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Photos © Neil Pugh and Richard East

Friday

Our annual expedition to Cwm Llwch started, as we meant to continue, in the pub to pick up our barrel of beer. Horror! The beer delivery had not arrived. We had decided to take some rope to re-make the swing which has not been there for a couple of years. It was decided after a short committee meeting that the swing should be sacrificed, and the rope used to lynch Andy who was universally blamed for the non-appearance of this essential supply. Fortunately for him the delivery man arrived a few minutes later and amid universal rejoicing the barrel was loaded into the trailer.

We arrived at Cwm Llwch farmhouse at about 3 pm, and after unloading our kit we took the dogs for a short walk up the valley. Swing Mark 1 was then rigged in the tree outside the back door.

We went down into Brecon in the evening, ordered a takeaway curry, had a couple of pints, and then headed back to the farmhouse for the food. The rest of the evening is an unaccountable blur. Suffice it to say that Rob greeted me the next morning with the words “Do you realise that five of us drank a bottle and a half of scotch last night?” (Ardbeg and Laphroig if anyone’s interested; congratulations Dick, Deb, Rob, Cod & Neil, nobody refused their breakfast either).

Saturday

A light, high carbohydrate breakfast is essential before climbing I always think. So we had bacon, sausages, eggs, mushrooms, fried slice and beans (there, I said it had carbohydrate in it).

It was as hot as hell so we decided on a shortish walk as water was going to be a problem. We set off up the valley to Llyn Cwm Llwch and then onto the ridge with the monument to Tommy Jones, who lived in the farmhouse we were staying in. There are a couple of Geocaches in the area, so I gave the GPS to Harry who navigated in fine style to the cache near the top of Corn Du. A short diversion to find the cache and sign the logbook and then we climbed to the summit of Corn Du. After a short rest we walked on to Pen y Fan and then down Cefn Cwm Llwch and across the hillside back to the farmhouse. Length of walk from the GPS - 6.62 km.

After a few beers we decided it would be a good idea to try the swing out. We did this by trying to touch an adjacent branch with our toes. All went well for a while, and then Swing Mark 1 failed catastrophically. Unhappily it happened when I was on it. Fortunately the rope snapped when I was close to the bank, and not out towards the river. The bruises may eventually fade.

After a health & safety meeting, production of a method statement and risk assessment Swing Mark 2 was rigged with nylon rope and with multiple redundancy in the cables. This version of the swing was an outstanding safety success, not a single child was injured during testing or operations, despite the fact that we thought the kids ought to go up into the branches as well. They needed a fairly hefty shove to get them that high.

We took another short walk up to the lake in the late afternoon, and then back to the cottage for a barbeque.

A few of us took mattresses outside into the yard and slept under the stars. It was a lot more peaceful than the men's bedroom. “It’s like Jurassic Park in here!” © Nigel 2003.

Sunday