Dinas Mawddwy to Birmingham

June 23, 2024

train from Machynlleth

The Red Lion serves breakfast and last night we agreed with the landlady that 8:30 would be a civilised time for it, so that's when we venture down the carpetted stairs to the dining room. We're the only diners and it's a fairly roomy space.

The affable woman who helped us put the bikes away in a garage yesterday is serving this morning and she asks about our trip and thinks that I need more than two poached eggs on toast, but I'm happy with that. Debbie orders for a full English, as she hasn't had one for seven years. It should have enough calories to get her where we're going.

Our goal is quite humble: the town of Machynlleth, about 30-odd kilometres away. I had pencilled in a few more days of touring from there, but the hard climbs have taken their toll and we decided last night to get a train from Machynlleth up to Birmingham and spend a couple of days chilling out and sightseeing in the big city.

Debbie's breakfast -- I have poached eggs on toast

I've a couple of old postcards showing the village's main street that get replicated once we've wheeled our bikes out of the garage. One is directly in front of the Red Lion Hotel - there's sign outside in Welsh stating it's Gwesty'r Llew Coch - while the second photo is looking back towards it, with a dome-shaped mountain being the backdrop and looking like something from the sci-fi movie Close Encounters.

We pedal off wondering how hard it'll be today. There are lots of tight contours on the map and there certainly won't be much flat riding. The weather is still good, which is a blessing - some light clouds hang over the landscape as we set off and ride out of the village, cycling along the wide A470 for a couple of minutes before veering right.

South from Dinas Mawddwy, then west from Aberangell to Aberllefenni and Corris

Photo taken by Debbie with her phone - a narrow bridge and lane leading east to Mallwyd

The tree-shaded lane runs south and not too far away from the A470, which is hiden on the far side of a river by trees. We pause briefly for a snap at a cute stone bridge that the map shows takes a lane northeast to a village beside the main road, then keep going south. It's a pleasant and easy ride to get to a cluster of homes on the map called Aberganell, where we fork right, now heading due west.

This lane is a bit narrower and starts gently climbing. The surface is damp where sunlight rarely reaches it due to the surrounding woods that the OS map says are eastern edge of Dyfi Forest.

After a while we roll over a cattle grid then get to a crossroads of sorts where a courier van is parked up. The driver has his door wide open, so I ask him which lane goes to Aberllefenni and he says we need to go straight, and sure enough a sign confirms it. Next to it is one saying the incline is 20% and I tell him we'll likely have to walk, but he reckons it won't be hard to ride up, not that I imagine he's ever tried it. When I look at the detailed OS map, it shows two pairs of those >>.

West to Aberllefenni, then south through Corris on what is denoted as a cycle route (green dots)

As expected, we do walk a bit, but where it eases off we cruise along before dropping down the other side, only to get to the foot of another hill. Again there's a sign saying it's 20%.

This one eventually skirts the edge of the densely packed trees and on our left are open views of the hilly landscape stretching away for miles. Although the incline doesn't look too hard, we struggle to keep pedalling and pause quite often to cool down and have a drink, or walk for a bit.

After reaching the top, the descent is a fast one - not that we go mental. What's surprising is that we haven't met one other cyclist so far, on what is a spectacular route. Maybe it's the hills.

There's a disused slate quarry on the western side of one-street Aberllefenni that I want to check out and a small cottage known at the Bell House is where access to it is. This cute dwelling, now an Airbnb, was built in the 1880s while the quarry itself dates back to the 14th century.

We open a large gate and get the bikes through, then start pushing along a path that's not been used very much. The grass is long. There's a clear, tree-lined stream on our right and on the other side of it I see lumps of slate stacked up high. The problem is it seems clear that it'll be a trek to get to the open quarry itself and as we don't like the idea of spending too much time doing that, we decide to head back and drop down towards Corris, where I know there's some unusual fencing made of slate.

The Bell House, Aberllefenni, with its lozenge-ended slates, was built in the 1880s

Looking for the old slate quarry just west of Aberllefenni

Fencing made of slate that was erected to keep livestock off long-gone Ratgoed Tramway

As we get close to the village of Corris, there are slate posts lining the edge of the road. On the left, where the valley drops down to a small river - Afon Dulas - are grassy fields and that's where most of the slate fencing is. I have to double back and climb over a gate, then walk along to reach the rows, which were erected to keep livestock away from a tramline that was built.

The slate quarry at Ratgoed open in the 1860s and the material was initially pulled by horses along a tramway to Aberllefenni. Steam arrived in 1879 and a rail line was laid south from Corris. The fencing was put up to keep animals away and after all these years, I expect the slate posts to be fragile and a bit wobbly, but they're robust and unmoveable. Sheep now move among them where some posts have disappeared, or where the thick wire stretching between them has broken.

I was really looking forward having a break in Corris itself, what with the two poached eggs having been burned off, but the village shop and post office are both closed, so we go down the lane that crosses over the river and keep riding south.

Pont Abercorris, also known as Bont Pentre, spans the Afon Dulas on the east side of Corris

The shaded lane is quiet, what with the the road from Corris taking what little traffic there is. We get a bit confused at one point where a sign points to a cycle path, and pedal along a rough trail for 10 minutes or so before realising that it's taking us west instead of south, and double back.

There's an old slate enameling workshop hiden from the road that I saw on the listed buildings website - enamelling was a way of decorating slate for use as ornate fireplace surrounds in the late Victorian era. We find the simple place after making our way up a track. The low building is made of long pieces of slate with a tin roof that has rusted. In fact the abandoned building is now quite derelict and slightly obscured by bushes, but I decide to take a photo anyway before we head to our goal of Machynlleth.

We ride along this rough track for a kilometre before turning back

Former slate enamelling workshop, Rhiw'r Gwreiddyn

As we ride up into town, we call in at Machynlleth's train station and get two tickets for a departure that leaves in 90 minutes - just after 4:00 - which gives us enough time to go into the centre, where we find a Spar and buy pasta dishes for a late lunch that we eat outside.

There's a charity shop nearby and Debbie buys two cycling caps that are too small for me, but fit her. I get a shirt and we replicate a postcard of the clock tower that stands at the junction at the end of the road, then we make our way back to the train station.

We spend at least an hour of the journey trying to book a hotel room in Birmingham without any luck. The signal on the Internet is too weak and keeps shutting down the process, so when our train arrives at around 6:30, we just make our way to a Premier Inn.

The twentysomething woman on reception at the big Premier Inn about 10 minutes' ride from Birmingham's New Street Station is helpful and friendly, and says they have rooms available, but that we have to book online.

One big problem is that my bank card is a Taiwanese one and jumping through the hoops to make a reservation is a tedious rigmarole. The receptionist helps us out with the address part and eventually we are able to get the payment made, but only after a code is sent from my bank to my email, which Debbie can thankfully check on her phone within the limited time it's valid.

We get allocated a big room that allows both bikes to get parked in, but the bad news is the hotel rate here tomorrow is almost triple tonight's - over £200 a night, without breakfast. Booking dot com shows other hotels in the city are all charging similar rates - for some unknown reason - so we decide it's best to have one night here and simply head back to Dave's tomorrow by train.

The hotel has a restaurant on the ground floor and that's as far as we venture tonight. We don't have the energy to walk around.

Waiting for our train to Birmingham from Machynlleth

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 926 km (575 miles)

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