Our annual April weekend away, fell in March this year!!

The idea was to celebrate St David's Day but when it was in the planning stages there were some doubts as to whether the weather, in particular snow, might intervene and have some affect on this trip, given the earlier timespan.

Indeed a few days before, snow was forecast for mid-Wales giving me a headache for around 24 hours, but luckily the only white stuff that could be seen, was on the far away hills, very beautiful from a distance.

On Saturday the walk was a circular one up onto the hills around Llanwrtyd.Eddie sprinted from the train up to the square, and 16 of us set off on a lovely calm sunny day.

The route went beside the river Irfon and up to Victoria Wells the log cabin holiday motel set in a beautiful woodland.

We carried on to the very old St David's church where Derrick did his very impressive Liberace impression!!!

Continuing, we then climbed high up giving us great views down the valley, and making our way through some lovely countryside back to Llanwrtyd.

As the weather was so nice most of the group continued to the little known Abernant Lake before departing to our respective bed and breakfast accommodations for a wash and brush up, before meeting  at The Drovers for the evening meal, which had been lovingly prepared for us by Peter.

We wined and dined enjoying a superb three course meal, with excellent company and good conversation all round.

After a good nights sleep, and given the cloudier day on Sunday with intermittent drizzle, we had an excellent turnout of 11 at Cynghordy.

Cyclist John was a bit late arriving, claiming he'd got lost but I think he didn't want to cycle up the last very steep hill to the meeting point.

We set off down the hill and very quickly he appeared at the bottom, secured his bike and on we continued.

The start was a muddy affair but we did promise it would get better and it did.

The sprawling countryside was quite beautiful even in the cloud and wet and suddenly the viaduct just emerged out of the mist standing tall and majestic.

We ate our packed lunches in the cemetary beside the viaduct and on cue the Heart of Wales train chuff, chuff, chuffed over the top, with us  waving it on its way.

We continued through some lovely green lanes and moorland and near one of the isolated houses Neil stopped the group to observe an incredible sight of 7 or 8 peacocks high up in the nearby trees.

Near the end, the rain did get heavier but the promise of coffee and cake spurred us on and we were given a lovely welcome by the owners of a local farmhouse/b and b, with a roaring fire and scrummy chocolate cake which was very quickly devoured with the accompanying tea and coffee.What a great way to bring the weekend to an end.

The rain got even heavier and posed quite difficult driving conditions for most of us going home, but relaxing that evening, I reflected on yet another thoroughly enjoyable weekend from start to finish.

Many thanks to everyone who came and supported this event, (including Paul from Somerset and Robert from Scotland who we had not met before) and helped make it such another great success--here's to the next one.