We had a little lie in this morning, making our coffee over the stove and then sitting and reading in bed for a bit. It was nice to hear the trees and birds outside but even then I was thinking that it sounded a bit windy. Nevertheless we got up, fed and ready to go by around 10, heading out the driveway and up the road by foot. After squishing into the surrounding hedges a couple of times to let cars pass, we made it up to the car park for the start of the Pen Y Fan walking trail. It was supposed to be an 8 mile ‘strenuous’ walk for that trail, but hit two summits and had spectacular views. I was super keen and we started strong, making our way up a very steep climb along the northern face of Pen Y Fan. We had gorgeous views north of the fields and surrounding hills - we could see Brecon in the distance. There were also loads of sheep to amuse us! However the closer we got to the top, the windier it got, and at around the 3.5km mark, as we came out on top of a ridge with a slightly precarious path along it, we were being physically pushed by the wind. We were also in the middle of a cloud and couldn’t see anything surrounding us - or further ahead than a few hundred metres. We had to sit down for a brief shouted conference about what to do and ultimately decided that it wasn’t safe and we should go back. As we turned to go back another couple kept going and as we walked down we could hear them shouting to each other and not long after could see that they’d turned back too. It was really windy on the way down as well, so we could tell that the weather had definitely turned. By the time we got back to the carriage at 1, we’d been walking for 2.5 hours and managed about 7km so we still felt good about our walk! 

When we got back we found a chicken wandering around the backyard, and then another three further down the driveway! I spent a little while ushering them around and eventually managed to plonk them back into their fenced space. After a shower and change, and some sandwiches for lunch, we decided to go for a drive. I figured out how to reverse out of the driveway to avoid the horrible steep bit, and we made our way up the highway to Hay-on-Wye. This was a cute little town claiming to be famous for its bookshops. The catch was that (of course) they were mostly closed. However we checked out some beautiful shop windows and the resident castle - more of a fancy stone house with a tower than a fortress. From there we made our way to a cute little pub that had been listed in my ‘best pubs’ book and had a drink in their beer garden. We’ve realised that it’s only ‘outdoor hospitality venues’ allowed under Wales’ COVID rules, so that’s a big difference to England. The Old Black Lion was a gorgeous 17th Century pub but luckily had a cute little garden so that wasn’t a problem. 

After our drink we walked back through town to the car and then drove to Brecon, where we’d initially planned a pub dinner, but instead grabbed some lamb to cook on the fire. When we got back (and I’d successfully navigated the horrible driveway by reversing in again) we settled back in to making a fire, reading our books, and cooking up a delicious Welsh lamb dinner with salad. We finished the evening by watching the last two episodes of Snowpiercer and trying our Penderyn whiskey!