Setting out from The Brandy House on another fine spring morning.

After a peaceful night’s sleep we arose to another fine morning and at the pre-arranged time our breakfast was delivered and left on the picnic bench. A very neat and well behaved cat sidled up and sat politely nearby while we ate but didn’t seem put out when we didn’t share our food and soon wandered off again. I later saw it in the utility room curled up on top of a central heating boiler – obviously not living too hard a life! We got our tents packed up and were away reasonably early, walking down to the village as the warmth of the sun began to burn off the dew.

Morning mist over Felindre

The first climb of the day was a long steady plod up a farm track and over the hill tops away from the Teme valley and Felindre. Looking back towards the village the morning mist was lit up by the glare of the rising sun – it looked like we were in for another surprisingly hot day.

Couldn't you just step into the picture and stroll along the path?

The farms and the tracks seem ages old in this part of the world with gnarled old hawthorns marking the position of ancient hedgerows. The paths don’t seem to be too heavily used – at one point we almost fell over a large brown rabbit which tried half-heartedly to run away but soon decided it wasn’t worth the effort so just sat still and let us pass by almost within touching distance.

Long views of seemingly endless green hills

After the initial height was gained the walk remained on a fairly high level for some way with mostly gentle undulations rather than any serious climbs.

This lump was nearly a castle but there's not much to see now more than 700 years later

The route has fairly recently been changed to go on footpaths past Castell y Blaid instead of the original road walk, and I was quite looking forward to seeing this old castle site. It turned out the footpath just runs past the bottom of a smooth grassy mound, indistinguishable from the surrounding farmland with no public right of way to the top. And there were farm workers in the next field so we couldn’t even sneak a look! Shame really, it would have been nice to stand on the spot even if there’s not much to see on the ground, but it was still way better than a road walk anyway.

The New Inn at Llanbadarn Fynydd - a rare on-route pub!

Soon after we arrived at the village of Llanbadarn Fynydd. There isn’t a great deal to this village apart from some houses, but it does have a pub that serves food and, judging by its size and the number of tables in the garden, must get quite busy at times. We didn’t need food as we had sandwiches with us but a half hour break and a proper drink was very welcome. As we left the pub and continued the walk it suddenly began to rain. It lasted just long enough for us to get our jackets out then stopped just as suddenly and the sun came back out again.

Grand views from Moel Dod across the Ithon valley

Of course, it came as no surprise that the way out of the village was uphill but it was worth it as we then stayed high up for quite some time and enjoyed superb views to both sides of the path. To our left was a deep valley containing the river Ithon and the winding A483 and the peak across the other side was topped with Castelltinboeth – another ancient castle site.

Ysgwd Ffordd, the last summit of the day before heading down into the valleys

The guide book tells us that no-one can resist visiting the trig point of Ysgwd ffordd, even though it isn’t exactly on the path. I’m afraid we did as the path leading up to it was a bit overgrown with low scrubby gorse at that time and to be honest we didn’t feel the need for an extra view – we were completely surrounded by a stunning landscape anyway!

The path into the wood is deceptively easy but once in the trees it goes straight down!

The path began to descend quite sharply after that last summit and then, on taking a sharp turn into a pine wood, suddenly plunged downhill between the trees on a quite alarmingly steep slope. We made it though, and with slightly trembling and aching legs followed the rest of the route – mostly a much more gentle road walk – into the village of Abbey-cwm-hir.

A great place to camp - very peaceful

We could see the abbey ruins as soon as we reached the outskirts of the village but it wasn’t entirely obvious where the campsite was – or, to be more precise, where Home Farm (the owners of the land the abbey is on) was. There was a very smart collection of farm buildings on the left as we entered the village proper and we reasoned that must be it even though it just looked like private property. As we walked down the driveway between the large brick buildings the house at the rear came in to view and some children playing in the yard fetched the lady of the house. She told us we could camp wherever we liked within the abbey and would only accept a small donation for the air ambulance. It isn’t exactly a camp site but they do have a small outbuilding with a loo, washbasin and shower and there’s a tap in the field so it’s as near as makes any difference as long as there aren’t many using it at any one time.

We pitched within the walls of the abbey itself by the low remains of a buttress which served as a solid stand for the stove. It was a lovely, peaceful, atmospheric place to camp and as the sun sank down after we’d fed ourselves we decided we’d rather just relax there rather than trying out the pub in the village.

Incidentally, for those wondering about backpacking food – we took Reiters dehydrated meals with us so it was a Vegetable Risotto for Mel and a Pasta with Napoli Tomato Sauce for me, each with a John West ‘Tuna with a Twist’ sachet stirred in to boost the protein content. If you haven’t tried Reiters dried meals you should – they’re very light and compact to carry and easy to prepare – just add boiling water to the bag, stir and wait 10 mins. With the odd exception they taste a lot nicer than you might expect and are really quite satisfying! End of free advert!

We shared the abbey grounds with a small flock of sheep but we kept out of each other’s way. It was a very sheltered spot and very quiet. We were both pretty tired so soon settled down and got a great night’s sleep.

Day 1 | Introduction | Day 3