Arriving late morning after a long drive, the viewpoint layby on the Rhigos road was already fairly busy with the snack van doing brisk trade with day trippers and cyclists. From the western extremity of the layby it appears that the only option is to follow the perilous edge of the road, but there is a good path above the embankment immediately next to the fence. As the road bends the path continues along the northern edge with extensive views northwards to the hills of the Brecon Beacons and Llyn Fawr below. The path is said to be very muddy and horribly churned up by trail bikes in some places, but it was almost entirely baked dry today.

Gaining height at a sharp bend, the CMW track then follows the edge of the mature trees and crosses another track to reach a “Skyline Loop” waymark post. Farther still is the standing stone bearing a buzzard logo with inscription “Cylchoedd-a-Dolenni / Loops & Links” that marks the side track into the trees where the summit lies a short way within.

The first sight of this spot, a cleared surfaced area surrounded by trees, was puzzling: it seemed to be the highest ground but where was the trig point?. Wandering around a bit we spotted it hiding behind a young tree, as well it might, this is a sad summit really although we've seen worse. That said, we have a certain fondness of these terrible tops that stand out for the wrong reasons.

We could have varied the return somewhat by continuing SSE to pick up the bridleway heading eastwards, but it really wasn't worth it in forestry and we retraced our steps to reprise the northwards view towards the Beacons. We then drove to Crai for the start of the main backpack.

From Crai we took the narrow lanes north and west to cross the Afon Crai and join a good bridleway up to the forest and the track that follows the edge south-westwards. Crossing the forest on another track, we realised the debilitating effect of the heat that was forecast to increase even more in the days ahead and fuel the need for plenty of water. Emerging from the forest at the open slopes of Moel Feity, we decided to ascend along the edge to the top of the rise in the hope of replenishing water at the stream head in Cwm Meity. Fortunately the stream was flowing sufficiently where it enters the forest in the deep rough ravine.

Easy grassy slopes climb to the 591m summit marked by a small cairn and there is a 590m rise to the north-west. We made our pitch a little lower down the western slope to catch the meagre light breeze with a view ahead to the main ridge.

The profusion of cotton grass on the eastern slopes bordering Llyn y Fan Fawr shows their normally boggy nature but the traverse was easy today in these parched conditions. Just beyond the bwlch we ascended initially on the right of the cleft formed by the nascent Afon Tawe and aimed for Fan Brycheiniog, arriving at the lake shore at the northern end for a superb scene. Walking along the eastern shore there was only a very light breeze that came sporadically but gave good reflections in the calm interludes, along with persistent midges of course.

At the southern end a pitched path slants easily upwards to crest the ridge at Bwlch Giedd, affording aerial views of the lake and temporarily giving us the welcome benefit of a cooling updraught to keep the midges at bay. This time we noticed that the summit of Fan Hir, difficult to distinguish from other nearby high points on its long ridge, is marked by a tiny group of stones that is easily missed.

A long ridge walk with grand views leads to the steep descent to the Afon Tawe and footbridge at Ty Henry. We walked down the grass verge of the road to the cafe and toilets at Craig-y-nos country park where we bought extra food and drink and cooled down in the shade.

At the bottom of the car park we crossed the footbridge to join the Beacons Way (BW) through riverside woodland. The BW ascends through a conservation area and past old quarries to the Caving Club buildings to enter the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu nature reserve below the rocky edge of Carreg Lwyd. Here we left the BW and ascended the incline of the old tramway to pass more old quarry excavations above the ravine of the Nant Byfre with good views back across to Fan Hir. At the stream head a path cuts off the corner to join the northern branch of the track ascending Fan Gyhirych.

Near the high point of the track we struck out for the summit and the trig point soon came into view. The cairn a little farther north gave a fine view over Cray reservoir and we made our pitch close by.

A clear sunny morning with a brisk breeze was an excellent way to start the day and we headed eastwards on a vague path to pick up a quadbike trail turning along the escarpment edge and descending to rejoin the track. Here we were surprised to see a JCB standing alongside, its purpose unknown.

At Bwlch y Duwynt we turned back right on a crossing track to reach the fence junction and joined a path to the 604m summit of Yr Allt. Fan Nedd dominated the near view with Fan Llia beyond.

The path continues by the fence to pass an intermediate rise and diverges from it directly towards the lower northern top with a 603m trig point.

Heading northwards we crossed the fence at a stile and followed it down easy grassy slopes on the eastern side to a minor road and the sign indicating the public footpath towards Crai. We are always apprehensive about Welsh footpaths outside popular walking areas, but this one following a tiny wooded stream is fully stiled and waymarked.

The path reaches another lane that completes the route to Crai, albeit cruelly uphill and sheltered in the blistering heat.