South Wales Day 3: Fishguard or bust - or both?

It's been such a varied ride.   The industrial heritage of the valleys; the wild outdoors and mountains of the Gwynmo Forest; seaside Wales, the Millennium cycleway and a glimpse of the cities; and then today was a tour of the lush agricultural land around Carmarthen  before, surprisingly, traversing moors and fells.

My GPS told me that there were five Climbs on day one.  It's choosy: not all hills count.  Day two had zero Climbs - shocker - although it was still a very hilly day.  Today had ten Climbs, which was worrying.

I slept like a log in my disused campsite, waking up just before dawn to very wet grass and a damp tent, which soon dried in the warm sun.  It was already sweltering when I set off after breakfast in Carmarthen, almost immediately encountering steep hills.  The landscape is reminiscent of west Devon or Cornwall, with small lanes winding across steep hills and valleys.  For a change, I was on roads for the while day, but I hardly saw a car outside of the villages, and towns.  The farmers were all busy mowing or turning hay, everywhere you looked.

By lunchtime I was gasping, and running out of water.  I went past several closed pubs (Monday lunchtime doesn't seem to be peak drinking time).  Outside one of them, a kind gentleman filled my bottles, and then gave me directions to Fishguard.  Well-meaning but not useful, as his route probably used the main road.  By now it was 28 degrees, and eventually I found and raided a Spar.

After twenty miles of beautiful tortuous lanes and torturous hills, the landscape changed completely,  to grand open moorland with giant hills, more like the lakeland fells.  Gorgeous, expansive views,  and luckily I was often following ridges or valleys, with long gentle descents and climbs.  It was lovely.  But exposed to the sun, so very hot.   

The sea!

When I started this trip, I had the bright idea of returning across Wales, a bit further north, to Ryayader, the Elan Vslley, Hay on Wye, the Gospel Pass, and back south to the coast, subject to legs and weather.   By now my legs had made their decision.  Every hill required bottom gear.  My feet hurt.   My hands hurt.  My shoulders hurt.  Sweat was dripping off my nose.  Another time, maybe.

Ten miles to go.  I saw the sea!  The last three Climbs, and when I was a mile or so from Fishguard,  in Llanychaer, there was an open pub.  I couldn't resist.  Even better  there was a campsite opposite.  In a jumbled rush, I pitched my tent, dumped my bags, drank a couple of pints (soft drinks), showered, and turned from a repulsive sweaty blob into a human being again.  Food was an eat-in takeaway pizza (eaten out of a cardboard box in the shop in Fishguard).

Fishguard harbour

A big day, a bit too hot but glorious scenery.  Back home tomorrow.  171 miles, around 171 hills, three nights camping (including two wild camps), and 3400 metres of ascent.   It's been a great ride in wonderful weather, and I've loved seeing a bit more of Wales - even the hills.   Thank you Wales, and the wonderful Welsh people, for your welcome.

PS.  Day 4

See the sights of Fishguard, visit several coffee shops to fill the time, return by train from Fishguard to Cardiff on a sweltering train (not good after camping - I'm glad nobody sat next to me), Cardiff to Reading to Southall & ride home.  Total mileage about 10 miles.

Note the inscription above the door

Fishguard harbour & Pembroke coast

"Cycle space" on train from Fishguard - grrr!

Day 1   Day 2

South Wales day 2: to Carmarthen

I slept well at my lofty camp spot, and woke around dawn to find everything covered in dew, including hundreds of little cobwebs in the grass.  Beautiful.   A bit more climbing to the summit, then a 15 mile descent, which was quite hairy on a road bike with luggage.  Much gravel kicked up by wind farm construction traffic, and a stretch of grass with rocky outcrops.  But not as bad as my worst fears, and I was able to ride down most of it.

 

Sensible gate

Grassy descent, a bit rocky and scary.

More spectacular views (no photos), into the sun towards Neath and the sea.

At Neath I had a lengthy breakfast before heading down to the coast on smooth, flat tarmac, revisiting the coastal route into Swansea, looking lovely in the sun, and then out along the bay before riding across the 'neck' of the Gower peninsula to Gowerton, a very enjoyable ride with a bonus pub stop at the Railway Inn.  The (disused) railway was, surprisingly,  the London, Midland and Scottish railway, from Swansea to Shrewsbury.

