Introduction: Pen y Fan & Corn Du First Practice Walk

Pen y Fan & Corn Du, Brecon: First practice walk (29/4) in preparation for our national 3 peak challenge <24 hours we set out to achieve in late June this summer. 

Morgan, Rory and I headed up to Bannau Brycheiniog National Park early on Saturday morning to beat the weekend traffic and rush of walkers on what turned out to be a very sunny day- perfect for a hike in the Welsh countryside. There are two main routes that can be taken from the East of the summits of Corn Du and Pen y Fan connected by a ridge; the shorter but steeper ascent or the longer and shallow climb. We chose the former to most appropriately replicate the presumptive shallowest gradients experienced when we encounter the individual 3 peak climbs and to simulate the environmental conditions. 

Typically, it was sunny and with scattered clouds during the ascent but covered over as soon as we reached the two summits. As per the photos, we still managed to appreciate the panorama. 

(Left to right: Me (Harry), Morgan, Rory at Pen y Fan Summit) 

Taking the same linear route up and down we walked 7.45 km in 1hr 30 mins with an elevation gain just shy of 600 metres. As exam period approaches, we will resume our preparation around early June allowing ample time to climb some tougher and more challenging hills around South Wales whilst adhering to set criteria pertaining to pace and endurance to best train towards our challenge.

This blog will be a place for future updates and hopefully (WIFI-permitting determined by accommodation) a place to share all of our experiences, activities and involvement whilst in Uganda over July. We hope this will provide an insight into the culture, customs and life in Uganda and we look forward to you following our journey and actions as we help build playgrounds for an underprivileged primary school in Jinja, Uganda. Specific details will follow pre-departure and post-arrival.

Thank you for those who have already donated, this is highly appreciated and we owe you an invitation to read our journal. We would encourage that you spread the word about our trip and fundraising efforts to raise awareness of our aims.

To raise as much as we can to reach the target before the deadline, Rory and I will be street collecting in Cardiff Town Centre this Saturday along with members from Cardiff University also enrolled on the 3-31 July project within our cohort. Morgan will partake in street collecting in Bristol in a fortnight.

To read more about what our volunteering involves and donate, please visit my Just Giving page:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ugandeano

We hope you enjoy reading our journal over subsequent weeks.

Harry 😁