Over the weekend, I went on a micro-adventure with my partner. A hike and wild camping with some river swimming. What a beautiful weekend we had. Living extremely close to the Brecon Beacons and having a love for wild places, nature, animals, and wildlife we decided this was going to be an excellent place for our adventure! 20 years ago, my hubby and friend had come across a beautiful underground stream that came out of the side of the mountain and had always wanted to take me there.  Packing our bags, the evening before was a challenge. Wow, somethings are heavy! When I weighed my bag it was over 10% of my body weight, because I’d not gone hiking with a big rucksack for many years I thought I best stick to the advice. The choice I had was ditch the water or my large sketchbook. I thought it wiser to keep the water! And I left my sketchbook on the dining room table.

 

Although we had GPS on our phones and knowledge of the route, we could not find an OS map. Years ago, you’d be able to get them from every garage. I suppose people rely on phones now.

 With our backpacks laden with water, first aid kit, food, extra clothes and sleeping bags, we set off on our journey.

We had a great start on the trail and of all the places to be we had an unexpected delight in bumping bump into talented artist Eva Czarniecka her husband and their friends! You should check out her art! After a quick chat, we carried on the trail. https://evaart.net/

 

 I love nature, and I was overjoyed to see so much of it. There were lots of sheep and lambs, we had the delight of hearing the woodpecker. A baby chaffinch, lots of frogs, tadpoles, damselflies, dragonflies, a couple of buzzards, a red kite and a kestrel. Caterpillars, butterflies, and moths. Foxglovers, orchids, lilies. Lots of other birds but I had forgotten the binoculars. Along with the binoculars was that image of my sketchbook on the table.

 

We walked about 10k. After 20 years, the terrain had changed a bit from how my hubby had remembered. Big hedges and trees had grown on places that had once been barren. Looking ahead in the sweltering heat Hubby pointed up the valley to where he thought the stream was, which looked like it went on for miles and miles. We decided, having drunk half our water it was best to turn around.

On our route back to where we’d previously stopped for lunch, which we had decided was the perfect flat spot for the tent.  I spotted a large rock on the mountain that I decided to climb up too. The views were stunning; I was on top of the world.  Suddenly I had a bumble bee beeline to me. With my bright pink t-shirt in the barren rocky outcrop, I was the only colourful thing in sight, therefore I don’t blame him for wanting to check me out. He most properly thought I was a huge foxglove!  I am a bit of a silly picnicker when it comes to bees and wasps. So, I started shouting and flapping my arms around when it occurred to me that somebody in the distance might think I was desperately calling for help, I stood high on the rock, and I was enjoying myself way too much to get reused by the mountain rescue team in a helicopter to and back home.

After setting up the tent and settling down, however much I tried to keep my eyes open I didn’t get to see the stars. The sky was perfectly clear, with no light pollution, but I closed my eyes and slumbered into a deep sleep. Until those lovely woodpeckers I’d very much enjoyed hearing on the trail were very happy at 4am and wanted everybody to know! No wonder their sound was used for alarm clocks in the past. My husband rolled over and complained about them keeping him awake, only to fall back to sleep within minutes. I opened the tent and looked up at the sun streaming through the sycamore tree above. The sun illuminated the leaves to a beautiful green colour. Birds like bluetits use this time to look through the leaves by looking out for shadows of caterpillars on the other side How hard I tried I didn’t see any, just lots of places where the caterpillars had been; perhaps the bluetit had already eaten them.

 

After a quick breakfast, we headed back. After the 8k hike to the car, we were back home at 9. We went straight out on a hunt for a map, surely somewhere must sell them! After finding one in at Trusty Go outdoors. On inspecting the map, we realized we were a matter of feet from our destination when we turned back. That s usually the case, when following dreams, your reach a breaking point and stop, when what you had in mind was just around the corner and literally, it was, just around the corner! l

It’s great though; we get to do it again!!!

Along with the map, since I’ve got back, I’ve purchased a small sketchbook and a tiny water filtration system (the size of my palm, that will allow us to drink the water in the river. Now, not only can I fit the sketchbook, map and binoculars in my bag, I’ll have room for some art equipment too ;)