DAY TWO - INTO THE CLOUD.
The night had been warm
but we had a lot of rain, however it was dry in the morning as we cooked breakfast.
The ride up the Irfon valley was spectacular and just before the famous Devils
staircase climb we turned off up a forest track. We were now to experience
some heavy rain that would continue all day. We have been fortunate in previous
years with the weather, but this time the forecast was completely wrong, there
was to be no turning back. We climbed and climbed up this remote track, after
an hour or so of cycling we started to break through up toward the edge of
the Drygarn fawr. Along time ago our Uncle Ron had traversed this mountain
and today was the turn of his two nephews. We pushed our way through the trees
until we were on the massive open mountain plateau. The rain was belting down,
as there was no discernable path we had to carry out some serious navigating
with the GPS. The mountain top was elusive, we made our way pushing and dragging
our bikes across a bog to the edge of the mountain. After half a day of grafting
we eventually made our way to the 641 metre trig-point. I’m sure that
the views must be spectacular from here, but on this wind swept rain soaked
afternoon, there was not a lot to see. However this did not take away the
sense of achievement, then through the mist we saw one of the massive ancient
cairns of Drygarn fawr. About 3000 years old, there are three of these eerie
stone structures on this strange but fascinating mountain. We followed a track
along the plateau we went past jet black bogs and the two other cairns before
dropping down toward the Elan valley and for the first time a surfaced road.
We cycled in the rain past the Elan reservoirs and on to the cycle track to
Rhayader. We were now completely soaked including our equipment. After eating
in our favourite place in Rhayader we decided another night of camping was
out of the question. So we cycle in the dark back to Beulah to end the ride
completely soaked.
Day
1 - Day 2
Click an image to larger version.
Day 1 - Day 2