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| Rhayader hospitality at its best |
After about four miles we arrived at the Elan Valley, to be greeted by a gigantic dam, holding some of Birmingham's water supply. The reservoir is enormous, and as we rode up alongside it successive branches of the valley opened up, as well as another huge dam further up the valley. The scale of engineering is impressive - the dams are vast, and the water supply pipes go underground all the way to Birmingham, where we started our ride three days earlier. There's another big dam on a different branch of the valley. The lower end of the valley was overshadowed by towering hillsides, and as we climbed up the valley it opened out with ever changing views.
Turning left at the top had us joining the mountain road to Aberystwyth. We climbed gradually for another five miles, before reaching the head of the river Elan. On the way we had a memorable picnic stop sitting on a rock almost dangling our feet in the river. The sound and sparkle of the running water made it very special.
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| Picnic stop with spa |
Over the watershed and we joined Cwm Ystwyth - the Ystwyth valley, running down to, you've guessed it, Aberystwyth. It started as a typical narrow mountain valley and we passed old mine workings. Later we took a track - Lady's Walk - for a few miles through a mix of forest and what seemed to be grand gardens on several levels, but we didn't see a grand house.
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| The Mountain Road |
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| Lady's Walk (Hafod estate) |
Our planned lunch stop, after 25 miles, was unfortunately closed, but a kind lady opposite offered to fill our water bottles, and an emergency pack of mini malt loaves was deployed.
A bit later we joined a disused railway line, at great cost, because it was accessed by a very steep off-road track almost too steep to ride. The railway line was nice, through woodland, but eventually we were seduced off again by a village shop, where we had a late mini-lunch. Back on the railway line, we made good speed towards Aberystwyth although there were a few gaps in the track where something much more difficult (rough or steep) was substituted. After a long time, we arrived in Aberystwyth, hot, thirsty, hungry and happy to be there.
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| Arrived! The mouth of the river Ystwyth |
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| And the main town of Aberystwyth |
Aberystwyth has a lot going for it. It's an interesting and picturesque town, with an impenetrable one-way system. And no camp sites in the town. Our camp site was over a hill, 140 metres high - just what we didn't need after a long day. We contemplated catching the cliff railway with our bikes, which looked like a possibility, but we were too late in the day. It was an eco-campsite, and the instructions said something like, third field on the left with the impressive gate posts, camp wherever you like. It was a field. When I saw the Portaloo, I was a bit downhearted. When I saw the showers, inside a few bits of corrugated iron, I was somewhat alarmed. We had no confirmation that there was hot water on the site.
But it was all good, in a low-key way (it was styled as an eco campsite). There was a separate portacabin with loos, perfectly adequate. And the showers had a gas water heater. They were open-air, but fine. Nice, in a way, but maybe problematic if raining.
The farmers had been busy all week making hay in the sunshine. They were still at it at 10pm, just the other side of the hedge where we'd pitched our tents. But we were too tired to care, and they stopped, or we fell asleep, soon after. Then it was just the rooks keeping a vocal watch all night.
That was the end of our cycling tour. But part two of our trip was a train odyssey the very long way home through Wales. There was just one niggling problem: we had booked cycle reservations for all our journeys, but no cycle reservations had been printed when I collected the tickets from the machine. Something to worry about tomorrow.
More coming soon...
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