The next day, after much indecision we decided to take a crack at climbing a hill and if you’re going to climb a hill it might as well by the highest: Pen y Fan. We spurned the motorway footpath up from the Storey Arms, instead using the car parks on the north side near the cottage. This gave us a nice gentle climb up past Pen Milan, stopping near Llyn Cwm Llwch for lunch before the final steep climb up past the obelisk and to Corn Du. Emma was starting to flag a little bit on this final ascent but she and Duncan enjoyed playing with the stones on the flat summit. From there, it’s a short hop to the marginally higher Pen y Fan. We descended north from there and I abandoned Christine and the children and ran off to bring the car round. It may have only been about five miles in total but it was still a fun day out in the hills and we were pleased that Emma made it round without too much grumbling. Even Duncan walked more than we expected!
The weather began to turn at this point and we spent the next day at Dan-yr-Ogof caves. I was actually quite impressed by the caves but for the children I think the Dinosaur Park was the real winner. By the time we reached the Shire Horse Centre, the rain had set in and sadly the indoor play area didn’t appear to have much for young children (a tricycle race track which isn’t much fun on your own) so we set off back to the cottage. The Wednesday was pretty much a write off as we watched the thick snow cover first the hills and eventually the fields surrounding the cottage. We managed a twenty minute walk in the morning and then went to the swimming pool in Brecon after lunch.
The cottage was booked for the Easter weekend so we packed the car on Thursday and went for a short walk along the Brecon and Monmouthshire canal before heading off to stay at Christine’s parents’ for a couple of days to make a week of the holiday.