Brecon Expedition
A total of 10 1216 Squadron members arrived at Cwrt y Gollen Army Camp on Friday 21st September. The next morning, after showers and breakfast, we marched out of the Camp, heading towards the Sugar Loaf mountain via one of the longest and hardest of routes up. The first hour and a half we just toiled on and on without seeing anything of note ahead. But then the peak broke out of cloud and we saw the target ahead. Another hour and half and we were almost at the summit having climbed about 2000 feet in three hours. The final few steps were exhilarating – fantastic views, and the prospect of lunch!
On the way down we took time to research paths which were not on the map versus those on the map we couldn’t find! We hope this makes it easier for the next trip!
Sunday dawned and we broke camp, packed all on the MT, and set off for Mynydd Llangynidr, acknowledged as one of the hardest places to navigate through in the whole of the Brecons. On arrival apprehension turned to horror – very low viz, driving rain, bogs...! Our objective was a cave that had been used as a weapons factory in the Chartist Revolt of 1839, and obviously they had chosen a spot which was both inaccessible and extremely difficult to find. BUT despite the weather we found it, lunched there and triumphantly retraced our steps back to the MT. It had been a severe effort on everybody’s part, but we all learnt a lot about the perils of bad weather.
Reaching the bus again, we delayed our departure to help a stranded woman in a Volkswagen with windscreen-wiper failure, then once inside a very steaming bus, we set course for 1216, where we arrived at 1900 hours.
At base camp and then on-route to Sugar Loaf
Climbing up over the top, triumphant at the summit and "hurrah for lunch"!
Inside the Chartist Cave