Elvie's Year in Photos 2011: Day 271 Brecon Beacons & a Feast of Photos!

This week we're having exceptional weather for the time of year, even better than most of the summer. So this morning, after the gas man had finished our annual boiler service we headed off to the Beacons, in the MX5, with the roof down. The thermometer read 23 degrees all afternoon, the skies were blue with only the occasional small fluffy white cloud.Driving past Ystradfellte we stopped at a carpark by the Afon Llia, a tributary of the Afon Mellte that gives Ystradfellte its name ( Afon means river in Welsh) Here they are streams rather than rivers. We ate our picnic lunch to the gurgling of the stream and birdsong without any of the noises of modern civilisation. I took some photos then we moved on.

There's supposed to be the remains of a Roman marching fort nearby but we could find no trace of it. For a time the road runs over the old Roman road of Sarn Heln, which then veers off to the right over the hills. Next stop was the bronze age standing stone of Maen Llia.

I've photographed it before but not on such a bright sunny day. Like Arbor Low we paused to consider the lives of the people who built it and also that of all the people, like us, who have passed it since. Unllike Arbor Low this stone apparently doesn't have religious significance but was probably erected to mark a route or trackway through the rather featureless landscape. It's one heck of a big signpost!

We continued our drive, stopping every now and then when a nice view presented itself. Not far from Maen Llia the road drops steeply down from the uplands into a valley, dotted with farmhouses and green with small fields . We stopped at the top of the drop. Some old rusting fencing gave an unusual foreground to this view and then, as we came down the hill we could see up another valley to the dramatic escarpment atop Fan Gyhirych.