Day 24
From the valleys to the mountains
After a day off which we spent hiding from the rain in our room doing chores we were off again. For some reason neither of us felt rested and it was a hard start straight away. Gradually we regained our rhythm as the hills eased a little. The route was interesting if not actually very picturesque as we passed through many mining villages. We were again frustrated by motorcycle barriers, some so narrow that my not particularly wide handlebars wouldn’t fit through. It sounds a minor point but the physical effort of trying to get a fully loaded tourer through these, throw in them being placed at the top of a steep hill, and we were really struggling.
Then we came to one that neither of us could get through, there was a low metal bar to one side, so we had no option to remove bags to lighten the bikes to enable us to lift them over. Except out of the blue a wonderful old guy named Michael strolled over, he lived next to the gate and in a jiffy helped us lift both bikes over. We spent a while chatting, and again this chance encounter cheered us up.
The gates disappeared, the views got prettier which meant the hills got longer and steeper but we managed to stay on the bikes, we were getting fitter! A chance encounter with two cyclists led us to a fantastic tea room, friends from home will understand when I say it reminded me of our beloved Jingleby. One cream tea later, we hit the hills again. Though steep we made it and were rewarded with a long, long downhill off-road section. Our campsite at Llangors was next to a lake. They even sold ice creams, result!
