Climbing Pen y Fan

Recently, with one of our sons and a grand-daughter, we walked to the top of Pen y Fan, a mountain in the Brecon Beacons in Wales. Pen y Fan, at 886m (2,907 feet) is the highest mountain in the southern British Isles. It is a relatively accessible peak though the walk from the car park is pretty much "up" until the summit is reached. When we left the car the temperature was 22⁰ Celsius with a relatively gentle breeze. At the top we had to break out jackets and hats to counter the very strong wind and the temperature of 12⁰ Celsius (it felt much colder than that).

The late afternoon light benevolently hung around until we were well into our descent and we managed to capture a few reasonable photographs.

photo 1 © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

View of Sugar Loaf

Quite a few peaks across the world attract the name "Sugar Loaf". The best known is perhaps the one in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its shape is a quite good approximation of the shape of an old loaf of sugar i.e. rather like an artillery shell. The Sugar Loaf on the edge of the Brecon Beacons above Abergavenny, Wales, is a less spectacular example and one that doesn't accord too well with the sugar loaf's shape, resembling (from some angles) the flattened cone of a volcano. In fact it is not made of igneous rock but is a ridge of sedimentary Old Red Sandstone. My view is taken from an adjacent, slightly lower peak, The Skirrid, made of the same rock.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100