10th March 2025

The weather in the UK had been dry for well over a week, and it was predicted to remain dry for at least another week, though a little cool with frosts at night. So, we decided to take our first camping trip of the year in our VW T5. We packed the thick duvet. Of course, as soon as we had booked, mysterious snowflakes appeared in the forecast. We set off quite early, hoping to have Sunday lunch somewhere. Our preferred pub, the Hundred House Inn, appeared to be closed, having shut at the end of November after a recent renovation. It appears to be on the market for £525,000. So, we selected another pub, the Fforest Inn, but alas, we hadn’t booked and there was no room. We drove up to Penybont and tried the Severn Arms Hotel. Here, we were able to eat and had a Welsh Sunday lunch. The turkey and beef were carved from generous joints. There were excellent Yorkshire Puddings and masses of vegetables. Perhaps too many?? It was a good Sunday lunch.

We headed to the Fforest Fields campsite to check in. Nobody was there; we just had to go to Reception to write down the pitch number against our booking details. The shop on site had plenty of basics, all paid for through an honesty box. There were a few campers, who disappeared during the week, leaving only us and one other. On Thursday, a few more started to arrive for the weekend. Despite the lack of campers, the shower block was open and was delightfully warm (underfloor heating!) at any time of the day.

Tradition dictates a bottle of fizzy wine on our first night, but we were both too full of Sunday lunch. We did comply with the traditional walk up to the Lookout. Bit misty.

The campsite-come-farm crew were always there in the morning, having coffee and preparing for the day’s work ahead, which appeared to be quarrying and rebuilding some of the roads and paths.

Most days we managed breakfast and lunch outside. But it was cold, with very frosty mornings (yes, we even used the diesel heater) when ice accumulated on the awning. During our stay, we went for walks into the village and above the campsite. I did several 10km walks and explored several paths and tracks I had not done before. On one particular day, the red kites and buzzards were very much in evidence. We even found the Medieval Fforest Wood Castle, an ancient ditched motte castle-type monument in the wood above the campsite. We had never known of its existence; someone must have recently placed it on Google Maps, where R spotted it.

The main boating lake was quite bare around the edges, before the vegetation grows up. There were quite a few coots and mallards, plus a pair of swans. The swans proceeded to build a nest, and one was sitting on it on the final day. Coots had possession of the smaller lake, near the yurts, where we watched them chase off a pair of Canada Geese.

On our last night, I was up early in the morning, just before 5 am, to view a partial lunar eclipse. Unfortunately, the clouds came in quickly, so there was little time to see it. One of the campsite/farm workers had done a lot better with his eclipse viewings than I did.