Day 27
Wildcamp heaven
My first ever night sleeping under the stars! It was wonderful and I woke feeling so calm and rested.
We took our time getting ready to leave, enjoying the views for as long as possible. Finally we headed out on the bikes, 7.5 miles of downhill, and boy after yesterday we had earned this. We were heading for Machynlleth, the old Welsh capital, where we were going to treat ourselves to breakfast. The descent seemed to go on forever, but finally we were down and we parked the bikes outside the first café we saw, Maengwyn. Breakfast sandwich each and we were fuelled for the ride to Dolgellau, then to Tom’s Uncle Mike’s house a few miles further on.
It started steady, we refreshed by washing in a beautiful stream, then we spotted the dead sheep, oops! Carlsberg then demanded payback and we came across the worst hill of the trip. After a friendly chat with a local farmer, he simply parked his tractor in the middle of the road for a chat, and with a knowing eye he wished us luck. We needed it, and more. It was nearly 2 miles of steep uphill, virtually all of it too steep to ride. My Garmin said 30 degrees, it felt hotter. We settled into a routine, push for 10 seconds, recover for 10 seconds. It took forever, even my Garmin screen couldn’t fit the top on the screen. Eventually the top appeared. We were joined by 2 other tourers, Josie and Alan, about half our age and on bikes about half our weight, but still pushing. Tom reached the top first and came back and took my bike. Gabs, you’re so right, he’s a keeper! For some crazy reason I then went down the hill and helped Josie, we both pushed and for some reason then jogged up the hill. Madness but we’d made it!
We said goodbye to Josie and Alan, we sat and just enjoyed the views. Often the fighter jets put on a display, but not today. However a really nice guy called Chris stopped and chatted to us. He was on a brutal 3 week hike over the hills. Tonight he was thinking of spending on the top of the Cadir Idris, if so as local legend goes, he will come down a poet! Did you Chris?
We were soon descending again, then onto a fabulously pretty country lane, and finally Uncle Mike's. Beer, wine, pizza, cake and a great catch up, wonderful. We were too tired to go wild swimming at a secret local spot, saving that for next time!
Tom and I decided to change our route for tomorrow and stay on the coast. Hopefully it would be cooler as well as fewer steep hills. I glanced at Tom’s computer as he planned the new route. We were to meet two friends at a hotel, AngleseyArms. Where’s that, I asked Tom, looking at the hotel on his screen. Puzzled he said it’s where we’re staying and meeting Pam and Catherine. Ah! Oh dear, apparently there are two Anglesey Arms, 10 miles apart. We’d spent 5 days racing across Wales, and I’d booked us into the wrong hotel!
