8th – 9th June 2023
Thursday 8th June
A proper cycling tour had to be cancelled last month for various reasons, so this micro-tour was planned as a slight compensation. Although short, it was very hilly, and I was glad that I had taken the opportunity to do a fair bit of climbing as preparation last week when I was in Sheffield.
Dave lives in a cottage tucked away in rural Shropshire, hidden from most people. Not hidden from BT engineers who on Thursday morning had contrived to shut both ends of the road Dave lives. Reaching the first ‘road closed’ sign, we drove all around the tiny lanes to reach the other end of the road just to come across another similar sign. This time, a friendly workman kindly let us through to spend another ten minutes trying to track down the well-hidden ‘Bridge Cottage’. Turns out there are two bridges!
So it was a delayed start to the ride which was flat for the first 20 miles before gently rising for the next ten to Lake Vyrnwy when we enjoyed a late lunch at 2pm.
I was glad that I had a fairly light lunch because the serous climbing started straight afterwards. Wales is so hilly, that even these monsters weren’t steep enough to make the cut for the hilliest climbs in the country.
We were a bit delayed on these hills because of sharing the same narrow road with members of a car rally. Every minute an old car struggled to get past on the narrow roads, and since they were on a timed stretch, some were in quite a rush to get on their way. Most, however, waved and thanked us as they powered up the hill.
After repairing a puncture, we arrived at the accommodation at about 6.30 and then enjoyed some good local ale and a huge meal before an early night.
Friday 9th June
Well, this was quite a ride today. We set off before nine after a fabulous breakfast at the Gwesty Pengwern Hotel in Ffestiniog, heading East into the wind. The headwind was a constant today, but at least it made the navigation easy. Whenever we reached a junction, I’d say, “Which way, Jim?” to which the answer always would be “Head into the wind”.
After five miles of climbing, we dropped down into Bala for morning coffee. We’d have preferred to have got a few more miles in before the stop, but there didn’t appear to be any other opportunities for refreshment for several miles beyond.
One of the objectives for today’s route was to cycle the Wayfarer’s Pass which was advertised as a gravel route. Although we had road bikes with panniers, the bikes were shod with decent tyres, so we thought we’d be OK. How wrong we were.
The route over the pass wasn’t gravel at all, but consisted of great rocks which could only sensibly be traversed on a mountain bike with full suspension. But we were committed so over the top we went, pointedly ignoring the numerous ‘road closed’ signs. (I never did find out why those signs were there, but we must have passed half a dozen of them and the road wasn’t closed.)
I had to walk up the steepest bits (of which there were many), but the biggest problem was the descent of the other side when the surface deteriorated still further. Several sections were too dangerous to ride, the surface being so rough, that much of it had to be walked. On the bits I did ride, I was only moving at 4 or 5 mph, so it took a very long time.
Once we were back on tarmac (bliss!) we made good progress back to Dave’s house, gathering a few more tiles on the way.
The only real snag on the day was that the slow journey over the pass meant that we only arrived at the pub for lunch at gone 2pm when they’d stopped serving food so we had to make do with crisps! Not ideal food for elite athletes. Nor for us, either.
Another minor irritant was that several roads had been resurfaced with fresh chippings which made descending a decidedly hazardous undertaking, further reducing the average speed. So when you see on Strava the pathetically slow speed, just bear in mind the conditions and don’t judge us too harshly.
