To Llanidloes

June 19, 2024

Short ride, short post. I promise.

We were both a little surprised to see how short today’s ride was, barely fifteen miles to move from one three night stay to the next. Oddly enough neither of us was complaining much though. Maybe we finally are getting of a mind to stop moving around quite so much as we have in the past seven years.

It would have been a fine day for a longer ride though. Weather is ideal - sunny and about five degrees warmer than yesterday - and the route is excellent as we ride empty tarmac roads and follow the steadily diminishing Wye the whole way. It’s the route chosen by all of the NCN 8, NCN 81, and EV2, so it’s obviously the best choice. With all that going for it, who are we to complain if it includes a 15-17% slope here and there? Not the intrepid Team Anderson!

We like it that these scenic old skeletons are left standing.

Image not found :( — Typical of the day. Not bad at all.

Pretty scary! These two vicious beasts charged out the driveway while I was taking that shot, sniffed my feet, and then turned away to look for something more appealing.

We liked this wall here, lined with stone slabs.

We’ve had the road to ourselves for the most part but decided we should yield for this guy.

If we can wait for that log hauler I guess we can wait for this guinea fowl too.

That log truck that forced us off the road is just a short hauler, taking logs downhill to the nearest road large enough for a longer truck to carry them on I suppose. I wonder how long that poor car has been trapped there?

One of the last views of the Wye we’ll get this time through.

Gorgeous. Looks like it belongs in a national park.

The last of the Wye, as it bends west into the hills here at Llangurig to its source only about ten miles away while we turn east.

Another temptation passed, in Llangurig. We could have stopped but there’s one last hill to climb and a lunch date to arrive on time for.

That last climb is over the divide between the Wye and Severn Rivers, the two largest ones flowing out of mid-Wales. They both originate in the heights of the Cambrian Mountains, just a few miles from each other. The horse and rider waited for us to pass, which was unfortunate because it meant we were shamed to stay ahead of them on the climb. Fortunately they soon turned off.

Entering Llanidloes, crossing the Severn on the Short Bridge.

Video sound track: Hillside View, by Ancient Future

We arrive at the Unicorn Hotel not long after one, safely in time for their lunch service which ends at two. Its one we took pains not to miss since the hotel’s restaurant won’t be open for dinner and there are few other choices in this small town. Rachael enjoyed her mountainous Chicken Taj Gourmet Buttie, but my duck was pretty tough and rubbery. No complaints about the bubbly bottle of Butty Bach though.

Perfect! It’s like seeing a small perched bird. I make fast work with the camera before it gets away.

The towering Taj Buttie (Ciabatta, Potato Rosti, Pan Fried Chicken, Mini Vegetable Samosa, & Curry Mayonnaise, Side Salad, Mango Chutney and Chips).

Were done and in our room before three, leaving plenty of time for a walk along the river and into the wooded preserve across on the other side. But that can wait. If I included that this wouldn’t be the short post I promised.

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Today's ride: 15 miles (24 km)
Total: 2,236 miles (3,598 km)

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Steve Miller/GrampiesBy the way, do you know the song "The Bells of Rhymney", written by Pete Seeger, about Welsh mining towns? It was covered by John Denver, the Byrds, and many others. Songs that mention place names are fun, especially if cycling near the places. Another one is "Borderlands" by Archie Fisher, naming towns along the Tweed. This impressed me so that I have already plotted out a route among those towns:

From the moorlands in the meadows
To the city of the shadows
Where I wander old and lonely
Comes a call I understand
In clear soft notes enthralling
It is calling, ever calling
'Tis the spirit of the open
From the dear old borderland
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4 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Steve Miller/GrampiesThanks for the comment! I do know that song, ever since college - it was a track on Judy Collins #3, one of the first folk albums I owned. I never associated it with Wales or understood the theme though, and reading the lyrics now I see I didn’t Raven hear them all correctly.

I haven’t heard Borderlands before, but we do know the Tweed. In our first tour of the UK (Northern Britain 2005) we biked east up the Tweed from Berwick to the great ruined Borderland abbeys. It’s country I’d love to see again someday.

You’re plotting out a possible tour through there?
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4 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesBorderland is a song that affected me a lot, even the depressing but so true "In the city's clang and clatter,one old man less won't matter". Still, I took the lyrics and turned them into a .gpx. If we ever return to the UK, I will dust it off. You can see and hear Archie Fisher with it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leomhFmH62o
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4 months ago