Cwmpas; 2021
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September and it's 30C in Wales!
A guy in the club (PEMC) had put together a scatter rally centred on mid Wales which caught my eye. He called it Cwmpas which I believe means Scope. Cwmpas was based on 29 waypoints scattered around mid wales. The lat,long coordinates were given for the waypoints and there's a question for each waypoint that requires a visit to it to answer. For example, the Brecon waypoint question was "At the entrance to the car park is an informatiom board. What does number 15 point to?"
I had thought that early September would be a good time to do Cwmpas. I figured the kids would be back at school and there would a good chance that days would be cool (~20C) sunny days at that time of year. I put together a route (still using 2013 MS Autoroute) to take me through the Cwmpas points which I thought I could reasonably do in a couple of days. I also included a couple of Carpe Diems on the Welsh border in the route. In my calendar I put Cwmpas against Tuesday and Wednesday 7th/8th September. I plugged the lat,long coordinates for the waypoints into my Garmin and I was all set. Starting from Llangorse and finishing at Trecastle the planned route was 307 miles. I travelled up to the start at Llangorse on Tuesday morning and travelled back from the finish on Thursday morning which was another 290 miles.
As it turned out the two days I chose were two of the hottest days we had all year with at times temperatures of around 30C in Wales. Anyway, it was a chance to wear my Alpinestars mesh gear which I must say did a good job at keeping me cool. The ride up from home to my first Cwmpas point was pleasant enough but it soon warmed up and I found myself waning a bit. I had a bit of a snooze at the CD01 Carpe Diem (Arthur's Stone).
The heat must have got to me by the time I got to Kington looking for the Baptist Church. I found a church and even though the Garmin was telling me I hadn't arrived at my destination I got fixated on it. I started looking for the stone that answers the Kington question of "what year did the good Reverend Blackmore lay the stone?" but there was no sign of it. I even resorted to moving the wheelie bins out front of the church and walking around the back of the church but I couldn't find it. Eventually I realised I had stopped short. Further up the high street I came to the church with the stone that answered the question. I was bushed by the time I got to the Travelodge.
The following day, Wednesday, I visited the remaining Cwmpas points and the CD39 Carpe Diem ("Thine Be The Glory Stone"). A friend of mine who had visited the area some weeks previously joked as to whether I had a photo of my bike in front of an old petrol pump he'd found at Abbeycwmhir. As I was passing I stopped and got a photo for him. It was a very pleasant ride until I got to Machynlleth. On the way there I stopped and had lunch at Elan. However, it was market day at Machynlleth and even on a bike it was tortuous in the heat trying to make headway down the high street to get to the clock tower. Things improved after Machynlleth and the ride south through beautiful scenery to Llyn Brianne introduced me to some new roads. I got to my last Cwmpas point around 5pm and from there I went to Caerphilly to stay overnight at the Premier Inn there. Although it cooled off as I went south it had been another very hot day and I was too tired to ride straight home.
I enjoyed doing Cwmpas, especially as for the second year the Welsh National rally had been cancelled. I appreciate the thought and effort that went into it planning and organising it. The scenery and roads were great. The weather was good although the high temperatures at that time of year were surprising