Rescuers in the Carmarthen district have thanked a local farmer who used one of his farm quads to help locate walkers who had lost their way. The mountain rescue team was alerted when four women walkers from Oxford, who had only a guidebook, became lost in the Usk Reservoir region of the Brecon Beacons National Park.
Nine members of the mountain rescue team, along with the farmer, set out to look for the lost walkers as it started to get dark. The women had stopped at the farm earlier in the day asking for directions but the farmer became worried about them and set out to look for them on one of his farm quads. He found them using a light one of the women had turned on with her mobile phone; the farmer then contacted the mountain rescue team with their exact location. The rescue team used two quad bikes of their own to reach the lost party and recover them, along with the farmer’s own quad bike.
The mountain rescue team’s deputy leader, Mark Jones, stressed the importance of having the right equipment when out walking. Basics should always include a compass, map and torch. Praising the local farmer, Mr Jones said the team was extremely grateful for his help in locating the women who were exhausted and cold but none the worse for their experience. The party was very distressed by the time help located them and it was a bitterly cold night, without the intervention of the farmer, the outcome could have been much worse.