Back in July, my friend Tash and I took on the Dragons Back in the Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog).

We had initially planned on a wild camp elsewhere, but the overnight weather conditions were not looking tempting in the slightest, so this was our ‘Plan B Mission’ – it did not disappoint.

We parked at a pub in Pengenffordd village at the base of the hills which cost £5 for the day.

From there, we took on the loonnggg climb up to a cairn to join the Cambrian Way.

We followed the Cambrian Way to Pen Trumau before heading on up to Waun Fach at 810 meters.

Soon after, we stopped for a rest. We had decided to carry a few extra luxuries and have a mountain brew and hot lunch courtesy of the ol’ Jetboil and Uncle Ben’s Singapore noodles.

We had forgotten cutlery so this was a messy eat! I won’t embarrass ourselves by putting those photos on here… I’ll leave that to your imagination.

Sadly, the weather soon changed….

We whacked on our waterproofs and many warm layers and got moving as the rain came in pretty heavy.

After 20 mins, it cleared back up again giving us fantastic views of the EPIC Dragons Back ridge and the Black Mountains.

We continued along the Cambrian Way until we got to Pen Y Manllwyn which marks the start/top of the Dragons Back.

Before we started descending, we saw a paraglider which got a little close for comfort at times!

The way down the Dragons Back involved a lot of up and back down agains, which made for a challenging hike and slightly sore knees as someone borrowed my poles….

The Dragons Back takes in Pen Y Manllwyn, Y Grib, and Bwlch Bach a’r Grib.

We of course stopped for a rest partway down for some ginger nut biscuits….my go to hiking biscuit of choice.

This was a 12.5 km circular hike with over 600 meters of elevation gain, but every meter was worth it for the incredible views we had over the Black Mountains.

We had sun, we had rain, we had wind. We went from T-shirt and shorts to full waterproofs and a woolly hat in a very short space of time. The weather was so variable but at least we had good views throughout.

Sadly the pub by the car park wasn’t open, but we found one on the drive home where we stopped for a refreshing Coke and a Sticky Toffee Pudding. A solid way to end an adventure!

Thank you Tash for saying yes to the walk and letting me drag you up and down many hills.