2 Nights @ Pontsticill Reservoir & Hirwaun | Winter Wild Camping

A very eventful wet winter wild camping trip in the Brecon Beacons at two locations. The first night we spent at Ponsticill reservoir and the second near the village of Hirwaun. We put a hammock, an ultralight tent and hot tent against each other. Me, Drufus and his staffordshire bull terrier dog spent (almost) two nights up the Brecon Beacons. The first night was spent in some ruins by Ponsticill reservoir, the second by the woods near Hirwaun in a hot tent. Our plans were scuppered at every turn by lots of different things. Mountain wild camping is one of our favourite ways to go but there’s so many sleeping options it can get confusing. Which option would you prefer to camp out in – the hammock (1.85kg), ultralight tent (1.6kg) or hot tent (4kg with stove)?

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We headed to the Upper Neaudd reservoir but instead were greeted with a massive tree blocking the road. We ended up camping next to Pontsticill reservoir. I got hold of a new hammock in the sales so took it out for my first try. I didn’t have an underquilt so I took a sheepskin rug to help with thermal insulation. I took my tent as back up which was a good shout as I got a bit cold in the middle of the night. Drufus purchased himself a Lightwave T10 which he paired with a Sea2Summit air bed, quilt and bivvy bag.

For the second night we could hear the council getting to work on tree with chainsaws so walked back to check it out. Unfortunately it looked like they would be working on it for a good few more hours so we drove back to another site we know of. I swapped the hammock out for the wood stove and we got a nice fire going. The first spot we looked at was being claimed by a group of horses who we didn’t want to disturb. There was some heavy rain in the evening and we had more than one disaster. The tent got close to being burned down and my chimney got even more wrecked. To top it all off we heard the announcement that if we stayed there all of the final night it would have been illegal to leave the mountains😵!

What finished this camping trip off was a little upsetting so I’ve added it as an extra bonus video not for the faint of heart 😅

Chapters:
Intro 0:00
Scuppered Plans 0:21
Hammock Setup 1:22
Lightwave T10 4:06
Tarp Setup 5:05
Bivvy Bag 6:13
Swinging Freely 7:11
Night Plans 7:43
The Rain Has Begun 8:43
ALL The Food 9:01
The Hammock 10:47
Morning Brew 11:17
Heading to Second Site 11:31
The Woods 12:28
Horsey Hill 12:39
Tent Setup 13:01
Wood Stove Setup 13:43
Coffee Press Broke 14:32
Harvesting Wood 15:05
Beautiful Views 15:18
Expose Your Rear End 15:29
Spring Water Collecting 16:02
Hot Tent 16:49
Disaster 17:57
Up In Flames 18:34

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