“Visiting Friends and Family” – the tick-box on the Australian Immigration form. A join-the-dots process of sufficient complexity one of us alone; now multiplied with both of us. The result is a route that criss-crosses the country from south to north and a transportation question…

How to join those dots? By bicycle and with as little traffic as possible (of course).

So we went to work – remembered suggestions and a little internet time gave us the answer – the TransCambrian trail tagging onto the Sarn Helen trail (or something approximating to it). The good thing about the UK’s good maps and long history of getting from A to B by non-motorised means is that for those who like the research process a ‘more interesting’ progress can be made.

Route Information:

TransCambrian Way (IMBA-UK). From Knighton to the Irish Sea. The IMBA-UK site gives links to GPS data, and print maps and booklet.

Elan Valley short-cut (Day 2 TCW) – B4518 (signed Aberystwyth ‘via the Mountain road’), then possible to turn right onto bridlepaths head up onto the ridge parallel to the road.

Machynlleth onwards. National Cycle Network 8 (or 82)