Wales: Lost Tour details

[tyreon]

Maybe it's within the year... But there was a posting on here with accompanying photographs of a tour in Wales(going North to South?)which was bewitching. I made a comment that the accompanying photographs seemed to capture Heaven. I now want to revisit and capture that tour(to do it myself? revisit on rainy days here on my sofa?). Has anyone any recall of this tour with its accompanying photographs? Clues: it had many hills(not much of a clue,I know)!! The cyclist admitted to walking up many? said some seemed to be on 'some busy roads'?) I went thru as many postings as I could of myself on this thing,but came to an end without finding the original 'posting'. Anyone any idea where/how I can find this posting...and the route taken.

Maybe you are the cyclist who did the route?

Thanks in advance if you can help. Hope to capture and record the route(and photos)so's I visit 'Eden'.

[531colin]

Lon Las Cymru comes up on here quite often. Its a lovely route, I have some photos here....https://www.flickr.com/photos/52358536@N06/albums

[andymiller]

Click on your profile, search your posts for 'heaven'.

Bish bash bosh (hopefully this link will work):

search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&author_id=26677

EDIT: it nearly worked - you still need to search with your posts using the wee search box.

(and here's the link to the thread itself:

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=91668&p=834680&hilit=heaven#p834680 )

[raybo]

That was my post.

I've since written an entire journal of that route: http://www.biketouringtips.com/showJour ... php?jid=54

[tyreon]

Thank you AndyMiller and 531 Colin. I have to revisit this country. The light,the views,those lanes...ambrosia. I think I have to go there: regulate myself to a maximum of 25mpd,I need to stop and lean on farmers gates to drink in those views in. 5*...and no complaints!

Thanks again +++

[tyreon]

Ah,so it was Raybo who did the journey. Nice journal...and pics.

Know what you mean when you comment upon high hedges and hidden corners: completed Offa's Dyke(by foot)some years back. Given lift by B+B owner who was going hell-for-leather around corners with no vision. I felt 'fairly secure' as she was in a high 4x4,and which she said was what most locals drove around her area...for safety(I guess in case they went into another 'rallying' driver)!

Nice break!

[tyreon]

Raybo: So pleased you experienced some of 'olde England's' indifference and rudeness when over in Wales(pub and water comments). There used to be a lot of rudeness around in 'the good olde days'(1960-1970s) but we seem to have taken up your ethos of 'good service',smiles and 'have-a-good-day' now(most annoying!) When abroad I used to find most 'foreigners' most annoying with their civility and manners: it was rather nice to come home to indifference or take-it-or-leave-it attitude. I think Bill Bryson's got a good take on England.
Not sure I am completely taken with this homoginization m'larkey.

[mcallaghan]

That route is almost identical to mine, with many familiar pictures. I will post mine relatively soon, but it looks like you were wise and avoided the two biggest hills on either side of Machynlleth. Those were real leg burners. You also had much better weather than me - overcast, windy, wet was my typical day.

[phil parker]

Thanks to this forum and some lovely pictures from Colin, and other contributors, I've decided to ride the Lon Las Cymru at the end of September, from home to Chepstow, The Lon Las Cymru route and then back home again to the SW, either by the same route or on some slightly faster roads to save a day or so, yet to be decided. Not my normal cycle tour, but those photos from Colin showing not one vehicle sharing the route gave me some new ideas and impetus. I've even bought a new camera and had a bike fit session in preparation!

[martin113]

I have been put off the Lon Las Cymru by tales of impossibly rough tracks, gates which you have to lift your bike over and general unsuitability of some of it for road touring bikes. I tour on a light tourer with 28 mm tires and light amounts of baggage and stories that the trail is only suitable for mountain bikes or hybrids have really put me off. Anyone who has done it have any thoughts?

[iviehoff]

I have been put off the Lon Las Cymru by tales of impossibly rough tracks, gates which you have to lift your bike over and general unsuitability of some of it for road touring bikes. I tour on a light tourer with 28 mm tires and light amounts of baggage and stories that the trail is only suitable for mountain bikes or hybrids have really put me off. Anyone who has done it have any thoughts?

Lon Las means Green Lanes and the route does include some, as shown in the picture on Sustrans' page for the route. http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/rout ... ymru-north You can always read a map and find a pleasant alternative with tarmac if you want it, keeping the broad outline of the route.

Whether you can ride such routes on 28mm is a matter of state of mind. Some people think it is impossible, but other people do it. I did such things and much worse on a light tourer in my youth: I chose 32mm rather than 28mm, though I knew people who would ride practically anything on 28mm. Perhaps a more rational appraisal is that it is possible but probably a bit uncomfortable for most of us, and maybe requiring a bit more riding skill than many of us would choose to be required to employ.

[dakari-mane]

I was like "hey that sounds like the tour I did! I don't remember posting it here though!"

Didn't though I did do Holyhead to Bristol earlier in the year & there was a lot of GOAPing (Getting off and push ing!)

More photo's if more were needed:

https://www.facebook.com/daniel.fortnum.3/media_set?set=a.1035678699783395.1073741828.100000238257816&type=3

(though it should be noted my attempts at photography pale in comparison to those above. & mostly involve beer)

[Richard Fairhurst]

I have been put off the Lon Las Cymru by tales of impossibly rough tracks, gates which you have to lift your bike over and general unsuitability of some of it for road touring bikes. I tour on a light tourer with 28 mm tires and light amounts of baggage and stories that the trail is only suitable for mountain bikes or hybrids have really put me off. Anyone who has done it have any thoughts?

Start from (or head to) Chepstow rather than Cardiff: that way you'll miss out the Taff Trail, which is the major off-road section.

Follow the A470 between Newbridge and Llanwrthwl, not the Old Coach Road track.

Take care on the descent (heading north, or the ascent if heading south) between Corris and Dolgellau.

From Machynlleth to Porthmadog, don't be tempted onto the NCN 82 alternative route on a road bike, but stick to NCN 8.

With all that in mind you should be ok on skinny tyres.

[phil parker]

Thanks for the information, Richard, that will come in handy for me - I plan to go from Chepstow anyway, but I don't really want to off-road even though my Croix de Fer with 32 mm tyres would be ok. Perhaps I'll try some faster roads to get back.

[mcallaghan]

I am not sure if you can see this image or not, but this is the 'nice' part of the Taff Trail, looking back at the way I came. You can see its a dirt road but it gets a lot rockier further down. Otherwise, the rest of Wales and NCN 8 was fine. One or two roads with some loose gravel down the middle, but the overall quality of the roads was much better than I expected. Irish roads were terrible - pot holes, gravel, large chip-seal, very rough to ride. The Welsh apparently like having nice smooth roads. Since the roads are on quiet country lanes, I only had to squeeze my vehicles a few times but there are usually small indentions in the hedges for cars to pass eachother periodically along such lanes.