A solo and possibly the most challenging walk and wild camp that I have completed. The plan was to park in Abergwesyn a bit west of Builth Wells and go and explore the Nant Paradwys valley, hopefully finding a spot to pitch for night 1 with a view down to the Caban Coch Resevoir and then visit Carreg yr Ast and Drygarn Fawr as a couple of highest points in the area before making my way down the valley following Afon Gwesyn, as I had read an articulate about a wild camp half way down next to a waterfall which would leave me a short walk on day 3 back to the car.
I did visit those places but it was not exactly as planned or how I thought it would be…. There is a clear path on OS Maps that takes you up through a Forest and along the Nant Paradwys Valley to the end of the Caban Coch Resevoir but in reality once I reached the forest the paths ceased to exist. The way into the forest was no longer accessible with the entire length fenced off which meant quite a diversion to find a way in, once in the paths were so overgrown and messed up by forestry work that they were almost impassable and very difficult to navigate. Once through the Forest it looked like there may be a path again taking me up onto the moorland but it didn’t last long and was probably the last time I would see any form of path until a short section on day two and the final bit back on day three.
I had read that the ground was mainly marsh and bogs with tuffets (?) of grass that was very difficult to navigate and walk through, but I was planning on sticking to the path… as the path didn’t exist I found my self in leg breaking ground that took me a good hour to travel just a mile. I knew I was running out of time before dark and I wasn’t anywhere near a potential view of the Resevoir and I hadn’t seen a single place that would be suitable (or even not very suitable) to pitch for the night. After a lot of searching (and starting to get quite concerned) I finally managed to find a grassy spot on a rocky lump at about 530m which was more exposed to the wind than ideal, but I had the trusty Terra Nova Pioneer 2 so I knew that would be okay, if a bit noisy!
https://explore.osmaps.com/route/23870310/day-1-of-elan-valley-wild-camp
It was actually quite a good spot in the end but I only just managed to set up and get water before it was very dark; a very close call!
One surprise was not so much being woken up by the wind on a number of occasions but a very bright moon! Also had an amazing starlit night early on before clouding over but my photo of that was a fail!
Day 2 started wet and I was in no hurry to move as I figured I only had a relatively short walk of about 4 miles to my next camp spot, little did I know….. I had breakfast sitting in the tent out of the wind and rain, lazed about while it carried on raining, had a mid morning snack and finally got packed up and on my way by about 11:30am…. I know there is a bit of a rule about pitch late (did that!) and leave early but since I was miles from anywhere and I hadn’t seen a single person, or any sign of anyone ever walking in the area I figured it would be okay!
The walk across to the non existent path and then to Carreg yr Ast through even worse conditions than day 1 (I thought I may disappear into the bog never to be found at times…) took me nearly two hours and it is less than 1.5 miles… having reached it I could see a quad bike track out to what looked like a path of sorts even though that was not marked on OS maps and that made for quite a nice walk across to Drygarn Fawr in a short time. The weather had also improved and I had a nice lunch sitting in the sun. I also believed that maybe at last I would have a path of sorts to follow to the valley and along side Afon Gwesyn to my intended campsite for night 2. Wrong….. the quad bike track did take me almost to the top but then it became a complete nightmare with the conditions underfoot even worse (if that was possible) than I had previously experienced and it took me over two hours to travel the 1.4 miles to the site. At least with about 300m to go I had seen a good plan B if the intended spot wasn’t any good, in reality it was probably a better spot but despite only being 300m away I was too tired to struggle 20 minutes back to it and the waterfall site was actually okay anyway.
The waterfall was spectacular but also very noisy, however there was an almost flat spot behind a bit of a natural wall which reduced the noise considerably, and with no wind I was hopeful of a much better nights sleep.
https://explore.osmaps.com/route/23870759/elan-valley-wild-camp-day-2
A decent nights sleep with a nice early start after some breakfast as it was dry and I wanted to get the tent packed before the weather changed its mind…. Not long after first light at about 7:30am I started on my way thinking that although it was only 2.5 miles back to the car, based on the last couple of days it could have taken me 4 hours… in the end it was a proper path (a bit of as sheep track to begin with) and despite taking my time and the view in I completed it in 1.5 hrs. The valley walk from the waterfall back down to Abergwesyn where the car was parked was a beautiful walk and well worth a repeat visit sometime; maybe to do that and go the 300m past to my plan B site some time in the future, but one thing for sure I am done with the Elan Valley!!
During my time there I saw someone just after leaving the car and then someone walking their dog about 200m from the car on my return….
https://explore.osmaps.com/route/23870954/elan-valley-wild-camp-day-3
Hiking & Wild Camping 