Day 2 - Newcastle Emlyn to Builth Wells

WHOAH!!!!!!!! What a day! I knew this was going to be hard but If I'd known how hard, I'd not have started it......


After last nights trip out to the pub which took us over the first nine miles or so of todays ride, I had an inkling of what I was letting myself in for. But...


I reluctantly left the luxurious surroundings of Maes y Derw Guest House and headed east from Newcastle Emlyn on the A484 before turning left onto the B4334 and then right onto a yellow road which dipped down before climbing up to the A475. In turn the A475 had a steep, half-mile long, energy-sapping climb. There was a bit of drizzle in the air by the time I reached the crossroads with the A486. At this point I gave Gary a call to let him know I was nearly at his place. The next mile was all downhill, at speed - I clocked 40 mph! Meeting up with Gary I handed him an empty water bottle - I didn't want the weight of the bottle holding me back.
The hill was incredibly tough but I managed it and Gary will no longer be able to say "I've never seen anyone ride a bike up that hill" (although, to be honest I wish I'd never heard him say it - if I hadn't I wouldn't have included it in my ride - what a thing the male ego is!).

However, that wasn't the end of it - that self-same road had a further two VERY stiff climbs before I left it and headed south east on the B4338. On arriving in Llanybydder I was starting to feel quite tired and despondent as I knew I'd be struggling to make the lunch halt before 13:00 hrs as I'd only managed 15 miles in just over an hour and a half and had another 15 to go. Just for good measure I accidentally reset my speedo, so from now on I'd have to recalculate the mileages on my route card. Oh, and it was raining!

Anyway, wolfing down a Mars bar cheered me up a bit and I sent Jan a text saying what my eta for lunch would be. It was a longish drag up through Brechfa Forest, but once I reached the crest I had a great blast down the other side and managed to arrive at our lunch halt only ten minutes later than my original plan.
We lunched at the Dolaucothi Gold Mine, which, being National Trust, didn't cost us anything to get in. Here are some pictures I took there:

The mine workings date back to Roman times, although this particular adit is actually Victorian:

Then, in the 1930's a vertical shaft was dug - here's a picture of the winding gear:

After a leisurely hour and a half lunch - I was hoping the rain would let up and the promised sunny spells would start to dominate - it was time to get going again. I couldn't face any more hills so skipped my planned yellow road route in favour of the main road. This worked OK and then I went back to some yellow roads having worked out they were only half the distance of the main road and didn't have too much in the way of climbing. Not only that, but the last 5 miles to Llandovery were all downhill! RESULT!!!

One thing I've noticed here in Wales is that the bilingual roadsigns take twice as long to understand - you find yourself scanning the whole sign to spot a word or two that you recognise and by the time you've worked it out you're in the middle of the hazard or feature it's supposed to be warning you about!

I know that triangle means Give Way, but the Welsh for Yield get's in the way of understanding it!!!

The scenery is great and, to use a Gavin and Stacey word, it's lush:

This lump is called The Sugar Loaf and the road I was riding went all the way up to it and then climbed round the side and on even higher before finally running downhill to Llanwrytd Wells. This was about 50 miles into the ride and I was really struggling to find any energy by this stage - Janice was struggling to find the B&B we'd booked and I had to stop a couple of times to discuss what to do (over the phone). However, she found it and what a gem it is. Luxuriously appointed with a glorious view. Unfortunately the last 200 yards was uphill and had such wobbly legs that I had to rest the camera on a fence in order to take this photo of Jan and the ever faithful Scooby:

Once again free wifi is available so I've been able to rattle off this blog quickly - either side of a fantastic evening meal of chicken with risotto and green veg and a wonderful vanilla panacotta with blueberry sauce. Oh, and two pints of cider.

Ah well, time for bed, another long day in the saddle tomorrow and I suspect it'll be wet again.

Stats:

Todays Mileage: 59 miles

Todays average speed: about 9 mph!

Todays fastest speed: about 40 mph!