Plan C

The next outing was after there been a thaw, followed by more snowfall in freezing temperatures, an earlier rise too, to take into account the weather warnings for Ice and extended journey times, Grand Plan A for a high summit view on the Brecon Fans was firmly in my sights and with no travel delays, everything was good. Turning off the well gritted A40 onto a minor road and the ungritted road conditions weren't the best. Parking up the car and exiting it, 3 things were apparent - everywhere was covered in ice, even low down the wind was decidedly breezy and the summits seemed covered in cloud, not good. Now I've stood around in windchill, waiting for summits to clear and suffered for my optimism, so Plan A was abandoned.

Plan B, initiated carry on west and take the A road from Defynnog to Craig y Nos  for a location on the south side. Plan B was abandoned when it was soon evident the road hadn't been gritted and a convoy of tail lights in the distance, suggested more crawling.

OK, Plan C carry on the A40 and head for the moorland north of Y Mynydd Du where the headwaters of the River Usk rise. The ungritted minor roads would be interesting and didn't disappoint.

Winter tyre conditions

Parking up and the view south revealed that Y Mynydd Du was wreathed in cloud and the view North to an impressive train of shower clouds tracking eastward, hopes for a dawn spectacular faded.  The spectacle of spindrift on the hills underlined the wise move to have abandoned an excursion to higher elevations.  I'm conscious writing this, just how many times my plans are changed at short notice to accommodate weather conditions, I don't believe it is indecisiveness, more case of experience of actual weather on the hills and fallibility of a Met Office weather forecast.

The ability of animals to endure the elements has to be respected and this was illustrated by a couple of dozen that had hunkered down in the lee of a small scarp/clumps of rushes and adjacent to the infant river Usk.  In comparison with the terrain on offer, this was an excellent choice - the high river bank and rush clumps provided some shelter from wind and ground relatively well drained and dry. 

Shelter

I'm giving credit to the local hill farmer, that these sheep are the ewes left out on the hills all winter to accrue the survival knowledge of shelter and food resources of this terrain, the over wintered upland ewes, then guide the main flock when it returns in more clement weather. I thought there is a name given to these ewes and a search of the web to find the correct terminology for sheep left out on the hill over winter, was unsuccessful.  My search did throw up one of the more tragic episodes in sheep husbandry in the upland environs.  The Gonial Blast in late January 1794 witnessed a storm hit the Southern Uplands of Scotland, when the snow melted the following was reported "there is a place called the Beds of Esk, where the tide throws out and leaves whatever is carried into it by the rivers. When the flood after the storm subsided, there was found on that place and shores adjacent, one thousand eight hundred and forty sheep, nine black cattle, three horses, two men, one woman, forty-five dogs and one hundred and eighty hares, beside a number of meaner animals" these bodies washed down were the ones resting close to or in water courses, the actual death toll must have been staggering. 'Gonial' or  'Goniel', is the term applied to the mutton of sheep found dead, from which the smoked mutton-hams are got.

Prior to this trip I'd packed a 100mm prime and 80-200 tele zoom and for this excursion I'd swapped the zoom for a 180mm prime. Sod's Law dictated I could have done with a 130-150mm to abstract a meander loop and the cloud colour reflected from the water. The concept was good, the DoF, execution and point of view less so.

Reflected colour

A view to the north, with the 180mm prime, over the meander loops, two flavours of the cloud colour and the silviculture of the Glasfynydd Forest, was more acceptable.

The cloud to the south over Y Mynydd Du finally started to break up and clear. Now despite the cliche of a landscape image with the ubiquitous glacial erratic in the foreground, on a featureless moor an erratic is not to be sniffed at, especially as the provenance of the erratic was highly likely, to be from the Y Mynnyd Du escarpment and hints strongly at the direction of glacial ice flow.

Cliche glacial erratic I

Cliche glacial erratic II

Cliched landscape foreground glacial erratic images satiated, it was time to wander. It's fair to say the wanderlust was short lived as the novelty of trail breaking through increasingly deeper snow, the wind increasing and clearing sky, rapidly translated into sinking enthusiasm and a trip up to Llyn y Fan Fach was saved for another day.

Instead the longer lenses were brought out to play, to try and capture spindrift on the spur of Fan Foel.

180mm

100mm

Then it was time to head back for some entertainment on the ungritted roads.