JUNE 2023 · ADVENTURE
Upper Neuadd Reservoir - Last minute Evacuation
Upper Neuadd Reservoir, Bannau Brycheiniog
Upper Neuadd Reservoir was built in 1896. When the water level is low enough the original valley floor is exposed — flat grassland on what were once islands in the reservoir, surrounded by the exposed mud shoreline. The plan was to camp there. The site was good. The access was good. The weather was reasonable.
A soundsystem party had got there first. They were set up on the flat ground and audible before I reached the dam.
I stayed and I shot what was there. The tents — three of them, pitched between rusted metalwork from the dam infrastructure, red and grey against the old iron. The rusted debris is not tidied away; it sits on the grassland near the dam face, bolts and brackets and sections of mechanism that belong to the original construction. The tents sat next to this without ceremony.
The mountains sat above it all with complete indifference.
Upper Neuadd Reservoir — June 2023
The stream that feeds the valley cuts through the moorland in a clean line, the banks low and even, the water clear over pale stones. Above the valley: mountains with distinct geological striations, the layers visible in the rock face as if the hillside had been cross-sectioned. The scarring isn't damage — it's just the geology made visible.
The yellow tent in the conifer trees on the slope above. Someone had moved further from the noise. Sensible.
By the time I left the bass was carrying across the water to the far shore and back. The mountains sat above it all with complete indifference. One of the more accurate photographs of Bannau Brycheiniog I've taken.
Small grey tent pitched on a hillside in the Brecon Beacons
Abandoned wood and metal debris scattered on grassland
Red tent amid rusted metalwork on a mountain hillside
Valley landscape with stream running through moorland
Dramatic ridged mountains with distinct geological striations
Yellow tent sheltered beneath tall conifer trees with valleys beyond