Sunday 4 September 2016

3-day family trip to Brecon Beacons


I went to the Brecon Beacons National Park last weekend with the family (9 of us; 2 cars). We booked our accommodation in the eastern part of Brecon Beacons in a place called The Beast House Barn. The barn is located right near a village called Cwmdu with the towns of Crickhowell and Abergavenny just a short drive away. We found the barn to be very easy to get to from London (it's a 3.5 hour drive with no stops; or 4.5 hours with a couple of short stops along the way). Our itinerary for the trip was as follows:

Sun 28 Aug morning: We set off from home around 8am and arrived at the barn around 12:30pm.
Sun 28 Aug afternoon: We had a short rest at the barn, unloaded our baggage from the car into the barn, had some lunch and then set off for a walk. We drove up from the barn on the A479 following it north for 10 minutes to a car park that comes just before the village of Pengenffordd. From there we set off on a walk eastwards up the hills towards Waun Fach. It was nice and secluded; there were just a few walkers around.
Sun 28 Aug evening: Back to the barn for dinner and sleep.

Mon 29 Aug morning: A slow wakeup and breakfast.
Mon 29 Aug afternoon: We drove for an hour to the south-west of Brecon Beacons for the famous four waterfalls walk. We stopped at the first and fourth of the waterfalls (Sgwd Clun-Gwyn and Sgwd-yr-Eira) but didn't have enough time to stop by the second and third (Sgwd Isaf Clun-Gwyn and Sgwd y Pannwr). It's a long walk (4+ hours) so: if you have kids with you, bare that in mind. 
Mon 29 Aug evening: Back to the barn for dinner, toasted marshmallows and sleep!

Tue 30 Aug morning: Another slow wakeup and breakfast followed by clearing up of the barn and loading of our baggage back into the cars.
Tue 30 Aug afternoon: We drove down to Cardiff to get a feel for Wales beyond the Brecon Beacons. We caught the afternoon (Dhuhr) prayer at Dar-ul-Isra Mosque before heading on to Pontcanna Fields for a picnic and a splash in the River Taff.
Tue 30 Aug evening: Back home alhamdulillah!

For a small selection of pictures from our trip, see here.