A walk in the park

 Storm Gertrude passed over slower than expected so yours truly and Spotty the action Berner got caught in the full might of storm force winds as we wended our merry way along a route called the Dragons Back in the Black Mountains. As ever Spotty took it all very seriously and rolled at every opportunity in anything he found that smelled different(read foul).

 Initially all was well with good visibility

 and we found the remains of a castle guarding the start of our route.

 The way ahead was straightforward enough

 with some mighty ups and downs and the clouds started descending as we got higher.

 Now what is hard to show is the strength of the wind.

 Spotty is standing nose to breeze as side on he was being blown over.

 Yours truly was finding it hard to breathe

 and this was not due to the steepness of the terrain, more the air was being sucked out of my lungs by the windspeed. Walking was an issue as picking up your foot meant it got blown to a different landing position than you were anticipating.

 The higher we got the more the weather threatened us

 Spotty is barely able to hang onto this rocky perch while

 he patiently waits for his fat biped companion.

 By this point we were making good progress and heading out into the wilderness

 with worse weather fast approaching it was going to be a race to get to the top of the next couple of mountains along, Pen Gader Fawr being the target, the highest peak.

But four miles out in horrendous conditions Spotty and I looked at each other and decided the bale out and head for home. Ahead, about a half mile away is the top but visibility was dire, the wind behind us meant turning to face Gertrude and a four mile trek with heads down trying to avoid the rain and hail and in all we were both wet, cold and hungry. The four miles back was very interesting, at one point having to rely on compass bearings and pacing to find the exact exit off the mountain. A lone boot print (mine) confirmed my  navigation success and soon we were back in a smelly damp but warm and wind proof Land Rover heading home for tea and medals!