With the country's highest mountains in the north and the beast beaches in the
southwest, Mid-Wales is an often-overlooked part of Wales, but there's
plenty around the midriff as well as the Brecon Beacons (the country's
newest National Park) to make for a long weekend or week away that rivals
the coast and Snowdonia's peaks.
Entering Wales from England on the A40 is an inspiring drive, through
Cheltenham and passing Ross-on-Wye, until the grass gets greener and
steeper, the landscape lush and hills rolling.
Through the Brecon Beacons the route gets more remote and glorious as you
pass through villages and towns at the bottom of the valleys - the market
towns of Abergavenney and Brecon vie with smaller Crickhowell and Llandovery
for attention and demand a visit.
Making that drive and turning north to where the Beacons meet the Cambrian
Mountains, around Llyn Brianne, the last of the majestic reservoirs created
(to the distaste of Welsh nationalists) to feed a dehydrated Birmingham
among other towns and cities, the feeling of isolation is palpable.
Llanwrtyd Wells has a reputation for whacky events - The Man Versus Horse
Marathon, World Peat Bog Snorkelling Championships and the same daft
submerged pursuit while riding a mountain bike - but it's also appealingly
quaint.
A little further on and you come to Llangammarch Wells where we make our first
night pit stop. What could be better after a long drive escaping city life
than a stay at a country house hotel with ornate lounges, dining and drawing
rooms and an Indian head massage thrown into the equation in the Lake
Country House's new lakeside spa. Not the kind of thing most people
associate with Wales but there are places springing up around the country to
rival the rural luxury of the English regions.
Day 2 - a drive through Mid-Wales
A night of four-poster tranquillity later and we're ready for a long day
exploring Mid-Wales, heading north again, this time on a tiny country road
towards Tregaron. Some of the passes, with countless cattle grids, dopey
sheep and deep potholed roads, are a little treacherous. Progress is slow,
but for 90 minutes all we see, apart from the sheep, is one farmer and red
phone and letterboxes bizarrely located ten miles from the nearest village.
A couple of wrong turns where wind-beaten signposts have been rotated by the
erosive effects of Welsh weather (they'd sooner take you in circles than
help you down from the hills to near-civilisation) and we encounter the
bemused farmer again, this time on the way down from the pass he had told us
to avoid because of the state of the roads - a 15-mile loop takes us back
past him, Llyn Brianne and to the crossroads with the lonely letter and
phone boxes.
It takes a while to get used to the mountain roads but it's worth it, as long
as you are in no hurry - it invariably takes longer than you think to
navigate but the sweeping views are worth the Sunday-driving techniques.
Even on the main roads the lambs and their mothers graze their way into
early summer, dafter than anything in the lower-lying pastures, warning you
off their land with last-ditch strolls into speeding traffic that could end
with all participants in a ditch or worse.
Eventually we find our way to Tregaron and on to Devil's Bridge, via the
ruined Strata Florida Abbey. The monks are said to have built the first
bridge over the dramatic Mynach Falls in the eleventh century. Since then a
further two bridges have been built on top of that one to bring it to its
current height. The series of waterfalls drop 90m, seemingly far less than
the vertiginous steps to witness them from the bottom (£2.50 gets you in to
the viewing point though beware the even steeper climb back up).
From Devils Bridge it's on to Machynlleth. Take the main road unless you want
to climb Plynlimon next to Nant-y-Moch Reservoir, the peak that is the
source of both the Wye and Severn rivers. Just north of Machynlleth is the
Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) where the community is
self-sufficient and provides all of its energy requirements by
environmentally-friendly means. It's been responsible for developing
alternative energy technologies over thirty years. Educational, pioneering
and handy for a vegetarian lunch. Co-incidentally the UK's most powerful
wind farm has been built nearby, though the environmental jury is still out.
North of CAT is Cadair Idris, one of the most imposing mountains in Wales.
It's a reasonably easy climb to the peak to peer into the spooky depths of
its mountain-top lake or tarn, Llyn Cau.
