The Evening of the Third Day
We are now in Corris and although there is no broadband in the hostel I'm hopeful that if I go across the main road to the little bit of garden I might get lucky as there is a reasonable mobile signal. So I'm writing this offline in the hope of being able to cut and paste it into LJ in the morning. (It didn't work though, I'm catchig up on this back home!) There are too many gnats about to try it this evening. I was getting bitten to death just ringing home.
Today has gone really well, I have not yet cheated at all, not even to the extent of having somebody else push my bike while walking up hillmdash;there's not even been too much walking up hill! The weather today hasn't been so good. It started off sunny and warm but had clouded over by mid-day. However, it hasn't rained and the wind has mostly been helpful.
The morning session was a but tough with my legs not really wanting to push and there was a lot of really up and down work out of Rhaeadr as the single track lane runs up and over lots of truncated spurs that the river has cut down into. However, after a pit stop in Llangurig on te A470 they started to go better. This probably had something to do with the amazing banana cake given to us by our host in Rhaeadr.
The run through the Severn forest was pleasantly undulating. If I can hit an up-slope with plenty of speed then I can often get up it by attacking in a high gear but once I've run out of momentum and have to drop down the gears then I'm often doomed to get off and walk.
The advantage of doing the route from the south is particularly evident on this stage as we began the climb to the highest point on the whole route. It is much easier as we started from much higher. The layby at Dylife with the amazing view arrived much more quickly than I expected and the rest of the climb wasn't too steep. I indulged in a Zip-Vit energy gel from their free sample box and it seemed to do the trick. We rested at the top and partook of more banana cake and then strted the amazing 1700 foot descent to Machynlleh. It's rather scary at the top with some very steep and bendy sections. I rode the brakes quite hard down this section but later was able to let the bike run freely, which it does very well. My top speed was 92km/h or 55mph!
The stretch from Mac to Corris was longer and hillier than I remembered but again had a nice descent in Corris. We arrived at the hostel quite early giving time for a relaxed shower, several cups of tea , two pints of Black Hand Porter from the Purple Moose Brewery in Porthmadog and a game of Killer pool. I was not the first to go out.
The evening meal was again absolutely ace; chicken,ham and leek pie with roasted vegetables and two desserts. Not a choice beteween two desserts but summer fruit sponge pudding and a trifle that knocked last disaster into a cocked hat!
We've seen more kites and the birdsong has been absolutely amazing.
Day 4 will involve another climb to over 500 metres (1650 ft), first thing in the morning which will be tough as my legs don't seem to get really going for a few hours. The a beautiful run across the tops before we swoop down into Dolgellau. Then it's along the river to the Barmouth bridge and then some more ups down to Harlech and Penrhyndeudraeth and on to Porthmadog.