Back to the badlands, well Llanwrtyd Wells.

Last weekend I went back to Llanwrtyd Wells with Susan and quite a few of her friends. About half the group were meeting up to do some kayaking and the other half to do some mountain biking. I was obviously going to have a go at the latter.

Unfortunately we were running very late and Susan didn't get to my place till 10.30pm on Friday so we weren't to arrive in Llanwrtyd Wells till 1.30am. We were going to stay at a hostel in the town and a couple of Susan's friends kindly stayed up to let us in.

Here's Dinny and Susan at the start point of our first days riding. You can see Susan's car fully loaded with bikes and kayaks! The weather was quite good if very cold at around 1 degrees C!

Just by the start of the ride was a giant overflow chute for a reservoir. It was absolutely massive and the kayakers were talking about going down it in their kayaks. Something totally illegal but possibly quite fun too. Now I wonder if I could do it on a snowboard, with some snow obviously as I'm not totally mad.

After a few decent climbs and descents with the usual great welsh scenery we had a very tough ascent up some slate trails. It was quite difficult to make it to the top and we all had to stop and walk at one point or another. However once we got to the top there was a fabulous view over some of the surrounding valleys.

Susan took this (and some of the other photos here) of me starting to come down from the top. You can just make out Alison in the background. I think I must have my usual insane grin on my face as I was probably having a good time.

After a good descent we followed a path around the edge of the valley. All around us were some stunning views such as this.

Here's (from left to right) Will, Catherine and Dinny catching a breath and admiring the scenery. You can make out the narrow track that we were cycling along. At times it was quite muddy and consequently very slippery.

At the same point as before, Susan is taking a photo of Alison as she catches up with us. The river around the valley that we followed is along the left. We really were in the Welsh valleys and couldn't hear or see a road, only the sound of me falling off my bike...

While riding over a particularly bumpy part of the trail I came across a technical bit that Catherine and Alison had stopped at. I tried to ride up it and almost made it but then ran out of power (and weight on my pedal) and fell left onto my bike. As I put my right leg down it sank totally into the mud right up to my knee!

At the time I didn't notice that I had caught my right calf muscle on the big cog of my bike and caused quite a small deep cut. It wasn't until we stopped upon coming to a gate that Alison noticed all the blood running down my leg. It didn't hurt because my legs were so cold and also because I was having so much fun. I patched up my leg and tried to stop the bleeding and then we carried on.

There was one final long climb back to the cars. Fortunately it was on the road but it was very long and I enjoyed every exhausting minute of it. :-)

Once I got back to the hostel I got a chance to check out the damage to my leg properly. This photo taken with my camera phone actually makes the damage look quite spectacular. Actually most of the red is just blood and the only damage is the two dark patches on the right hand side. It wasn't as bad as I thought but it does look good and did bleed quite a bit. :-)

Later in the evening fortunately I could replace the lost iron in my blood with plenty of pints of Guinness in the pub next door to the hostel. Before we went there, actually it was in the middle of a couple of pints in the pub, back to the hostel for a fantastic stew made by Susan and then back to the pub for a few more beers. A fantastic evening of beer, great home made food and more beer followed by some very drunken pool skills!

On Sunday Will, Catherine, Dinny, Alison and I went out to do a red and blue bike run that was very close to the main beer stop at the Real Ale Wobble. The others all went to do some kayaking. Will did have the most to drink the previous night and wasn't quite feeling in top form. He had to throw up about half way up the first ascent up the red run. It was a very, very long climb to get to the top, but once we got there it was even more of a challenge to come down!

This was probably the most technical part of the descent on the red run. We had to zig zag down a long path to the base of this hill. It didn't help that the ground was mostly frozen so the tractor trails made horrible ruts to ride through. I fell off my bike several times (only bruises and smiles) and also had to walk some of the descent, but it was still fun all the same, if a little frustrating at times. By the way, we didn't cause the deforestation in the picture!

Once we completed the red run Catherine, Alison and I went and rode a blue run while Will and Dinny took a long tea break. This was slightly less of an ascent and the descent was much less technical with a track which was much less bumpy going through the forests.

After we finished riding we met up with the others in Mertha Tydfil to browse some very cheap book stores and have some lunch. Unfortunately for the others, they couldn't do any kayaking as the river levels were much to low and they would end up pushing their kayaks along the river rather than paddling along.

Still it didn't detract from a fantastic weekend of cycling and meeting some new friends. I had a great time and would love to get out again with the same group for more cycling, and possibly some paddling as well... maybe...

I'd like to thank Becky for my early new Christmas present, some full cycling gloves for the winter. I'm sure they helped stop me getting more grazes and cuts on my fingertips!