Day Three..Back Home.
Torrential
rain kept us awake in the night it rained and rained all night long, we were
also disturbed by sheep as we seemed to be camped on one of their tracks!
I was in a deep sleep when Nick woke me at 8.00am, it was still raining so
we decided to stay in our dry tents and wait for it to stop. We thought it
was not going to stop but at around 10.00am it did, we had a quick cup of
coffee and set off on the mountain track past the old Roman camp. The Roman
road had been turned into wet bog with massive ruts left by off road vehicles.
This made interesting cycling, to the south we had a good view of the Usk
reservoir which is the source of the river Usk, the sun was trying to break
out and we were glad we were dry. The track got better as we neared a gate
and then descended three miles on a surfaced road in to Trecastle. After using
the amenities in Trecastle, it started raining, as we cycled on the main A40
road it stopped raining and the Sun started to shine. We made good time cycling
the 16 miles to Brecon, here we had food in the Kebab house. We then decided
to cycle back on the canal towpath. The Brecon and Monmouthshire canal ends
in Newport, but is only navigable to Cwmbran, some 36 miles away. We were
to cycle 32 miles to Panteg. Our route took us through all the interesting
villages on the way, we went past locks bridges and many boats. The condition
of the path goes from very good around the villages, to absolute appalling.
Near Crickhowell I hit a tree root and my rack split in half, Nick screamed
‘I knew this would happen!’, but I blamed him for going to fast!
However I patched it by tying my saddle bag straps around it. It was to last
all the way home, nearing Pontypool I put on a sprint to get us home quicker.
We cycled the last few miles through New Inn and then on the old road to arrive
in Croesyceiliog at 7.00pm....52 miles. This year had been a change, we agreed
that cycle touring on the rough trails is a lot better than the road, also
taking food and cooking it, adds a more authentic camping feel . I definitely
needed a new rack, we hoped that we could now turn our bikes in to dedicated
tour machines for next year!
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for a larger photo !
