DAY 1
4.05.08
After a beautiful night of slumbering the sun shone and a grand day began! There were many mountain bikers in the village who had stayed in the hotel the night before. It looked like a good day of cycling was ahead. We left the hoards and cycled a mile or so up the road, here we turned off up the forest track that turned straight into the deepest country. The sun shone as we climbed this route which would take us up and over the Mynydd Trawsnant at 517 metres. My tough new Mavic trekking rims gave me extra confidence on these rough forest tracks. It was not long before we spotted a Red Kite soaring high in the sky. We easily reached the Lyn Brianne dam. After crossing the dam our route carried along another forest track and over our second mountain of the day, Pen y Gurnos at 456 metres. The path dropped down to the isolated chapel of Soar-y-Mynydd. The asphalt road up the Camdwr valley is a serene quiet ride that winds its way up to the start of another climb over Esgair Ffrwd at 487 metres . The wind had now picked up in the afternoon, we were fortunate in having it blow us up the climb. It did not take long to go over the top and it was then a pleasant descent to Tregaron where it was time to get stocked up with supplies. Cors Caron is a massive bog just outside Tregaron, there was a cycle track following an old railway track straight through the middle of it. This turned in to an enjoyable ride followed by a climb to the village of Ffair Rhos. The warm smell of food wafted from the pub in the village, it was now about 19:00, being late May, darkness fell around 22:00. It was a few miles of climbing up to our chosen camp, along side President Jimmy Carter's favourite fishing spot, the Teifi Lakes. The climb up to the 463 metre summit turned into a battle against the wind. It was now hitting us head on making the climb extremely difficult. Eventually Lake Teifi was reached. Unfortunately there was no shelter, the wind was howling, it had turned the lake into what looked like a raging ocean. A spot was found just before dark. We had to lay down by a grassy bank to put our tents up and light our barbecues. As the darkness fell there was an excellent meal of hot dogs enjoyed before getting into our warm tents.
Night before ~ Day 1 ~ Day 2
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Night before ~ Day 1 ~ Day 2