Swansea

The Railway Inn (in hindsight, a
pic of the pub would have been helpful)

Gowerton,  with fishermen

After Gowerton was a familiar and enjoyable bit of coast path to Llanelli, with a surprisingly quiet beach.  The route then turned north east through the Swiss Valley Trail, a name to strike fear into any heavily-loaded cyclist's heart, and then onto another disused railway which chugged its way constantly upwards in a cool tree-lined route, to around 200 metres, before releasing me to descend to the river Towy valley.

By now I was hot, hungry, tired and without a place to stay for the night.  Two possible campsites were not contactable, although, to be fair, it was 6pm on a Sunday.  I decided to aim for the farm campsite near Carmarthen.   It looked basic, with mediocre ratings, but it was near enough to Carmarthen to have a night on the town.

When I got there, the farm was deserted.  Abandoned.  Obviously not a going concern.  The camping field was still there, with rusting electrical hookups, but everything rose was locked and disused.  I decided to camp anyway, in the foot-high grass.

The tent was still there when I returned from a slap-up meal in Carmarthen,  where I met a lovely local couple, cyclists and NHS A&E workers, who gradually coaxed the story of what I was doing and my whole coastal trip out of me.  Again they came in with a series of "have you been to X", or "did you go through Y", naming places I'd either never heard of, or didn't recognise the pronunciation of.

Campsite, just before sunrise

Day 1    Day 3

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.

 

Post Script:   Someone has done a video of this stretch of the route here.

Day 2    Day 3

Bike-packing northwards - a man without a plan, and two new tents

It's been a while.   Weather, more weather and various commitments conspired to stop me going camping for many months.   I passed the time by watching camping videos and browsing camping websites, with inevitable results.   So I had some new gear to try out.  As soon as a few days without much rain were forecast, I set off.  The general idea was to head north, but also to see how I got on without a grand plan of where to stop, where to eat etc.   This actually worked reasonably well.

Day 1: Reading to Aynho

Caught a train to Reading to avoid the London sprawl, and almost immediately I was on the downs (and ups) of south Oxfordshire, on empty leafy lanes.  Brunch at Wallingford, where the ford across the river Walling has been replaced by a long single-lane bridge with traffic lights, not ideal on a heavily laden bike.  Then through chocolate-box villages on slightly flatter lanes as I headed north; a mid-afternoon snack from a Co-op in Wheatley was actually eaten in a very nice bus shelter at Kidlington.   I visited Somerton, where my uncle used to be rector of the church: vague memories of family visits there.    It was time to look for camp sites, and here the lack of planning started to become a bit of a problem.  There were none on my route, so a detour was called for, a bit of a shock as I rode along a busy and hilly A road for a few miles, ending up at a campsite in a pub at Clifton, near Aynho.   A campsite in a pub?  What's not to like?   Well, the pub was unfortunately shut on a Sunday evening, but the kind campsite lady served me a pint as she took my camping money, and I cooked a meal at the campsite.

Lanes north of Reading

Clifton Hampden

Ah yes, the new tents.   The first new tent was a bit of a disappointment, although my expectations were low.   Advertised on AliExpress as a two-person ultra-light tent for £2.87, I thought it was too good to be true, but also too good not to try.   When it turned up it was indeed ultra-light but not a tent.   A misleading page on AliExpress had different pictures of the different components, and I had unknowingly ordered a bag for tent pegs.   I complained to AliExpress about the misleading webpage, and they agreed and refunded my money - so I gained a free tent peg bag.  But I'd also been looking forward to my new tent for a few weeks, and this gained some momentum that led me to buy another tent, a Naturehike Mongar 2 man tent for about £90.  This was very much as advertised, very easy to set up and extremely roomy - you could actually get two people inside it quite easily, unlike most two-man tents.

Tent one

Tent two

Day 2:  Aynho to Haseley Knob

The day started well with another kind camper offering me a cup of tea.   He was a past cycle tourer and so we swapped stories about trips.   Another dry day, with another annoying headwind.  I was in Cotswold country, with villages of golden stone.  I meandered north towards Banbury, still on very quiet and scenic lanes.   A cafe in town provided a good breakfast, where I also smoked a couple of cigarettes, entirely by passive smoking.  To the north, I passed a bunch of colourful marquees, which I later realised was probably the Cropredy festival.   Nice countryside but not many cafes.  Eventually I found a village shop at Bishop's Itchington which had expanded into a lovely cafe.  Highly recommended.  I was now in Warwickshire, and maybe the character had changed from little winding lanes to rather straighter and faster roads, but still almost no traffic as I stayed off the main roads. 

