Llanelli

After my trauma from the stormy day from Felinwynt to Solva I followed Route 4 and the main road. As I cut off approx. 15 miles from that day I had to be smart about the 9th (8th cycling) day's distance. The only thing I knew was that I didn't want main roads any more. Route 4 was there for me, but that goes around the coast, so that would have been around 80+ miles for that day - which I didn't want.

I found an alternative option which came to around 70 miles in total to Llanelli. A challenging one.

I had to cycle through about 10 villages on very regional roads. As I expected there were barely any road signs, or if there were, then my map didn't show those villages, and there were literally zero pedestrians/cyclists on the streets to help me guess the direction.

As a Welsh person would say: no worries, happy days. I've dealt with back-roads earlier in my pedal-life. The time had come to pump up my navigation skills, zoom in to all the turns on my map, make it through the farmland and rejoin Route 4 at St Claire. And I made it!

The way to Llanelli wasn't particularly interesting, expect for the shock at seeing kids playing football and other games on urban streets. I thought that activity had died out.  

After an old school 9 hours cycling, I navigated to the right house where my host, Sue, was waiting for me. She's reeeeally into maps. She has a shelf full with old, new, walking, cycling, city, every kind of map. We covered the whole living room with them and repeated, "it's amazing, it's amazing"... Then suddenly I realised that tomorrow was my last cycling day, the day when I get back to my place. So, I immediately closed the maps, and went to bed. I needed a big sleep after the tiring day to recharge my batteries for the finish ride.