A 4-day eastern route through the Pumlumon hills of mid Wales.
This was planned as a 3-day trip but forcibly extended en route by an extra night due to misjudged effort, blistering heat and some atrocious, debilitating terrain.
It approaches via a section of the Wye Valley Walk (WVW) to ascend Pumlumon Arwystli and continues northwards through the heart of the hills around Carnfachbugeilyn and Glaslyn.
The route then heads westwards around Llyn Cwm-bwr and through the Esgair y Ffordd forest to ascend Foel Cerrigbrithion and traverse Bwlch Hyddgen, finally picking up Glyndwr's Way (GW) through the northern hills towards Machynlleth.
The first day was a bank holiday Monday and the initial WVW section follows the main access track through the Sweet Lamb sports complex: we had visions of a hectic scene here with crowds milling around, but the whole area was eerily deserted, as were the hills beyond. We saw no other walkers at all until a solitary GW walker appeared near the end of day 3, our only sighting in the four days.
The extra night meant scouting the phone mapping for a reasonable pitch spot, not easy on such a small screen in this area, but we found a good woodland one. As it turned out, it also meant that for a significant portion of that night, we were pitched in a dramatic thunderstorm.
Recently several of my planned routes have been culled entirely or hacked apart to form shorter easier ones, even those designed only a couple of years ago but, evidently, I still sometimes think in the old ways and overestimate our capability relative to the route. This trip was highly instructive regarding food in this situation: stretching out the food to last another night and morning was a non-problem. In our exhausted state we could barely face the thought of eating anyway, only managing to force down a small amount and only because we knew we should.
Nice route Geoff. Not long days but in sweltering weather and little water it doesn’t matter. Glad the storm didn’t turn into a torrential one. I’ve not done Pumlumon but friends have told me its a tough one. We had 2 good weeks in North Wales a fortnight ago. Wales is so underrated.
Thanks Alan.
That small valley floor (Cors yr Ebolion) is the only very rough part we have encountered in the Pumlumon hills. I crossed it once before years ago on a slightly different line and remarked on the bad terrain, of course I was stronger and fitter then, maybe I took it in my stride.
Apart from that we have fond memories of this trip, a good one, even the thunder storm.