It was very hot in our room, and we all had trouble sleeping. I was sure the breakfast coffee would be instant so I joined Christine in a herb tea and had an excellent double espresso from a mobile facility opposite the guest house.
To our chagrin, we didn’t pass Morrisons on the way out, which was odd since route 81 starts in Aberystwyth, maybe we’d entered on a different cycle network route and were too tired to notice. We knew there wasn’t much on the way but hoped we’d find something. The initial section was a rail trail built over part of the trackbed of the line to Carmarthen, another victim of the Tory/Beecham vandalism that killed off much of the railway network, particularly severely in the west of Wales.
A lovely stretch of minor road was closed to motor traffic because of road works, and we were delighted to see a hedgehog crossing the road while simultaneously worrying about its future prospects.
At Pontrhydygroes we spotted another waterwheel, this one is close to where a similar wheel drove machinery for the nearby Lefel Fawr lead mine. The Ceredigion uplands have yielded valuable metals for thousands of years, silver being sent to London for coin making. In 1637 Thomas Bushell, who was leasing silver mines in the county, received a royal licence to make coins at Aberystwyth Castle. The current waterwheel was originally at a sawmill in Llanafan. Even more of interest was a sign “tea shed” which invited us into a building with an honesty box arrangement but only chocolate bars and two slices of cheesecake were on offer. Rowan and I ate the cheesecake while Christine finished the last of yesterday’s sandwiches. This was the only food opportunity of the day.
We’ve done very little cycling this spring, a solitary ride of 30 miles being the only time we’ve exceeded single figures, so weren’t in good condition to tackle a demanding multi-day adventure. After a hard ride yesterday and a sleepless night, we were sluggish and hadn’t even covered 15 miles by lunchtime, but the climbs grew harder after that. Once, I spotted a red kite above me. The afternoon featured alternating mist, sunshine and rain, with strong crosswinds at times. The scenery was wonderful but the rain and tiredness prevented us from fully appreciating it.
We reached the Elan valley, controversially flooded to build reservoirs to serve Birmingham and arrived exhausted at Ty Penbont a little before 5 pm. They offer dinner only on Friday and Saturday nights so we’d brought food with us from home. During the rest of week, the hotel is unmanned overnight.
33 miles, 905 metres ascent.