Shocker!

Jo and I were up early on Saturday. We left the house at 7am and got to Rhayader by about 8:30am.

It was freezing, absolutely Baltic.

Leaving our car, we rode West and then South on a wet, then icy, bridleway with great views. This ended up with a long descent into the Elan Valley and a pleasant circumnavigation of the reservoir on a permissive route, to the pretty little church where our friends got hitched this year.



After that, we did a bit of road work, and headed towards a promising track with bridleway access rules. 2km and about 250m or so of climbing later, the track stopped and the bridleway carried on- into a rocky, peaty quagmire. The track heads toward the town of Lanwrtyd Wells, and is the only hike a bike section as yet. It's a pity it's 4 or 5km long.

If it's hard for me then it'll be hard for anyone else that does it, if I can't find another way around.

However, Jo had a sense of humour failure about a third of the way along the hike. She went very, very quiet. So I took her back to the car, via the road. She cheered up then.

I forgot to mention the first 5 minutes of this ride. Silly me. We had to cross a river, so got wet feet right at the start of a 5hr 20min ride, and it was minus plenty of degrees in the shade, all day. My feet had thawed by this morning, just.

The info we received from Clive Powell Bikes in Rhayader was priceless. Thanks for the help!

We saw loads of Red Kites, flying around after their feed at the Farm in Rhayader,and a good few Buzzards.

Back again to suss out a couple of alternative routes next weekend, which is nice. This is a really scenic area. If you've never been, you should consider visiting.

Up and out by 8 this morning, for a social ride.

Rest week now. :)