A Weekend Amongst Hills and Sheep: Camping in Llandovery (Jun 2026)
- webmasteribex
- 11 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Having spent my adolescent years in Wales I should not have been surprised with the weather that greeted me at Llandovery station. It may have been June and it may have been sunny elsewhere but in Llandovery the weather was grey, misty and damp!
From there on in things started to look up however. The campsite was nearby where I received a friendly welcome. Their facilities were good including (unusually in my limited campsite experience) an electric kettle! There were also good views of the surrounding hills and of course the agreeable company of my Ibex colleagues to look forward to!
There were six of us in total: Susan, David and myself were camping and we were later joined at the Llandovery Caravan & Camping Park by Nigel and his camper van! Gosia and Mick were staying in the town and we met up with them there on the Thursday evening for what I think it’s fair to say was an excellent value for money meal at the Kings Head Inn. I had great spare ribs, chips etc. as well as a pint all for £15 – what a restaurant and what a find!
The next day started damp and we drove southwards to the Black Mountain (note to readers this is distinct from the Black Mountains range further east in the Brecon Beacons National Park.). Our aim was to climb the 802-metre-high Fan Brycheiniog. Shortly after summitting it, the mist cleared, the clouds dispersed, the sun came out and there were glorious views from the ridge of the surrounding beautiful countryside.
The following day the weather was again kind to us, it stayed dry all day and was even warm/hot in the afternoon. We were walking on the Mynydd Mallaen which has been described as an “expansive, remote upland plateau”. It has a 462 metre highest point as well as standing stones, bogs, disappearing paths and of course sheep!
The Group got to know one member of one of these flocks in particular and the kinder members of the group took it upon themselves to try and re-unify it with what it was thought was its mother (or possibly its mates) in the next field. Unfortunately, the sheep did not respond as they’d hoped but we had done our best to help! The last couple of hours of the day were spent descending from the plateau. We’d walked at least 11 (and possibly more) miles before we got back to our vehicles in the Cwm Rhaeadr forest car park.
Group feedback kindly offered was that both walks had been interesting, varied and well designed by David, our Day Walk Leader who had ably fulfilled that role as well as the Weekend Organiser position.
On Sunday morning I had the “Dragon Breakfast” with Susan at one of the local cafés before departing by train. The others walked from Black Mountain Quarries to Carreg Yr Ogof along the Beacons Way, just to the west of Black Mountain. Lovely sunny weather, great views, and ice creams back at the car park!
Author: Stephen
#ibexwalkers #ukhikingweekends #londonhikingclub #socialwalking #walkforhealth #llandovery #blackmountain #beaconsway
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