We
awoke at 7am to sunshine and beautiful morning skies. The forecast was for rain
by late morning, however, and I was keen to make as much progress as possible in
the dry. The first part of the ride was a steady and long ride to Bryn y Fedwen,
following an 8 mile gradual descent into the town of Machynlleth. Liam elected
to dismantle camp with Fabian and the three of us cyclists were on the road by
8.30am. After cycling more than 120 miles over the last 2 days, the previous
evening was the sorest I had felt in many years. Today was slightly better but
we also made sure we used special cycling cream to aid our padded shorts. This
was a wise move and the soreness lessened from this point on.
The
climb was initially steady, but as we travelled through Hafren Forest the hills
became more challenging. Tom led, climbing all the way to the top of
the pass, while Jonny and I elected to reserve our energy and walk part of the
way. Liam had elected to reserve even more energy and met us with Fabian at the
top of the pass, his bike ready for the long decent. The decent was preceded by
amazing views across the Cambrian Mountains, which stretch across mid
Wales. The long descent was a fabulous tour of the beautiful countryside with
no effort involved. However, the spots of rain were becoming more frequent and
the clouds were getting darker. As we stopped in Machynlleth to consider having
lunch or moving on, a local commented to us: 'Better find a pub, you’re going
to get wet soon’. We didn’t follow his advice, however, and decided to cycle onto
Dolgellau (somehow renamed Doggy-log), but he was right… we were about to get
very wet!
This
stretch was tough. It started well, with lovely quiet tracks along a
river, but as we travelled to the village of Corris the showers were getting
heavier and more frequent. We were trying to avoid getting soaked, so would
take shelter anywhere we could. It was while waiting for one of these showers to pass
that Liam noticed a bubbling noise coming from underneath my front tyre; the
first puncture of our trip, although thankfully a very slow one. We continued
east to the village of Aberllefenni and then north through a steep-sided valley
which had, at the very top, a magnificent man-made cave - the entrance to slate
mines that obviously at one time sustained the local community. It was now
derelict with gigantic piles of slate scattered at the base. We remarked that
it felt like 'Lord of the Rings' as we passed underneath the Mines of Moria into
the Misty Mountains.
The
road soon became a path and continued steeply up the rocky and barren valley.
This was one of our most difficult climbs, with all four of us pushing our bikes and frustration being felt by all. As we neared the top, and could see the
forest ahead, the air became cooler, the wind picked up and a dark cloud
seemed to be following us up the valley - heavy rain was coming! Although
shattered, we pushed our bikes as quickly as we could up the hill towards the
trees to get some sort of shelter. Although we didn’t quite make it, we managed
to shelter ourselves under scattered pine trees from the heaviest part of the
shower. However, we were wet, cold, hungry - and still some miles from Dolgellau.
The negative feeling was then compounded as, coming down the hill, Jonny’s tire
blew and the whole team ground to a halt. Thankfully, we were near a main road,
Fabian was only a few miles away and for once we had telephone reception! 15 minutes later Fabian came to the rescue with the van. We parked off the road and were able to pull out the awning and make our repairs out of the rain. Amazingly, Tom cooked a great lunch of pasta, bacon, sausage and beans. Bikes now repaired, the team fed and warm(er), we cycled on over the hill into the pretty town of Dolgellau.
As we entered the town, we spotted the biggest and darkest cloud we had yet seen. We unanimously agreed to take shelter in the town as shoppers continued their business about the streets. This decision proved a wise one as the heavens opened (not for the first time this trip) and everybody ran for cover. The wind and rain were so strong that the water blew under the arches where we were sheltered. As soon as the rain stopped, we were back on our bikes heading for the River Mawddach, up the estuary and out onto the coast. We were finally leaving the hills behind us.
Not
only was this ride along a lovely flat path up the estuary, but the
showers took a break and the sun came out. As we travelled towards the 15O year-old Barmouth Bridge, we all shared a real sense of bliss as the cold wind and
rain turned into a warm sea breeze. We paused on the bridge and considered
contacting Fabian to arrange camp here (as was originally planned) but
decided to continue 10 miles up the coast, as the original day 4 route was over
70 miles, and we wanted to make the last day more manageable. This sense of
harmony was spoilt, however, when a motorist decided to throw a Custard
Cream at Tom! Sadly, this was not the only time when a young motorist decided
to abuse one of us for no apparent reason - just because we happened to be on
bikes, I presume - so strange and little pathetic I think ... at the very least, a waste of a good biscuit!
The
road was quick and the wind was behind us as we beat the incoming rain to
our campsite in Llanfair. Just as we put up the tents, strong wind and
torrential rain came in, dampening the spirit of our planned barbeque - but we were
mostly dry and with ¾ of the journey completed ...
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