Page 152 - Classics Issue

some cool tunes on the iPhone and Jambox and we enjoyed the peace and tranquillity of being in the middle of nowhere with the warm late afternoon sun on our tired, muddy faces as the ice-cold beers slipped down all too well. A long hot shower in the excellent facilities followed before a short walk into the village to soak up some local hospitality, we found a great pub - The Kings Head Inn and dived into ham hock, steak and chips and local ale, followed by a cheeky couple of shots of whisky in the Castle Hotel -the perfect end to a perfect day. We stumbled back in the twilight, legs dragging, arms aching and fell into our respective comfy net pods in the tent and pretty much passed out – it was only 9:30pm…The break of dawn and nature called! Thanks to the thermostatic fan heater our tent was very warm and cosy and therefore I was completely unprepared for the shock that was about to greet me as I unzipped the tent, the sun was just creeping up but there was a hard frost and a layer of ice across our bikes – as I scampered across the grass I could see my breath in the half light and my body temperature dropped in a matter of seconds, having dealt with pressing matters as quickly as possible without getting frost-bite to any essential parts, I was back into the warmth of the tent, in my sleeping bag and under my duvet. I slept for another 2 hours, unheard of for me, probably the longest and best sleep I have had in months, there is a lot to be said for ‘getting away from it all’ for a few days.Well rested we headed for a different choice of ‘full English’ at a little café in the village, talk about old school when we asked for coffee the chap put two odd mugs on the counter and proceeded to spoon Nescafe from a catering size tin, added hot water and then directed us to the milk in a carton on the table – glamorous! When seated at the wooden table with a vinyl pattern table cloth straight out of the sixties, we were then presented with a plate stacked with white plastic bread and a thinly smeared layer of margarine, however when the breakfast itself arrived the bacon was fantastic - obviously local, as were the sausages and the black pudding, all cooked to perfection. Once again, our bellies were full and ready for a big ride out into the hills again.We needed to put a lot of miles under our belt but still found time to stop in a great little café just before we hit the trails, where the coffee came from a fne steam driven Italian contraption that popped, banged and smoked like an old Moto Guzzi, but this was real coffee, served by a very friendly chap who was also an avid biker and was doing everything he could muster on social media to put his venue on the map for our 2-wheeled clan, we promised to Tweet and Facebook accordingly. We soaked up the coffee and the sun at the roadside, it was going to be a good day.Our second day in equally great weather allowed us to take in some awesome countryside and Ade was keen to show me something even more spectacular. We climbed mountain roads and then tracks to a collection of stunning reservoirs the main being the Claerwen that also incorporated an extremely impressive dam, only accessible by tracks, we road right up to it, across some streams and tributaries and then all the way round the perimeter, which was a long dusty trail that allowed high speed pursuit and drifting the bike through the soft gravel, very satisfying indeed. There was a moment leading up to the dam itself that required a steep assent up a rocky wet track with deep ruts and high banks either side, this route had clearly been cut by a massive tractor or some heavy duty plant machinery and it was on a section of this climb that I had my frst proper ‘off’ of the weekend, descending down a rut through quite a deep water gully that I could not see the bottom of and the front wheel seemed to slip down the side of a submerged rock. The bike threw me off the high-side (effectively going up and over like a high-jumper doing a Fosbury fop) and I was in the mud with the bike now on top of me and trapping my left leg, Ade did not see me as he was laying the trail ahead and only when he fnally stopped a good way up the hill did he spin round and come to my rescue, by which time I had managed to detach myself from the underside of the bike and proceeded to get back in the saddle, wet and bruised but no harm done. After more long tracks, felds, sharing our journey with woolly cows and thousands of sheep (it’s true what they say) we headed down toward civilisation and stopped to re-fuel and for lunch in one of the many pretty villages that act like eyelets to the roads and tracks that lace the countryside. On our journey we came across an old monastery with the usual visitor centre and gift shop set up which was thoughtfully selling ice cream (yes it was that hot!)