Great Outdoors

One of my real pleasures over the last month was to see rime in many places. When we lived in Oberbayern it was quite common that there would be a month of freezing fog in the November-January timeframe and the rime on trees and bushes would be very spectacular. With mild southern English winters I have seen little rime in the last decade.

 
Around the New Year we really enjoyed seeing the rime on vegitation in Hitland. Much of the vegetation near frozen waterways had a good half centimetre of rime.

When walking in South Wales there were some interesting looking grasses such as those above on the Rhiw yr Ysgyfarnog ridge in the Brecon Beacons. Like in Hitland there was a clear blue sky so I could enjoy the contrast between the rime and the sunshine.

Back in the south of England the rime was very evident on the downs with a thick covering on bushes and trees two weekends ago. Sadly it all melted on 11th January.

Nevertheless I have seem more rime this winter than for a decade.

On a previous trip to South Wales we drove from Brecon to the M4 using the A470. From that road we got a great view of Craig Cerrig-gleisiad with Fan Fawr beyond. The light was beginning to fade and Fan Fawr had a good covering of snow. I thought it would be fun to return to Fan Fawr 34 years after crossing the Fforest Fawr by foot.

I had originally planned to park below Craig Cerrig-gleisiad but since there were plenty of  parking spaces at Storey Arms, I decided to stop there. There was a path leading directly westward and after going up the slope from Storey Arms, the view to Fan Fawr opens up. With Storey Arms being at a height of 439 m, it is not a very difficult walk to the summit with just under 300 metres of ascent. There is a cairn at the summit but the trig point is about 700 metres further to the south west.

There were showers passing to the south west.

Since I had arrived around midday and had four hours of good light I did not descend to the reservoir below but instead walked round the side of Fan Fawr 'haggis style' gradually descending to the saddle between Fan Fawr and Craig Cerrig-gleisiad.
 

The sun broke through and the yellow grass reminded me of what I had seen as a teenager. This time though the ground was frozen so there was no squelching through wet ground.

From Craig Cerrig-gleisiad there was an interesting view to the north. The cloud base was about 800 m but there was fog covering Brecon and surrounding villages. There was a slice of good visibility sandwiched between cloud and fog.

I walked north to the trig point at Fan Frynych and then headed back towards Storey Arms. After Craig Cerrig-gleisiad, I looked for the Beacons Way path but initially found nothing. The cloudbase lifted and it was possible to glimpse Corn Du and Pen y Fan across the valley.

Above Craig y Fro, I picked up a path that led across a few frozen streams. There were some interesting partially frozen waterfalls.

This one I particularly liked due to its large icicles and the running water below. Between this waterfall and the A470 there were a total of 4 frozen falls.

This waterfall was fairly close to the road. I was about 100 metres from the road when I managed to slip on some snow-covered grass and land hard on my tailbone. I felt the jolt right through my spine to my head...but did not actually see stars!

I got back to my car by 16:00 so completed the walk on time. It was not hard walking but I just enjoyed the emptiness...I only saw one walker all day.

The Fforest Fawr is an upland area in the Brecon Beacons National Park. It lies between the Brecon Beacons in the east and the Black Mountain (Fan Brycheiniog) in the west and has summits that are not so high.

The picture above shows two of the summits - Fan Nedd (left) and Fan Gyhirych (right) seen from Craig Gwaun Taf. The easternmost summit - Fan Fawr - lies above Storey Arms on the A470.

When I was 17, I planned a walking trip that started in Llangadog in the West, then went up onto the Black Mountain escarpment. We camped at Llyn y Fan Fach then continued over Fan Brycheiniog along a line that is similar to the Beacons Way.

We headed across the Fforest Fawr although I do not think we ascended any of the summits. I recall walking through often somewhat boggy ground with brown/yellow grass. Unfortunately I no longer have a record of our route.

We had planned to go over the Brecon Beacons and down to Crickhowell, then to do a bit of the Black Mountains before picking up a train at Abergaveny. I ended up letting down the group by feeling unwell above Storey Arms. We decided to abandon the trip and hitched down to Merthyr Tydfil station. I have not been in this area again until this month.

For the New Year we returned to the Netherlands and stayed again with my brother-in-law. The temperatures were down to -7C so ice formed nicely and was thick enough to skate on. We took another walk through the Hitland polder.

There were loads of families out skating with skaters ranging from kids who could barely walk to the elderly.

There were plenty of water birds about such as these ducks which had found a small patch of unfrozen water. There were also hundreds of coots and geese in the polder and plenty of swans and herons.

There were plenty of contrasts:- the agricultural land and the fields, the frozen expanses of water and the open ones. What you do not realise is that the "ditches" between fields are actually over two metres deep.
 

I enjoyed the rime that was very visible on the vegetation and was several millimetres in size.

I enjoyed seeing older people out on the ice (though I cannot skate myself). Some such as the trio here were very skilled and synchronised. They young guy on the left was going at tremendous speed and I assume skated competitively.

As the light began to fade, few birds remained in the water - these swans and duck were exceptions. On the other side of the path (and across a short ditch) there was a field full of coots.

The Sun set just as we left Hitland.