people down today. We had that in other cities and hopefully Cardiff will be good too.”

When Sir Ian first walked from John O’Groats to Lands End in 1985, only 20% of children with leukaemia survived. Yet now, thousands of miles and over £13 million later, 90% of children are beating the most common form of this devastating disease.

But Sir Ian will not stop fundraising until every child with a blood cancer survives. He needs your help although great advances have been made there are still children and teenagers losing their battle.

Fan Frynych - Mountain Centre - Brecon

The decision to use public transport for this particular excursion was forced upon us by the crazy antics taking place at the local petrol forecourts. Following the Coalition Governments' totally inappropriate advice to ‘keep your petrol tanks topped up' and fill Jerry Cans because there MAY be a tanker delivery driver strike AFTER the Easter holidays!!

TrawsCymru had recently won the tender to run the T4 Brecon service and Lord Twynyrodyn met Wandering promptly at 9:00am to catch the 9:20 departing to the Storey Arms. We were well impressed with the quality of the bus used on the route to Mid-Wales and a £6.20 Explorer ticket was purchased that would allow us to return from Brecon later in the afternoon.

After Lord Twynyrodyn used his compass and string (yes, an extremely high tech piece of string was required) to plot the line of the route to Fan Frynych, we left the Storey Arms at 9:45am along the long diagonal path of the Beacons Way heading towards the distinctive Craig Cerrig-Gleisiad (See previous trip report here for photographs).



Although the sun was shining in a clear blue sky it was still a bit nippy at 1,800 feet. The long spell of dry weather guaranteed mud free path’s as the route gained height quickly, without any really hard work, until we could gaze down onto the A470 and the sumptuous views down the valley leading to Brecon.




The vistas created by Pen-Y-Fan, which was to remain with us all day, Fan Ghyrich and Fan Brycheiniog in the Black Mountain were amazing in the clear mountain air.

Lord Twynyrodyn’s navigation skills were almost spot on as we approached the trig point at Fan Frynach.



We left the Fan heading in a north easterly direction down Twyn Dulluan-ddu, towards Blaenclyn farm, crossing Daudraeth Illtyd Nature Reserve and our intermediate destination of the Mountain Centre, where we enjoyed a hot bowl of soup and a bread roll.




We needed to make an important decision about the remainder of the route, toying with a footpath alongside Mynydd Illtud that would take us to Llanspyddid, but instead headed for Tai’r Bull.

We passed this particular magnificent outward bound location that was owned by Hampshire County Council and must be worth near seven figures!




Contemplating the remainder of the route on a bench in Libanus the unilateral decision was taken by Lord Twynyrodyn to approach Brecon from the hamlet of Libanus Mill on some minor country roads.

We came across the remains of this Motte and Bailey site outside Cilwhybert and arrived at our destination at 3:00pm. Completing the 11 miles in just over 4 hours.



The refreshments provided by the Drovers Arms were well received, before we caught the 4:00 bus home.

Gwaelodygarth? - It must be this way!

We were able to make an earlier start than originally intended after the birth of Lord Twynrodyn's grandson the night before. After a series of congratulatory calls on his Blackberry we arrived at a rather misty Pentyrch.



Parking the car outside the Lewis Arms we headed into the fog along Heol Goch Road. At the end of Cefn Brychan Lane the steep muddy footpath takes you down through the woods to the main road. After crossing the road a stile on the right hand side allows you to access a wide farm track leading down into the base of the valley.



Unfortunately there were no views of the Garth Mountain looming above due to the low cloud and poor visibility.

Without an OS map to check the grid reference coordinates this is where Derek the Weatherman’s basic directions once again let us down badly. There was no hedge line, no finger posts and no defined footpath, so it would be difficult for anyone to actually find the proposed route to the Coed Y Bedw Nature Reserve without some local knowledge of the area.

Our alternative route headed north along the broad farm track towards the invisible bulk of the Garth Mountain. However, we appeared to pass what we thought at the time was the remains of Morgan Thomas’ (former mine owner and poet) ruined cottage…………or was it!?!?!?



At this point we should have been heading through an ancient woodland and although we did make a short de-tour to check out an alternative finger posted route we decided to remain on a single track tarmacked road that eventually lead us to the upper level of Gwaelodygarth.



We knew that we were now definitely heading in the wrong direction. We descended the steep narrow mountain road into the village passing the inviting hostelry of the Gwaelodygarth Inn (where we were later to return) and then branched off right to climb into the picturesque hamlet of Geogetown.

After feeding a delightful Shetland pony and passing the cattery we entered an atmospheric pine forest, with daylight from the canopy streaming through tall trees and illuminating the forest floor. Leaving the forest to the west we crossed a few open fields and returned to the wide farm track.

There was no large wooden broad walk, bridge over a stream, wildlife information board or cleverly made seat carved into a tree branch!

The ‘To Let’ signs on the Lewis Arms looked uninviting and we decided to return to the Gwaelodygarth Inn for a splendid lunch in a typical country pub.

Not the walk that we originally intended to take but it was an opportunity to be outdoors enjoying the fresh air and local countryside.

Cold - Inside a Climbers Head

"What am I doing here? We have to get down" Climber Cory Richards films himself and 2 colleagues attempting to bag a first winter ascent of the 8000m+ Gasherbrum II. Cold is a representation of what goes on in a climber's head - thoughts about their family, their life and their doubts and fears.

Simone Moro stepped to the top of Pakistan's 26,360-foot Gasherbrum II, held his hands aloft, then finally collapsed, placing the point of his ice ax into the summit and resting his forehead on the adze. He shook there, sobbing like he'd just won Wimbledon, with the whole of the Karakoram Range sweeping around him in a swirl of incoming clouds. It was 11:38 A.M. on February 2 — the dead of winter.

Over the years, 16 teams had attempted winter ascents of Pakistan's 8,000-meter mountains K2, Broad Peak, and Nanga Parbat. All of them resulted in failure. No team had ever attempted Gasherbrum II in winter.

Pen-Y-Fan - Full Winter Conditions

The freezing temperatures since the fall of snow on Sunday night had preserved and maintained the winter whiteout across the Beacons and Heads of the Valley region.

With clear blue skies it was certainly the right time to test the winter conditions with a trek to the top of Pen-Y-Fan. However, the temperature was minus 2 degrees at the start!



Conditions underfoot changed as you gained height - with packed ice on the first third of the climb, soft snow on the second third and then deeper fresh layers of snow on the final third.



The climb probably took twice as long in the circumstances compared to any normal weather conditions.

It was tricky underfoot and as you neared the saddle at Bwlch Duwynt the head wind was probably 50 mph.



The rock face at Corn Du was covered in snow and a real winter scramble.



Surprisingly conditions were much calmer on the top of both Corn Du and Pen-Y-Fan, with the snow covered Cribyn and Fan-Y-Big resplendent in the morning sunshine.





There were only a handful of fellow walkers at the summit although an increasing number were passed on the descent.

Weatherman Walking - Laugharne

This is a 4.5 mile circular historic walk around the town, following in the footsteps of its most famous resident, Dylan Thomas.

Laugharne is a small town situated on the estuary of the River Taf, Carmarthenshire, and was made famous by the poet and playwright, Dylan Thomas who lived there from 1949-1953. The town is thought to have been the inspiration for the fictional town of Llareggub in his play, Under Milk Wood.

You can see the full programme including a 5.5 mile circular walk around the Hafod Estate in the Ystwyth Valley (near Devils Bridge) passing through woodland, gorges and waterfalls.here.