Powys County; July 2018
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Lunch at PD's Diner
The summer of 2018 has been a tad exceptional with temperatures in the high 20's C and even the low 30's C for several weeks (and predicted to continue for a few weeks more as I write this). Us Brits are known to complain about our weather but not usually for it being too hot. So here goes, good riding weather for me is when the temperature is in the range 20 to 25 C and the air isn't dripping with humidity. Accordingly, I put off my planned Powys ride until the heat and humidity were predicted to be 'Trev' tolerable. The Met's weather forecast for Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th July predicted (fingers crossed, four leaf clover, rabbit's foot, etc.) favourable riding conditions so I booked a B&B near Llanidloes for Tuesday night and off I went.
Powys has plenty of beautiful scenery and I tried to plan a route around scenic vistas and good roads rather than urban landmarks. The first group of landmarks was in the Brecon Beacons, a reservoir, the visitor centre and a big hill called Fan Bwlch Chwyth. You get a great view from Fan Bwlch Chwyth. After that I visited a couple of monuments, red kite and Llewlyn, on the way to the Elan Valley where there's plenty of stunning scenery to be had. I'm told that there are 6 dams in the Elan Valley but I only took photos of 3 of them although I felt I rode past most if not all of them. I departed the Elan Valley heading north on winding roads passing through Pont Ar Elan. Another lovely spot. As my next stop was my B&B and it was out in the sticks, I decided to take the mountain road to Aberystwyth to get something to eat before arriving at my B&B. I had a great plate of fish and chips at PD's Diner on Aberystwyth's front and it was a great ride to the B&B on the road from Aberystwyth to Llanidloes (with a nice new Africa Twin keeping me company).
Next morning, Wednesday, and it's off to Llyn Clywedog on the lovely road that runs from Llanidloes to Staylittle. Llyn Clywedog looked stunning as usual. On the way to my most northerly stop at Llyn Vyrnwy, I took in Dylife Gorge and Wynford Vaughan-Thomas's memorial. More lovely roads and stunning scenery. Earlier in the year on the Welsh Rally I rode along the shore of Llyn Vyrnwy in lovely weather and the tower looked like something out of a fairy tale. Well the weather wasn't as good this time but it still was a very pretty place. After that it's off to Welshpool to visit Powis castle. I pass by Castle Caereinion on the way which brings back a load of fond Welsh rally memories. It took me a good while to find the castle. Not sure why? Brain fade?
After Powis castle I continued south to Montgomery castle and a nice little spot which marks one end of the Kerry Ridgeway at the Cider House. Then it was on to the Spaceguard Centre just outside Knighton. I was expecting there to be more to it I must admit. Next stops were the monument to Sir George Cornewall at New Radnor and Hay castle followed by The Begwns. The effort of riding agricultural roads to get to The Begwns was worth it. A nice spot out in the middle of nowhere. Lastly I finished off my route with a couple of castles, Bronllys and Tretower.
The weather remained overcast on my ride with the temperature keeping to my 'happy' zone although it was very humid at times. Powys is really blessed with a lot of great scenery and lovely riding roads. I planned to avoid built-up areas as much as possible preferring to keep to scenic areas instead and I’m happy with the route I planned from this respect. Powys probably rates as my favourite county ride. I've ridden all over Europe and I still think Welsh roads are among the best there are.
On the way back to Wimborne the traffic progressively got busier. The M4 around Bristol was crawling in parts and around Bath is just not nice. However, I expected this to be the case. What I didn't expect was to come across a coach stuck high and dry on a corner as it tried to navigate zig zag hill just outside Shaftesbury. It was chaos with cars unable to get by. It wasn't a problem for a bike though! I'm still wondering how they moved the coach as it was well grounded on the corner. Pretty crazy to take a coach down zig zag hill but I did feel a bit sorry for the driver.
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