South Wales - the re-match

It's official.  Summer is here.  In other news: summer (such as it was) has officially ended.  But we're promised some warm dry(ish) weather.  I have had a chip on my shoulder for a while since being rained upon for most of my ride along the beautiful South Wales coast.  Most of it passed me by in a grey grump.  I wanted to see south Wales in the sunshine, and here was my chance.

Consulting Brian and Mark, who grew up in the area, gave me a few ideas.  So I left home early on Saturday and boarded a train from Paddington to Newport.  That made me grumpy for a start:  stupid cycle storage which is also advertised as luggage, pushchair storage etc.  And no coffee service on the train.  But I arrived OK and joined the riverside path, finding myself in the middle of a Pride march for South Wales Gay Men's day.

Newport

Also Newport

My plan was to ride NCN47 across Wales, to Fishguard, and then up a bit to Newport, the other one by the sea.  NCN47 was Mark's idea, and it's quite adventurous, remote and hilly.  He used part of it last year to complete his ride across Britain.  I'm not sure if he did the first part though, which has an off-road section of 20 miles or so across the peak of a 600 metre mountain.  But it's on the

National Cycle Network,  so what could possibly go wrong?

Monmouthshire Canal.
One of a 14 lock staircase.

Disused railway line

Day 1 was excellent, and very varied, with hardly any road riding. Generally heading west, I took the disused Monmouth canal towpath out of Newport and over into the next valley, then caught a disused train line, also all tarmac, across another two valleys.  A mini-tour of industrial heritage.  Mostly high-up along the sides of the valleys - a very good thing, because they have very steep sides.  Eventually I reached the river Taff and went down the valley a bit: lovely, as I'd been climbing constantly since Newport. 

Steep sided valley in Treharris

Now it was the off-road section, through St Gwynmo Forest.  The surface was mostly pretty good but it was quite steep so slow going.  And there were three impassable gates which required the bike to be lifted over or through them, after removing all the luggage.  Poor show for an NCN route. It was sunny and warm, and at various times I had amazing views in all directions.  Definitely worth the effort.

I had given up hope of a tea stop by this time, as it was nearly all off road, and very remote.   But in a short stretch of road between two hills, I miraculously found an open pub. A pint and a large tuna roll for £6.50.  Great value.  And lovely friendly clientele who bombarded me with questions.  Where had I come from?  Where was I going?  Where was I staying?  That gorgeous South Wales accent.  And then inundated me with suggestions about routes and places to stay, all referenced to loads of places I'd never heard of and couldn't begin to guess how they were spelled.

Eventually I escaped the friendly inquisition, and began the biggest climb of the day, 300 metres ascent of very rough track.  It climbed through forest before following a valley upstream to a reservoir where there was also a wind farm on the adjacent hill.   The sun was getting low so I wild camped on a grassy verge beside the track, with a babbling  stream behind me and a few slugs and midges for company.

 

Day 2    Day 3