62-63 - Merthyr Tydfil and Caerphilly - 30th July 2012

This week I had decided to head back to South Wales to climb 4 high points, I was camping again and headed off to a wonderful campsite a few miles south east of Brecon called Pencelli Castle. I arrived early afternoon and set up my tent and base camp for the next 3 days, it was a beautiful sunny day with just a bit of cloud, perfect camping weather.

After setting up my tent I headed towards Brecon and then down through the Brecon Beacons along the A470 to Merthyr Tydfil. One of the most difficult things about my the high points tody were finding somewhere to park, I started off not too far from the Brecon mountain railway but could not gain access to the area I needed to climb from here, next I stopped at the village of Pant, after a short walk I found there was a farm in the way with no access through to the high point.

The next place to stop was a small road to the east of the high point but there was no area to park and it did look like private property, finally I parked on the side of a road near 3 horses and a gate giving me access to the area I needed to climb. I passed through the gate and past the horses and slowly climbed up towards a reservoir, it was actually a pretty hard walk to start with as the ground was so uneven and the paths were pretty non existent, I did manage to find a few sheep trails to follow but it was not long before I had reached my high points.

Now because of the way the borders are in this area there are 2 high points very close to each other, within a matter of minutes I had visited both of them, the disappointing thing however was that because a third border runs through the area none of the high points were actually on the highest ground in the area, so there I was standing half way up a hill on the highest point of the Unitary Authorities of Caerphilly and Merthyr Tydfil.




The walk back to the parking spot was uneventful until I met the horses again and they seemed to take a liking to me and followed me all the way to the gate, then it was back to the campsite for my first camping dinner of the week.

Both Merthyr Tydfil and Caerphilly High points were rather disappointing due to the fact that there was much more amazing scenery just a short distance away however I am pleased I did it and it was worth the relatively short walk.