Holiday in Ystradgynlais
This March, Grace and I spent a week in the lovely Welsh town of Ystradgynlais in the Brecon Beacons. Located north-east of Swansea, on the edge of the national park, it was the perfect base for exploring and lots of walking. We stayed in a small cottage on Pen Llwyn Teg farm, booked through Sykes, which suited us perfectly. While the journey there was a bit of a nightmare, the weather stayed wonderful for the most part and we had a lovely time. Our story begins with the journey to Wales on Saturday 21st March.
Driving to Wales
For the holiday, we were driving an Audi A3 which was Grace’s sister’s old car. It was a bit worn out, but perfectly roadworthy — or so we thought… We were about 3 hours into our journey, near Newbury on the M4, when a light appeared on the dashboard and the engine went into limp mode. With no exits in sight and a failing car, we pulled onto the hard shoulder and called the AA. After an hour and a half of waiting, an AA van arrived, diagnosed the problem as a broken fuel injector and told us it was going to be £700 to fix it with a genuine part. We asked to be towed to Swindon nearby and we ended up at Cross Street Garage Transfer Bridge, near the station. We weren’t sure if we wanted to fix the car and even if we did, it wouldn’t be looked at until Monday. Luckily, Grace’s dad was incredibly kind and drove his BMW X1 all the way to Swindon while we got dinner. When he arrived, we swapped cars and he got the train home. We were incredibly thankful because without him, the holiday would never have happened! We got to Ystradgynlais around midnight and promptly went to bed.
Day 1
We had a much-deserved lie-in after the adventures of Saturday, we went out to Tesco to get groceries for the holiday. In the afternoon, we went for a lovely walk in Giedd Forest. We had a slight close shave involving a non-existent footpath and a car park that closed at 6pm but compared to Saturday we were very happy with the ease of the day!
Day 2
The weather was looking lovely on Day 2, so we decided to climb Pen y Fan! We parked in the Nant Cwm Llwch car park to walk up the north side, via Nant Cwm Llwch (the lake near the summit). Our route up was very quiet and absolutely stunning! As we approached the summit, it got a lot colder and we layered up. Once we got our photo on the top, we had lunch and made our way back down. On the way back, we visited the small village of Sennybridge and the famous Yew tree in St Cynog’s churchyard, Defynnog.
Day 3
The weather was looking a bit worse so we drove to Brecon to have a look around! We visited the local museum, the cathedral, got an ice cream in the pouring rain and found a fantastic shop called Baaad Flockers.
Day 4
We’d seen signs nearby for the Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary so we decided to investigate. It was a very odd place, but we had a lovely time! The highlight was seeing Nakima the chimpanzee, who apparently is never without her blanket wrapped around her! After lunch, we visited Henrhyd Falls and went for a walk down the river. The falls were spectacular and we even went behind them!
Day 5
The weather was looking wonderful so we had a day out to the Gower! We drove to Rhossili bay and went for a lovely walk around the headland and up to the Beacon. When we got back to the car, we realised the causeway out to Worm’s Head was accessible, so we decided to walk out across it. It was a long way but absolutely beautiful and definitely worth it! Grace found a few hermit crabs in the rock-pools but other creatures were mysteriously elusive.
Day 6
The weather was pretty horrendous so we decided to go to the cinema! We watched Hoppers at Vue cinema in Swansea, which was very fun!
Day 7
We packed up the car in the morning and said goodbye to our cottage. We drove to the nearby National Showcaves Centre which was incredible! The caves were very beautiful and the sheer scale of the Dan yr Ogof cave system was amazing. After our visit, we drove home safe and sound with no more mishaps or adventures to Swindon!
