Date walked: 19th January 2016

Distance: 10 miles

Map used: OS Explorer 152: Newport and Pontypool and

OS Explorer OL 13 Brecon Beacons National Park

When I posted this on April 17th I reported that Dave (seen with me above) had been very ill and was unlikely to be able to walk with me again. I’m very sad to say that he died on April 20th. 

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The more observant reader will notice that well over 4 months have gone by since we did the last section of the walk. Various factors conspired in this delay, though I have to admit that mostly I haven’t liked the weather forecasts. I am not one to grumble (much) if I have to walk in the pouring rain but when I know that getting drenched and having no views is what to expect I would rather stay in bed.

Today the forecast was for a cold, bright day – a perfect day to be in the hills. Dave was able to join us today – you will have met him several times if you are a regular visitor here.

As usual, Neil had planned out itinerary. We were to walk to Llanfoist, on the outskirts of Abergavenny and just below the hill called Blorenge. So Llanfoist was our meeting point, taking my car from there to the start of the walk. Well that was the plan, but a map misreading on Neil’s part brought us to the dead-end of a single track lane  about half a mile  from our intended car park near Pontypool Park Folly. Having impressed Dave with my fluent and speedy reversing and my exemplar three-point-turn we left the car as un-obstructively as possible and made our way on foot.

Neil’s pic, obviously. Dave’s the one on the left.

The lane had an impressive laid stone surface; a chap we had met as we parked up referred to it as a Roman road and it was signed as such as we reached the top. So, an unexpected, treat.

We headed north. Behind us the top of the folly was visible on the horizon…

It seems that someone has blocked off the car park,

…ahead, a vintage tractor sat chugging away, prompting fantasies of an unusual TDA offence.

Bet it would be fun to have a ride

Said tractor had certainly made an impression on the ground; deeply rutted tracks snaking away to the brow of the hill.

Need to keep your head down here

Looking back, the view to the folly was particularly nice.

Definitely the best pic of the folly so far

At the brow, on Mynydd Garn-wen, was our first trig point of the day – a modest 1,394 feet. Pause for pics to be taken and to admire the views.

Dave and Neil -that’s Blaenavon over on the left

Dave always adopts a unique dress code on our walks

Vanity satisfied, we had an easy mile or so of easy walking on sheep-cropped grass…

… the hills in the distance were white with snow – the first I had seen that winter.

Wonder why the nearer hills don’t have the snow?

The ground briefly changed to lumpy and bumpy, raising speculations amongst us about mine workings and spoil heaps. But what do we know?

And I couldn’t find any references to this spot

I did know that it was cold, confirmed by the snazzy patterns of the ice in the passing puddles.

I resisted the desire to stamp on it

Our views now were Eastwards. Whilst it was clear and bright where we were, in the Usk valley below, Abergavenny and the Skirrid were distinctly murky, the air almost grey.

Didn’t look like a normal mistiness

It was strangely disturbing – were we witnessing some horrid pollution that we could not understand?

That’s a big area to be affected – by what?

As we climbed to the plateau of Mynydd Garnclochdy, we had better views ahead…

Beautiful!

….where the wonderfully isolated property of Garn Llech had a great backdrop of those snow-covered hills.

Looks like you may be able to have a holiday here

Somewhere not far ahead of us should have been a minor road that crosses the hill but it was not visible, causing Neil a slight anxiety and a need to consult the map.

Safe in Neil’s hands

A mast over to our left was a clear marker, confirming that whilst we may not have been on the”official” footpath, we were certainly where we wanted to be.

Could be my favourite pic of the day

The road was there, of course, but barely visible from our vantage point.

Off in search of the road

The road crossed, the next couple of miles were quite hard going.

Savour this – not many sheep pics on today’s walk

The ground, still peppered by thin ice….

Interesting holes

… was increasingly soft and boggy…..

Careful lads, don’t get a bootfull

… but easy enough to follow.

That might be Carn y Defaid on the right – a scheduled ancient monument if so.

The views to the left of us….

Nice composition, eh?

…and to the right were still fabulous, though The Skirrid was increasingly looking like a brown iceberg in a sea of smog.

I don’t often do similies but I think this works

Ahead the twin masts at Cefn y Galchen came into view, though it seemed to take a long time from first sighting until we began to see them more clearly.

Our path took us to the masts and its adjoining car park.

I don’t often take pics of cars

This was near the site of a colliery, though my superficial researches have come up with no more information about it. Sorry. Another road crosses the mountain here …

Still quite murky down there

….running straight down to the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal on the east side and to Pen -ffordd- Goch or Keepers Pond on the west, itself a man-made feature created for the C18th Garnddyrys Forge.

The road crossed, we had another mile of boggy mile and a half ahead of us. The sun was already quite low in the sky, illuminating beautifully the brown reeds and grasses.

By the time we reached the trig point for Blorenge, the view back to the masts was spectacular…..

Actually there is quite a competition for my favourite pic of the day

… and those to the valley below even more misty and murky.

The summit of Blorenge (1841 feet), marked by a wide cairn,  is not very striking the land around falling gently rather than steeply, but we took our statutory pictures before heading for the hill’s edge. All the pics are good so here they are.

Neil, takes quite a nice pic under my close supervision

Its called Blorenge, Neil

The northern-most edge of Blorenge is another undulating terrain where man has been doing all sorts of things in the past, but which are now grassed over, leaving craters for the sheep to graze and for us to wonder about.

# we, like sheep

The view from it’s side overlooking Abergavenny is fab.

Kinda strange pic but I like it

Neil took this rather nice pic of me enjoying the last of the sun.

Getting up Blorenge from Llanfoist is a long “pull”, but the path is clear enough. Getting down was another matter.  Our map showed a track skirting the hill for 3/4 mile before reaching a footpath. We decided to take a more direct route down.

It being more direct, it was also more steep but we could still see well enough to pick our way round the boulders.

A great shot from Neil, here

When we did re-join the path, the camera was at its tolerance for shooting on low light, so it all begins here to look a bit blurry….

Action photos

.. and by the time we reached the bottom of the hill it was really quite dark.

We could have done without these obstacles

On reaching the canal we were a bit flummoxed by how we were intended to cross it until we saw a tunnel running under both canal and an adjacent house.

We could hear running water but not see anything so it was all a little bit scary but we got through without mishap.  From there, it was just a few hundred yards back to the car park.

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