Banbury

Shotteswell

The Offchurch Greenway, leading into Leamington

In the afternoon, I rode through beautiful Leamington Spa, but my route seemed to bypass the nice bits of Warwick through various housing estates.  Again I was a little bit stuck for camp sites, with the possibility of quite a long ride to two unpromising "camping parks".   Just then, I passed a dilapidated sign advertising B&B and camping, and my luck was in.  The elderly owner (even older than me) usually only accepted camper vans, but made an exception for me.  Warm showers and soft grass - and a pub a couple of miles down the road, serving beer but no food.

My meal that evening was not a great success.  I probably made a couple of mistakes cooking a dehydrated meal:  I didn't open the packet enough so didn't add enough water up to the measuring mark, and secondly, despite stirring well, there were some areas where I hadn't reached, meaning a very dry and partly powdery meal.  It was heavy going.

Day 3: Haseley Knob to Kidderminster

Part 2

Part 1

The campsite owner didn't do B&B any more since losing his wife, but recommended a cafe on the Grand Union Canal nearby at Hatton, a lovely spot to have breakfast, watching a few boats come past and chatting to the canal volunteers.  I planned to by-pass Birmingham to the south and west.  I was now heading west, directly into the wind and drizzle.  I was now in Worcestershire, which didn't impress me much.  The views were terrible, just grey everywhere.   The roads were still quiet, although rather lumpy and wet.  I stopped for 11s at a very busy bakery in Studley, where every other customer seemed to have a newborn baby.  It must have been something in the yeast.   Then just a few miles further on, I passed a Wetherspoons in Redditch and could not resist another stop.

Breakfast at Hatton top lock cafe

My Garmin had been playing up, refusing to give turn by turn directions and unhelpfully telling me it was 14,000 miles to my destination.  Struggling on westwards through Bromsgrove and eventually to Stourport-on-Severn, a nice looking town with a fiendish one-way system with many lanes.   It was quite hard to navigate on a bike, but I found a tea stop and started to think about camp sites.  The rain had stopped by now and the sun was out again.  I found my way onto the beautiful Staffs & Worcs canal, passed through Kidderminster without seeing much of it, and onto a campsite just to the north, at Wolverley.  It was a Camping and Caravanning Club site, which I was not looking forward to (since some sites don't accept non-members), but it was very welcoming and very reasonably priced (£13, special back-packer rate).   Also helpfully situated right by a canal-side pub which did great food.

Staffordshire & Worcestershire canal

Kidderminster from the canal

Day 4: Kidderminster to Wem

Part 3

Part 2

Part 1

The day started well, as I accidentally found a community cafe right near the campsite, while looking for another one that was in fact shut.  The sun was shining, I was well-fed, and for the first time I had a tail wind to help me along.   I had to go over a rather large hill to get back into the Severn valley, and then up the Severn along NCN45, which started out enticingly flat and with a tarmac surface, but as soon as I left the Severn Valley Park, it turned into a cyclo-cross trail with annoying obstacles such as a ford and bicycle gates, just before 30% slopes.  It was impossible to get started to ride up them.   This rather lumpy track was following the Avon Valley Railway, but did not have the same smooth gradient.  I entered Shropshire somewhere around here, and after a while I came into Bridgnorth for a lunch in a tiny, excellent cafe.  Superb lemon meringue pie.  Bridgnorth is a very hilly town: one of the pavements I saw had a staircase on it.   

Crossing the Severn

Bridgnorth

Ironbridge

My original plan was to go to Telford, but I realised that the only reason I wanted to go there was to see Ironbridge, not quite the same place, so I revised my route to go to Ironbridge instead, following the river Severn upstream.  Ironbridge is a pretty place with the eponymous bridge, but very touristy.   I didn't stop long but instead headed for Shrewsbury, a beautiful city in the middle of a loop on the river.  Once again it has a difficult one-way system, which made it hard to explore on a bike.  Unfortunately I had a puncture on the way into town, and then couldn't satisfactorily inflate the replacement tube, so I was looking for a bike shop, a cafe, and also a campsite, and failed to find any of them, so I was a bit stressed.   Eventually I joined a nose-to-tail queue of traffic out of town to the north in the hope of finding an open bike shop, and succeeded.  The very friendly owner pumped up my tyre, which had been running at 20psi, told me about the Tesco Express just up the road, looked after my bike while I went to buy tea, and then stood and chatted with me as I ate it.  Thank you.

