Well what a weekend, we drove up to my brothers Friday afternoon, dashed across to the outlet to purchase some base layers, and they were an essential purchase. We decided to tackle Lord Hereford's Knob, a mountain in the Black Mountains, so Saturday morning found us driving, and alarmingly the temp outside the car dropped to -2, very cold, on the cold index it was classed as chuffing cold! The climb was good through some gorgeous scenery, we set out at around 9am and arrived at the top around 12.30, the views were stunning, below us as you can see was the cloud base, up on top we found a little dip and set up our cookers for Meatballs in sauce with egg fried rice and pitta bread, and of course hot coffee from our flasks, it was bitterly cold on top and standing still quickly led to a drop in body temperature, so luckily where we cooked gave us some protection from the cold icy wind. We got back to the car at around 3ish and headed to Llanthony Priory, the ruins of a 12th century abbey, which has a tiny litle bar, where we had a hot cup of tea and mince pie.
Sunday saw us in the Waterfalls area, followed a drive over two massive peaks, we paused at the top of one to watch 3 lunatics throw themselves off using hang gliders, what was off putting were the memorials to those who had died, right where they took off! I was heard to comment "bugger off if you think I will ever do that" just before they took off, which changed to "i want some of that" by the time the hang glider had swept past us at speed!
The weekend was ended with my brother cooking a superb lunch of boiled bacon, roast potatoes, creamed leeks, brussels, parsnips and another green vegetable, which was duly demolished, trouble is brussels do have an effect, and the journey for Ian and I home was a contest to see who could gas the other!