We planned our journey to include the Heart of Wales line which runs from Shrewsbury to Swansea, visiting many villages and valleys. Admittedly, it was a very long way to get home, but it wasn't that expensive, and as well as seeing some beautiful scenery from the train, it allowed us to revisit Shrewsbury outside of the rather hectic timetable of a bikepacking journey, spend a little time in Swansea, and rest our legs for two days, so by the time we got home our legs were already somewhat recovered. The journeys' schedules and duration made it impossible to get home by that route in one day, so we camped again at Shrewsbury on Friday night.
Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury
On day 5 (Friday), we got the train from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury. After sleeping extremely well in our Aberystwyth eco campsite, we reluctantly rode back over the huge hill to Aberystwyth and did a bit of sightseeing, including the inside of a cosy cafe, Sophie's Caffi, sampling some delicious Bara Brith. With the help of the station staff we sorted out our bike reservations and jumped on the train. Well, sort of groaned our way on board with our bikes.
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| Colour coordinated |
A lovely 2 1/2 hour journey to Shrewsbury took us along wide green valleys with big hills either side. They looked suspiciously familiar. We were on the Cambrian (rail) Line, which went to Machynlleth and then to familiar places like Caersws, Newtown and Welshpool, which we had ridden through earlier.
Finally Shrewsbury, somewhat cooler than our last sweltering visit, and still looking lovely in the sun. We pitched our camping stuff at the campsite and went back for a bit of grockling, this time venturing into the centre of Shrewsbury, and its complicated one way system round the narrow ancient streets. It's a fascinating place full of historic buildings.
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| Shrewsbury |
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| Dragon guarding the Welsh bridge |
Shrewsbury to Swansea - the Heart of Wales line
On Saturday, we lingered by the river in Shrewsbury before boarding our train.The journey takes 4 1/2 hours, and some of the 33 station names are befitting of fairy tales - Pen-y-bont, Pantyffinion, Cynghordy, ... You can imagine dragons living there. There were five people in our carriage of the train, which had two carriages and four bike spaces.
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| Farewell 11s stop |
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| (picture from Wikipedia) |
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| Ready to go |
We passed through Church Stretton in the Shropshire Hills AONB, some big hills including the imposing Long Mynd, which makes your legs hurt just looking at it. After Craven Arms, the line divides between the quick route and the Heart of Wales line, which is single track with the old rails that make the diddly-dum noise. With the engines racing to power the train up the hills, it was a full audio-visual experience. Outside, a clear blue sky with few wisps of high cloud, and fifty shades of green from fields, hills, hedges and trees. The train was one of those with actual opening windows, so we were cooled by a pleasant breeze as we chugged along.
One two, skip a few ... we didn't stop at every station as some are request stops. Just before Knighton, we spotted our first dragon, then another - we were in Wales! One of the bridges had stone castle turrets on the ends - it turned out to be the Knucklas Viaduct. Below us, lanes curled up into the hills, inviting you to ride.
There was no buffet trolley on the train, but we had come prepared with a selection of snacks for 11s, lunch, and tea, to ensure cycling touring standards were upheld. At Llandrindod Wells, the first of four spa towns on the line, the train had a little rest for 25 minutes, and we were able to sit on the platform and eat our picnic lunch. I recounted to Alan how Brian and I were there a year ago, sheltering from a downpour. The train coming the other way came in, also had a little rest, and went on it's way. I think the drivers swapped over too. Eventually we were on our way again.
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| Cynghordy viaduct (picture from Brian and my trip last year) |
After another tunnel and a longish viaduct, we emerged from mountain country to gentler farming country, with its own market towns. Only another 13 stops! After a few more stops we were in a more populated area, and the train filled up with as many as a dozen passengers, heading into Swansea (at 4pm) for a Saturday night on the town... these guys and girls know how to party! Once in Swansea, it took us a while to find somewhere that wasn't a pub full of Saturday afternoon revellers, before our train home from Swansea to London. Our train was diverted along the Severn via Gloucester, a nice circular ending to our trip where we had encountered the Severn so many times.
The whole trip was a great success with captivating, ever-changing landscape, varied riding, successful camping and great company with Alan - thank you Alan!
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