With two of my three needs satisfied, I had to find a campsite.  The only one nearby was a naturist site.  In my desperation, I wondered if they would accept clothed campers.   Would they have communal showers?   I had so many questions!   Luckily I found another site a bit further north which was OK, a family-oriented site, very different to the other sites I'd been on with lots of noise, and a cafe / disco serving beer and jumbo hot dogs.

Day 5: Wem to Delamere

By now I'd decided that my destination for this ride would be Chester, and then back to Crewe to catch the train home.   I headed north; 11s at Whitchurch, passed from Shropshire to Cheshire somewhere around here; and continued north on rather undulating roads until I joined the Shropshire Union Canal taking me into the heart of Chester, a very lovely city with lots to see, including a particularly nice Wetherspoons, the Square Bottle.  Somehow I again found it hard to sight-see with a loaded bike: the one-way system didn't go the way I wanted it (I guess it's designed to get all the traffic out of town) and walking any distance is not easy with panniers etc.

Cheshire countryside house

Entry to Chester

Chester

So after seeing some of the city, I reminded myself that I was on a cycling trip and got back on the bike heading east, and another Camping & Caravanning Club site near a lake at Delamere.   Another lovely site with a pub just down the road but some very rowdy geese that kept flying around overhead rather noisily at nightfall.  It was quite comical: just as soon as the squawking died down, another flock would fly over - or maybe it was the same one doing training circuits.   A very warm night, I don't think the temperature got below about 20 degrees.

One of three beautiful old foot bridges
at Hockenhull Platts nature reserve

I later discovered that these bridges are part of a medieval road from London to Holyhead: "Platts Lane was once a segment of the medieval road stretching from London to Holyhead. In 1353, Edward, the Black Prince, upon crossing the bridges, decreed that 20 shillings be allocated for their maintenance. By the 17th century, the road's condition had deteriorated to such an extent that posts were embedded within it to obstruct cart traffic, rendering it passable only to pedestrians and horseback riders. Consequently, goods were transported in processions of packhorses under the guidance of a driver, or jagger, on foot. Notable crossings include the journey of Celia Fiennes, an early female explorer, over the bridges in 1698, and that of Thomas Pennant in 1780. Hockenhull Platts, Tarvin, Cheshire, England."

Day 6:  Delamere to Crewe and home

I planned to ride to nearby Crewe via Winsford and Nantwich.   I had about 30 miles to ride and all day to do it, since I'd booked a very cheap ticket leaving Crewe at 17.15.

Winsford was a great disappointment, being defined by the massive A54 and a few industrial buildings.   Maybe I missed the nice bit.   But Nantwich is lovely, so I was able to idle away an hour there.  Eventually I gave up exploring by bike and locked the bike while I walked around trying (in vain) to find a suitable cafe, before riding across to Crewe for more time-wasting and catching the train to London, all very smooth.

Nantwich

The trip was planned using the cycle.travel website, and I found it very easy to use on a phone.  It seems to pick routes that are very suitable for me (it has settings for how much off-road you like etc), and it's very easy to update routes on the go and to save them to Garmin Connect, which in turn transfers them to a Garmin.   There's also a cycle.travel app, which I think allows you to navigate directly from your phone, but I haven't tried that.   I used ukcampsite.co.uk to find campsites each night, and that seemed to work well.  It was all pretty successful.  About 340 miles and 4,600m of climbing.

Post Script:   on the train home from Waterloo, I shared a bike space with a young chap with a mountain bike.   He saw my panniers and asked about my trip.  It turns out that he is a keen bike tourer and has ridden all over the world on multi-month trips.   He had loads of fascinating stories.  This year he is thinking of re-visiting Africa to ride up the Nile to Ethiopia, and also doing a circuit of the Himalayas, trying to make Nepal as the 100th country he's visited.   Maybe I still have a few things to aspire to.