The September ’21 Mid and North Wales Grand Tour Day Five

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Getting conned, a stupendous bike ride and river geography!

“4,000 years ago Stone Age people made Elan their home within the forests of oak, birch and hazel. Later arrivals included Celts and Romans. More recently Elan's resources have attracted mining interests. Coming up to date of course Elan's dams and reservoirs continue to provide water to significant populations”.

https://www.elanvalley.org.uk/discover/history

We set off early from Church House Farm and head up the A44 to Rhayader. This was also a reserve overnight spot for last night but now seeing how steep the car park is, all the chocks in the world would never have levelled us up. In town, we find a bike shop and I enquire about a rear tyre “for an E mountain bike; a 29 x 2.30 size please”.

He sees me coming and I’m completely brainless. I buy a 29 x 2.25 tyre and only later I discover that it isn’t suitable. It’s way too thin a tyre for an E mountain bike. £24 wasted; or maybe not. It will fit my other mountain bike at home, so I guess I keep it for the time when one of those tyres needs replacing!

I console myself by suggesting we drive out to the Elan Valley visitor centre. Here we park up, offload the bikes and head up the bike trail NCN route 81.  (An aside here, be aware that they have just installed an electric gate at the visitor’s centre, so I am not sure how long you may be able to park overnight there now.) It costs £3 to park at the centre during the daytime.

 The cycle trail up to Craig Goch reservoir along route 81 is absolutely spectacular. Deep water reservoirs, stained a peaty brown at their margins; wind rippled surfaces beneath rounded, steep sided, craggy hillsides, carpeted in short grass, bracken and pink heathers. Red Kites soar and swoop on thermals, ridge running mere feet above rocky outcrops. They are magnificent birds, forked tails twisting as directional changes are made; long black tipped wings with white primary flight feathers and whitish heads. You can find out more about them here: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/red-kite/

The reservoirs are low after our long hot summer, their rocky sides exposed. The scent of conifer trees, heather and bracken waft past us, carried on the gentle mountain breezes; whilst hefted sheep seek shade beneath rowan trees laden with bright red berries. Is it going to be a tough winter this year? Old folk law eh?

Talking of which, the absence of trees! For once these valleys were without reservoir and were covered by extensive broad-leafed forests as far as the eye could see. Edward Ist. Blame him! He ordered extensive forest clearance in the area during the 1300’s. The trees apparently sheltered thieves!

Anyway, high on the mountainsides above, the occasional glimpse of stark white farm cottages and grey outbuildings with assorted farm machinery arranged in rows in neighbouring fields. Rounded bales of straw, hay and silage in open sided sheds, sheep dotted across the hillsides. Hill farming is a tough old business this high up.

We stop off at Penbont House for coffee and cake. Rather civilised, under an open sided marque. The hotel looks posh; the cakes are divine. (https://penbonthouse.co.uk/ )

The stargazing site at Craig Goch Reservoir is truly amazing and on arrival, I immediately promise myself a return trip when the weather is better. Big open skies, far horizons, a photogenic dam and pump house. The milky way shots up here will be spectacular.

At Pont ar Elan, at the top of the reservoir, we stop at the small car park and picnic alongside a bubbling brook. A geographer’s paradise, with a small river and big potholes, a series of rapids and gullies and river beaches. Abrasion, corrasion, hydraulic action and attrition with vertical erosion too. It’s all here to see. 

We bask in the sunshine, watch the kites soaring above (where they were joined by a lone paraglider, brave soul. Running down and then jumping off a perfectly good mountain seems a very strange pastime to be frank).

The mountain road to Cwmystwyth and then down to Aberystwyth with its stunning vistas is a great drive in a motorhome. We stop off at old abandoned mining buildings to explore derelict workings where silver and copper were extracted from the hillsides via adits. The views down into the valleys as we come off the mountains and head down to sea level past Devils Bridge are remarkable.

Stopping at the Aberystwyth Rugby Club car park for two nights, it is our first foray into ‘no EHU’ territory. A comfortable ‘off-grid’ experience! There are eight– motorhomes tonight and we park up facing the rugby pitches whereupon one of us then frets for several minutes because we have parked in front of some motorhomes which were up against the boundary fence. Have we stolen their view? Is there an etiquette we should be following?

We find the Elsan and water points. There are no toilet facilities due to covid.  Now, if only I had a rugby ball with me, I could spend an hour kicking it between the tall posts.  (It has been forty-five years since I last kicked one up and between such posts. I’d make a complete T-- of myself by falling over as I kick the very first ball, so it’s a good thing really that I don’t have one to hand. Saves Maggie getting all embarrassed; or dying from a laughing fit. Probably the latter knowing her.)

We have a soundscape of a periodic train that runs close by and the steam whistle of the little narrow-gauge railway behind us. (Later the following morning around 8am it is added to by the joyful laughter and chatter of infants as they return to school for the first time after a very long enforced absence. It’s all rather charming.)

After setting up and Maggie patiently waiting for 30 minutes while I monitor the battery levels with my normal paranoia, we finally leave the site and stroll through the little park boulevard into the town centre and down to the seafront.

It has been a long time since I was last in Aberystwyth. I had an interview for a geography place at the university (which I turned down). Forty years later, and I don’t mean this in a bad way, I’m not sure it has significantly changed that much.

 Postscript:

This evening I manage to do some stargazing. The light pollution is horrendous and all photos appear with a bright orange glow. On the positive side, I get some cracking late evening views of Jupiter and Saturn. And, a bonus, Mag comes outside to see the two planets and I manage to teach her a few constellations as well. How romantic.

 

Route today driving:

A44 – b4518 – mountain roads to Pont ar Elan – mountain road to Cwmystwyth – B4574 to Devils Bridge – A4120  - A487 to Aberystwyth

Distance driven: 78 miles

Expenditure: Rugby club site Aberystwyth  £10 pn.

Useful websites:

Elan Valley: https://www.elanvalley.org.uk/

Cwmystwyth mines: http://www.cambrianmines.co.uk/Cwmystwyth.htm

Aberystwyth Rugby club motorhomes: https://www.searchforsites.co.uk/marker.php?id=32589

History of Elan Valley: http://www.elanvalleypastandpresent.co.uk/