Brecon Mountain Trail Challenge

For those of you who've hung around, you'll remember that last year I spent a lot of time walking, mainly to try and build up my stamina for the Brecon Mountain Challenge  a twenty mile trek through The Beacons taking in the highest peak in Britain  south of Snowdonia, 'Pen y Fan'.  My hubby and I raised £230 for a local food and clothing bank PATCH.

We set off at 4am full of excitement with a few nerves (well I was nervous!) to boot.  We arrived at the startpoint at 6-30am, signed in, got given our maps and then off we went...here am I....just about ready to go!

The beginning was fairly easy going (lulling into a false sense of  security!) and some people went off at an amazing pace with running shoes and tiny bags (where was all their food?!!)

We walked across a large area of bog land which is where my main problem occurred when my boots leaked...these bogs were still very wet despite the very dry summer we had last year, there was more than one walker that said the previous year that a few people had to be pulled out by fellow walkers when they got stuck up to their waists!

This is where the walk became more serious as we started the first climb......

Here I was looking back down to where we had started the climb, you can see the road there in the middle.

.....and the view onwards.....

....and more climbing.....I kept having to stop to get my breath take photos...I wasn't alone, parts of the beginning of the walk were murder and I  found it seriously hard to smile!

Even though we had been climbing for what seemed like forever, there was still a good way to go, (you can see people in the distance).

Get a load of that!

Oh, and I made it!  After getting to the top, all moans and whines were forgotten, and I could enjoy a nice drink and look at the panorama.

And down the other side....we had over ten more miles to go, so no time to dilly-dally!

These mountains literally take my breath away..........so stunning that they make something ache inside...does that make any sense?

After coming down through the mountains, we walked on passing reservoirs, through fields and across moorland.

So near and yet so far!

This is the board of everyone who had returned, our tags were somewhere in the middle there.....my worries that we would be the last ones turning in was totally unfounded!

I sat down on this bench just after handing our tags in....it seemed like a good idea .......I rethought my 'good idea' when it came to getting up again!

Looking at these photos reminds me of a wonderful day, walking in beautiful countryside, the mountains, the big skies, the sparkling reservoirs...it's maybe also not hard to forget my incredibly sore feet, (my leaky boots went straight back to the shop a couple of weeks later when I was actually able to put boots on again). 

When we got to the B+B after the walk, I rather embarrassingly was finding it pretty difficult to walk, in fact I went to dinner that night in slippers as it was all I could bear to put on!

I loved doing this 'big for me' challenge...I even sang a few lines of 'The Hills are Alive'! That's the Welsh girl in me, always a song on my lips!