We stayed at at the wonderful Nant-Ddu Lodge, a relaxed spa hotel amongst wooded hills, perfect for being in nature all day and taking the afternoon to relax in the jacuzzi, steam room, or sauna. Delicious food as well.
On Saturday we took a long walk starting at the lodge on the Taff Trail, which took as by the ascent path to Pen Y Fan, the highest peak in South Wales (and Southern Britain). Here's the peak and us below.
The views are fantastic, north towards Brecon, the main town in the national park, and south towards the beautiful chain of reservoirs in the valley.
But most spectacular are the views of nearby peak Corn Du and its steep glacier valley.
After reaching the peak, we decided to take a very windy ridge path back and enjoy more of the views,
and make our way to the lodge as we come down from the ridge using the map, although there was no footpath. As you might imagine, this was not as straight-forward as it looked on the map, as some map roads were in real-life absent, and fences had been raised along our planned route since its mapping.
There was a lot of walking on uneven ground, then walking through woods, and finally walking near a road and through buttercup fields.
And all of this in hiking sandals, so that our feet collected the dust of the ridge path, the mud of marshlands along the way, the green of the grassy forest paths and not least a good amount of pollen from local flora. :)
We ended the day with a well-deserved sauna and steam, jacuzzi and float in the pool.
On Sunday we went to the Dan Yr Ogof cave at the National Showcaves Centre for Wales. The place is a bit kitsch (see the funny intro on the website) with its lifesize plastic dinosaur park, but the caves are wonderful.
The main cave (Dan Yr Ogof) provides a fairly long walk and interesting structures along the way, as well as several waterfalls.
Perhaps more impressive is the Cathedral Cave, with its tall ceiling and river running by the footpath,
which takes you to a large beautiful chamber of several tall waterfalls.
Finally, the small Bone Cave documents the bones having been found here, from cave bears to a group of warriors. If you are so inclined, the place also has a model Iron Age Village, museum, animal farm (some cute alpacas and llamas), and is very close to a large country park and 19th century 'castle'.
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