Just because the map says 'bridleway' does not necessarily mean 'this will be a nice route to cycle rather than walk'.

I should probably learn this lesson, and do more google maps spying when planning stuff (in fairness, I had done some...).  Especially when the bridleway in question is on top of a small Welsh hill where it's been raining on and off for a few days...

Builth Wells to Erwood, along the Wye Valley Walk. Starts off on country roads and tracks (including some steep bits which I walked). Then you get further up the hill, and the path heads off road onto the common. 

And staying on the bike becomes impossible, as it's so boggy underfoot.  This is also not ideal when wearing trainers, which are definitely not in any way waterproof.  Soggy muddy feet, lovely...

Getting back on the bike to head down the other side of the hill: again not brilliantly sensible.  Always fun to have both sets of brakes lock up, both wheels caked in mud sliding in all directions all over the place, and realise that the only way of stopping is to fall off the bastard thing.  Muddy bum.  Ouch

Needless to say, I was quite glad to reach actual solid road again!  Even if it did involve a short section of A470 (ie getting overtaken by lorries - luckily a wide section of road so not too scary) before turning off over Erwood bridge to head back to Builth on the quieter B4567.

mmm, traffic free cycle path

This also forms part of NCN8, aka Lon Las Cymru.  I've got the guidebook for that too, because I like guidebooks and it follows the Wye between Llangurig and Glasbury...  The book's dual language too, which is quite cool - English and Cymraeg, which I understand about 10 words of.  haha

Anyway, I digress.  The cycle back was a lot quicker than the walk/cycle out.  As in, took just under half of the time...  The final mile into Builth is on a lovely traffic free section of cycle path.

My Wye progress bar currently says 82%.  This is based on a total distance of 220km. however, having looked at what's left to do, it's actually going to end up nearer 240km in total, so I need to tweak my code a bit!  I will speculate where I've gained nearly 10% from at a later point.

One Comment

This is the river Teifi between Llandysul and Henllan falls, as captured by my dinky little gps:

Afon Teifi, Llandysul to Henllan (right to left!)

Surprisingly accurate! I was expecting it to be all over the place, what with being buried inside my bouyancy aid.  Though I have tidied up some of the messy squiggly bits at the start and end, and also where I swam (oops) and where I portaged the evil weir (which I think everyone else ran anyway, but I was having a rubbishy day so wasn't going to risk it).

As with last year's Teifi Tour we headed over in the daytime on Friday... but with the added faff of driving all over the place looking at low/empty rivers on the way.  Could have had a few runs of the Llandysul slalom course, but had slightly lost the will to live by that point, as well as being in need of food and drink!

Saturday's Teifi paddle (ie that squiggle just up there) was alright.  Grim and drizzly, and for whatever reason I felt like I was paddling awfully, so generally not as good as last year.  Once again didn't even bother trying the boily mess that is Henllan falls. ah well, maybe next time...

We stayed in the same cottage as last year, but this time with added fancy dress.  Alchohol was consumed, the cakepops were eaten, and fun was had by all.

On Sunday I was not entirely in a state to do anything involving other people (bah), so went for a short walk along the Tywi whilst the rest of the group paddled it. 

Once they were done with that, a crack team of 'advanced paddlers' went for a run of the upper section, just below Llyn Brianne.

A lot bigger than it looks

Obviously no-one went near the spillway itself, as that would be naughty and silly. (and I actually do mean that).  It was getting dark by the time they eventually arrived at the get out - no-one was expecting us to have put a pumpkin on the bridge too greet them though!

No Comments

Evenings this week have been filled with the surprisingly time consuming process of making these:

Cakepops!  Pumpkins and ghosts.  15 of each, ready for a trip to Wales this weekend.  If they survive the journey without the other occupants of the car eating them all, that is...

No Comments