Bristol's Boats, Brighton Rocks and the Beacons Beckon

After dropping the van off for a new clutch I headed in to Bristol for the day to visit the SS Great Britain. This turned out to be fascinating and impressive - well worth the slightly steep admission fee. Whilst exploring the  reconstructed interior a couple of calls came through from the garage who had found a couple of issues with the gear box. However they were able to fit new input shaft bearings and syncromesh rings and skim the fly wheel and assured me that all would be well by late afternoon.
After completing my tour of Brunel's iconic vessel I took the Bristol Packet that runs through the docks for an interesting perspective on the flourishing waterside developments. By mid afternoon I was back to collect the old bus and settle a bill rather larger than initially anticipated but at least the work done should avoid any problems whilst over in Europe - other than the replacement roof this is the first serious money spent on the old girl in 7 years and 140,000 miles so with 257k miles on the clock I am more than content.
A weekend in Frome produced a very sociable pub session in Bath on the Friday night and two good walks in the surrounding countryside despite some heavy snow first thing Sunday and rather saturated farmland.
On Sunday I headed over to Farnham to see a long standing friend and his family as I felt it unlikely that I would be that far east again before heading south. His elder lad had an early flight one morning so we dropped him at Gatwick and headed down to Brighton on a crystal clear day. Simply seeing the Channel stirred my travel desires - December the 20th will see me crossing from Portsmouth to France on the next adventure. The temporary Eye observation wheel provided good photo opportunities before we enjoyed breakfast in a sun drenched cafe on the front.
Later I returned to Brecon with the van seemingly back on good form and settled down in the town car park as the fun fair filled the streets with neon and sound. A good walk on the Beacons today included meeting a few others on the summit of Pen y Fan from all corners of the globe : London, Bath, Vancouver and Nepal! Well done all of you for pushing on despite the summit mist. A few National Trust volunteers were maintaining the path over Cribbyn whilst far below in Cwm Sere a hunt was quartering the woodland and mountain flanks.
A short break oop north begins tomorrow after a brief GP check up so meanwhile enjoy the piccies here  and keep tabs on my location here