Wales Part 3

As you will no doubt remember from my last post I finished off at my host, Emily’s in Llanidloes. She had given me her wisdom of climbing and tackling big hills while touring. I was to be honest a little skeptical after the last few days and the nature of Welsh roads thus far. They just had no respect for the topography! Not like the serpentine switchbacks of Italy, Switzerland, and the Balkans. So I set out early morning, with a refreshed body and mind, I was going give this climbing thing a chance.

Written the night later, “Well it helped me get through another day of brutal climbing. I think I only walked my bike 3 or 4 times today. I adjusted my foot position which helped my knees. It wasn’t a breeze by any stretch but it was a comfortable 73km”. Well, I must have had a change in heart, I sound like I was actually starting to enjoy the hills! It was better slightly late than never with the Brecon Beacons looming ahead, my final challenge in Wales.

But that evening I settled in at a campsite in the town of Brecon, with a six pack of beer(John Smiths), and some reduced to clear food items from Coop(Tomato and Feta Pasta and a fancy chicken wrap). Later that evening a couple from London by way of Bristol(I do believe), and artist couple whom were very friendly invited me around their fire where we traded stories and drank wine late into the night. The gentleman gave me an Owl’s feather as well. (I forget your names and if you for some reason stumble across this post, please reach out!). Actually, this is a valuable lesson for me, I journal but I am notoriously bad at noting down specifics, I mean like I am good at keeping a journal every day but it is usually quite general and doesn’t really leave me with a whole lot to work with. Oh well, you live and you learn.

Next morning I woke, with a bit of a hangover, packed it in and rode through the town of Brecon and toward my penultimate climb of the Wales journey, into the Brecon Beacons. It was actually way more chill than I thought. the weather was a bit overcast and misty at times on the north side of the range, but the climb itself was very gradual and all gravel which was sweet. A very atmospheric ride through the National Park! Once travelling down hill from the pass it was all downhill from there… literally all the way into the City of Newport which is the the Bristol side of Cardiff where I hopped a train and off to Bristol without really lingering!

Wales. Fin.