The highest man in south Wales

Saturday saw me taking the tourist path to Pen-y-fan (pronounced 'pennavan' not penny fan!). I have never been up this way - up Y Gyrn to Corn Du, across to PyF and then straight back down to the Storey Arms car park. I was trying it out to see if my eldest son (5 yrs) could manage it.

Tourist paths are everything that is bad about letting twats onto mountains - beer cans, fag packets, urine soaked tissues tucked under stones, toddlers in tee shirts and plimsolls (in bloody October!). Out comes the sun, up go the twats.

Thing is, it's a beautiful mountain with stunning views of the whole park. Sit on the edge looking over towards Cribyn, put your fingers in your ears to block out the delighted exclamations of the masses... "Thassa view'n'arf, innit...f'kin lush that", and you have a world class mountain experience.



An hour up, a quick stand on the summit cairn (886m) and 30 mins back down.

There are much, much better ways of climbing PyF - the classic horseshoe from the Upper Neuadd Reservoir being my favourite. But I don't think my boy is ready for that yet. I want to take him up as there is a certain delight in saying "I'm the highest person in south Wales right at this moment" that he will love.

As usual, fungi is everywhere at the moment. I forgot my guide so I left everything where it was and tried out the macro button on my Canon. Can anyone help identify these?