From here, the road south via Rhyader is just a couple of miles from the Elan
Valley reservoir. The reservoir has numerous dams and bridges crossing the
spindly fingers of water stretching down neighbouring valleys. The new
village of Elan replaced the flooded one and the visitor centre provides a
reminder of the enforced sacrifice made by villagers. During our visit the
Caban Coch Dam overflow is open, an impressive torrent of water rushing down
its face following weeks of wet weather.
Our base for the evening is back in the Brecon Beacons, in Crickhowell's
famous Bear Hotel, an easy drive on the main road through Builth Wells, home
of the Royal Welsh Show. The Bear is a 15th Century coaching inn that has
been extended to 34 luxurious rooms. The function room is a medieval banquet
hall, the vast pub is a focal point for the locals as well as hotel guests
and the gourmet restaurant is one of the best in Wales.
Crickhowell's an idyllic refuge despite being on the A40, with one of each
type of shop, a couple of other pubs and hotels and a castle. It's also a
good base for walks around the Usk valley and surrounding beacons.
Day 3 - Brecon Beacons bog hiking
Pen y Fan, at a shade under 3,000 feet, is the highest mountain in South
Wales, and can be reached by turning from the A40 towards Merthyr on the
A470. We head past that peak in search of another piece of natural landscape
to explore - one of the many dramatic waterfalls scattered around the
National Park. Right on to the A4058 and you'll soon come to Penderyn, a
base for the longish hike to the Scwd yr Eira waterfall.
A local guides us to the start of the route with a warning: "I hope
you've come prepared - it's a peat bog, deep in places." We shrug off
the warning but soon encounter problems. From Penderyn you'll need to find
the old railway track, follow it for a few hundred metres until there are
old quarries on your left and turn right onto a path marked by white arrows
to the waterfalls. It's here that we encounter our first flood, well over
knee deep. Some treacherous climbs around mounds of earth and rocks and we
get to the other side of the quagmire, but from then on plenty of bogs with
stream running across ensure a good soaking up to the knees.
After a couple of miles stumbling up and down hills and over stiles we reach
the top of a hill and hear a distant rumble. Steep steps into a narrow
valley bring us to the raging river, about ten metres wide, plunging fifteen
metres over the falls. It's an awesome spectacle. We teeter behind the
torrent to view the spectacle and get soaked by spray, clinging carefully to
the indented rear wall.
The hike back is quicker with damp spirits rejuvenated by the waterfall. The
round trip takes around two and a half hours in bad conditions but it's
worth every drop of bog water, sweat and rain to have seen it at the peak of
its powers rather than during the summer trickle of postcard pictures.
After checking in and drying out at our Brecon B&B (Rhiannon at
Cherrypicker House doesn't bat an eyelid at our bogged-down attire), we
settle in to the Boar's Head pub on Ship Street for sun-drenched drinks next
to the River Usk. Brecon hosts a famous jazz festival and the Green Man
music festival is near Crickhowell, both great excuses for a summer visit.
Dinner is in the Felin Fach Griffin a few miles out of town. It regularly
wins awards as Wales' best restaurant and it lives up to its reputation, the
best meal in memory and more evidence of the great strides Wales is making
in cuisine and hospitality.
Our final port of call is the Hay Literary Festival for a music concert.
Brecon makes an excellent base for the festival when Hay's accommodation
overflows (people were hiring tents there for £40) so there's plenty of
excuses to head west - as if the natural landscape was not enough.
NEED TO KNOW
Eating and sleeping
The Lake Country House Hotel & Spa
Llangammarch Wells, Powys
www.lakecountryhouse.co.uk
Double rooms from £160
Dinner approx £40 for 4 courses (plus drinks)
The Bear Hotel
Crickhowell
www.bearhotel.co.uk
Double rooms from £77
Bar and full restaurant menus availabile
Felin Fach Griffin
Felin Fach
www.eatdrinksleep.ltd.uk
Double rooms from £98
Dinner approx £30 for 3 courses (plus drinks)
Cherrypicker House
Brecon, Powys
www.cherrypickerhouse.com
B&B double room from £45
Reading: Wales (Lonely Planet), £11.99
Car hire: Holiday Autos provided the best online quote from
London and also has a range of suppliers at locations around the UK.
More information: www.visitwales.com
