Mid F***ing Wales

Off to mid-Wales last Saturday, eventually arriving at New Radnor – AKA Maesyfed – about 2PM. Not a location I’d visited before, but one which held three Hewitts in close proximity to one another, and what looked like a nice run on my now-recovering Spine legs.

It was hot and muggy in the valleys, which appear to be called ‘Dingles’ in this part of the world, but nice and fresh up top.

I took a clockwise loop over Great Rhos, Black Mixen and Bache Hill, skirting an MOD range in the process.

There was a quite a lot of pathless wandering, or vaguely following sheep trods, but on the descent back towards the village I started to feel like my old running self, which was nice. It didn’t last long because I had to navigate a variety of disused and overgrown rights of way, but the brief glimpse I had was quite satisfying.

On reaching the van I drove another 20 minutes westwards, and eventually pulled up at Elan Oaks, the campsite known from Dragon’s Back recces and the Trans-Cambrian. Sunday dawned cloudy and a bit chilly, but I grabbed an early start to bag the summit of Gorllwyn on the bike via a bridleway to the east.

After about 25 minutes of road work I started back-tracking a familiar route, before then spending a few minutes searching for the start of the bridleway I was aiming for. It was a little overgrown and not very well-used, and things deteriorated as I climbed a steep field with no obvious signs of previous traffic. At the top of the field I was presented with a five-bar gate flanked by a ludicrous amount of chest-high bracken.

The map suggested there were another four such boundaries on the way to the summit, and after the vegetation-bashing of the previous day on foot I was in no mood to repeat the exercise on two wheels. I therefore beat a hasty retreat and decided to attack Gorllwyn from the west instead. This necessitated a bit more urgency to ensure I completed the extended route before I had to remove the van from the campsite, so I pushed on.

The route took me first up a valley I’d not been up since a very enjoyable Day 4 of Dragon’s Back with Darren, and the reminiscing was a nice distraction from the fairly awful hike-a-bike that the route presented.

The awful hike-a-bike continued as I turned east, pushing both because the ground was boggy and because I was now on a footpath rather than a bridleway. After two horrendous kilometres I reached a very nice west top followed by a very pleasant summit, both incongruous in their less exciting surroundings.

The foggy start to the day in Elan had by this point revealed itself as an inversion, which lifted my spirits somewhat. With the summit ticked I reversed my route (a bit less intolerable, particularly because I knew that all proximate Hewitts were now ticked and I needn’t return!), slogging my guts out to squeeze in a descent of the tiny but fun red trail at Nantgwyllt on the way back. Then it was a rapid shower and out of the campsite in a homeward direction with one minute to spare. Hewitts ticket and hard work put in, hurrah.