14th April 2018 - The Elan Valley walk with overnight bothy stay - Part 2

Last week we had just arrived at Lluest Cwmbatch bothy, see here if you have no idea what I’m talking about. The bothy looked idyllic from the outside. Set on the edge of the reservoir with a babbling brook next to it. Going inside however revealed the true horror of what we were entering in to. Every surface inside had a beer can or wine bottle on it. It was clear our friends waving on the hill were in full party mode and were here to stay. To make matters worse, they had three friends on their way too.

A drink of wine in the setting sun to celebrate our arrival.

The bothy had three wooden benches to sleep on. We claimed one and left the 24 hour party people to fight over the other two. We couldn’t really take many pictures of the inside of the bothy as it was quite dark already and also it was an absolute tip. We had a quick chat with the soberest of the party who gave us a bit of their wine, which was one thing at least. Then we decided to try and get our heads down. The benches are not comfortable. The party people had lit some candles so it was fairly light inside. Then, to add to the chaos, three more people turned up to stay the night. Chuck decided that the party was too much for him and climbed up onto the bench to sleep with his Mummy and Daddy. 35kg of German Shepherd in between us left very little room.

A much gloomier day awaited us when we got up the next morning.

At around 3am the party finally died down. Around 6am the light started pouring through the window. We decided to carry out our morning admin outside as it was still quite dark in the bothy. After a nice breakfast and some mocha pot coffee brewed up on a camping stove we headed out back towards Rhayader. The weather was markedly different to the previous day. It was cold and damp and soon started to rain. There was no path and the only way was through a hilltop bog on a compass bearing, so make sure you can use a compass. We eventually got back to a reasonable track to follow. Again, there were sheep dotted about so Chuck needed to be on a lead. He was in one of those boisterous moods from lack of sleep.

After three hours sleep, filter coffee was a godsend.

After crossing the main road, the path climbed up again before dropping steeply down into Rhayader. There really isn’t much to report as the weather was so bad. There was very little to see. I’m sure it would have been very pretty in the sunshine. We returned to the car which was thankfully in one piece. We looked around Rhayader for coffee. The only place open this early on a Sunday is the Co-op, which has a Costa machine which is quite decent.

Smiles all round despite the weather and lack of sleep.

We were tired but had a feeling of immense accomplishment. We went into the bothy with an open mind. The party people had as much right to be there as we did so I didn’t feel it right to kick off with them as I normally would. That is the beauty of a bothy. You have no idea what you are going to get. We have decided we would definitely like to stay in another one but next time, one that’s further from a road, to prevent party people and also probably not on a Saturday night, also to mitigate against party people.