Cardiff

LAST DAY on the road. Approx. 60 miles was waiting for me to complete my charity cycle. The fundraising was a very good motivation on the hard days, but the thought that this was the finish run, that today I would see my girlfriend and my friends who supported me all the time gave me an extra push to GO GO GO.
I am going to miss my Welsh discovery days, but I think ten days is just on the boundary between a long trip and a lifestyle. As I knew that I wouldn't stay on the road for months or years, for me that was the perfect amount of time to spend exploring the unknown and spreading Ty Hafan's message.

Between Llanelli to Swansea was a beautiful park. The cycle path was under the shade of trees touching above the road. Then a nice ride alongside the the sunny Swansea beach, and then... I thought I was back in the polluted part of Pančevo, Serbia. The cycle path led me through the industrial zone of Port Talbot, following the main road from roundabout to another. The first time that Route 4 left the main road, it went into the wild. The nice Margam Park is really worth a visit, but it didn't suit me either because it only had dirt roads, and as it slowed me down quite a lot, I decided to leave the National Cycling Route. I was too excited to get back to Cardiff, so I just got onto the main A48 road, and finished the last 25 miles of my 9 day long cycling trip in a sprint back to the city. Because of my need for speed I didn't stop to take any pictures, but to be honest that last chunk didn't have any new landscapes for me.
In Cardiff I got a welcoming applause from my housemates, and with that warm welcome my 9 days cycling +1 day resting trip around Wales came to its end. The time has come to lay back and open a beer.

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.

Solva

After two days without sunshine, the brightness woke me up on the 8th day of my trip. Being a bit scared of the seaside wind, I reduced the day's miles and added them on to the next one, which will be hopefully easier with the wind behind me.

It seems that I was wrong about the coastal weather, as I got to St. Davids at in 4 hours.
Solva, the place where Tom, a Couchsurfer, was waiting for me was the next village from here. After I finished my sunbathing at the side of Britain's smallest city's biggest ruin, I turned towards Cardiff. Tom showed me his 'private' beach and some nice (in the world's top 10) footpaths nearby.
The coast is amazing here, but I couldn't take any nice pictures. I think I'm losing the power of taking pictures of my trip. So sorry about the decreasing quality of my shots, I hope there is still a good one per day that you like. If there aren't any, then I can recommend these places to you, so you can see their beauty with your own eyes. These cliffs will probably be around for another few decades. 

Short ride, short post, and some pictures from Felinwynt to St. Davids:

Felinwynt + Wild card rest day

I wanted to start early on the sixth day, as I was very excited about the reunion with Alfi. He's Angela's dog, my ex-landlady from Cardiff. She invited me to visit them in their hostel in West Wales during my trip. 

So, lots of exciting meetings planned for the day. But, the weather got in my way... I wanted to have lunch with her and her husband, but I couldn't even start cycling from Machynlleth before 11 a.m.

That day was horrible. The worst thing I could do that day was cycling. 

I started the coastline route with a very powerful storm. There weren't any nice moment; hailstones, rain and constant wind were hitting my face all day. That wasn't only the most challenging cycle, but most challenging activity of my life so far. The two things that motivated me were some fellow travellers' good luck wishes who I met on the road, and that I didn't want to fail fundraising for Ty Hafan.

While having a little break in Aberystwyth's harbour, I got literally scared of the weather. The sky was darker than the sea, and the wind was louder than my thoughts. 

Fighting the wind for 10 hours, being blown off the road a few times, pedalling with all my power even downhill, I almost reached my finish line for the day with an average 6 mph speed. My hosts came to look for me on the road as I was so late, and they gave my bike and I a lift for the last 2-3 miles.

It wasn't hard to fall asleep after that apocalyptic day. 

Nothing had changed when I woke the next morning. After looking out the windows and listening to the storm for about 10 minutes, I felt like it would never stop, and I would end up waiting here, in that big stone house forever, like in the Torin Horse from Bela Tarr. I decided not to ride that day, and rest on my seventh 'Sabbath'.

Luckily, I didn't have to spend all day at the window, as Angela and Paul very kindly showed me around in their beautiful, rustic hostel complex and then drove me to some hidden, secret places nearby.

Machynlleth+The sheep thing

On the fifth day I started my way back to Cardiff.
The guys who hosted me a few days ago offered me a couch in Machyntllath for tonight too, so I came back here, resting a bit after my last hilly day, before I hit the coastline.
Today was cold, windy, wet, hilly, but for some unknown reason it was also my longest distance, and the quickest ride as well. As the bridge at Penrhyndeudraeth was closed I couldn't change too much on my way back, but I still found some interesting segments on my first day - WITHOUT pushing my bike up any hills!
After the empty roads on the weekdays, today I had the chance to join to a convoy of cyclists twice, and share a few thoughts. It was good.

A ship instead of sheep

THE SHEEP THING

Dear population of sheep in Wales,

I know that one of my previous posts was a bit harsh; I said I was bored of seeing you around me all the time. I want to apologize for that sudden aggression. 

You have to know that I am one of you. My nickname, Racka, comes from my surname in Serbian+the the Hungarian -ka ending which means 'junior'. But after having dreadlocks and meeting a band called Rackajam I found out that my name actually belongs to a traditional Hungarian breed of sheep, as well.

I am attaching the only document that proves that I did cycle all the way to the Hungarian-Slovenian-Austrian triple border just to see you sheep. (I was very happy, but my cyclist friend Edina smiled instead of me, because I was too deeply touched to show it on the surface.) 

Penmon+Snowdon

Day 1 - backwind; day 2&3 - fighting the wind; day 4 - no wind. Suspicious. 

Skipped Holyhead, but still wanted to get to the edge of the mainland to take my 'end of the land' photo, and because I have a childish penchant for bridges and lighthouses. So, I've chosen Penmon  as my end-point of Wales.

After discussing Tito, Milosevic, Yugoslavia, Austro-Hungarian Empire and all the good old questions in the last few days, I was wondering where my Yugo nostalgia was coming from. How do I have one at all?
When the smell of the sea hit my face as I cycled along the coastline, a memory came back, clear as playing a tape back. My godparents once took me to Brela, a village on the Croatian  seaside - that's the bluest water I've ever seen. I think when I stayed there with them (a mix of ex-yu adults) that was a magical feeling, seeing their common memories, even though we were in international company. I think, to me, Yugoslavia means a very nice blue, the integrity of the strongest language boundaries, and holidays with whipped cream on the top - which I could have everyday for brunch. What brought all this to mind was the funny smell of the dead seashells.

Magic! There is a saying in Hungarian: every piece of magic lasts for three days. True. After three days without rain (lasting longer than 10 minutes, at least), I got it all on the fourth. Because of that, my day was cut short by 10 miles. I couldn't make it up to Snowdon. :(
BUT, luckily my very kind host Annie saw that sad smiley, and offered me a ride up to the top.

I've named this day my luxury day: bridge, lighthouse, car-ride, reggae music, huge dinner, live music - where the band dedicated one of their songs to my charity cycle, and listening to looooooots of Welsh talk (I didn't hear any English, except when they were talking to me). Beautiful language -  hopefully gonna have enough rain not to dry out these green valleys.  

Caernarfon

After resting my knee a bit, I was ready to continue my journey to Caernarfon. Before leaving Machynlleth, Alan, the guy who hosted me, showed me around the town. He took me to his workplace, a secret garden hidden in the forest few miles away. It was a laboratory for experimenting with alternative energy sources. As it was raining I couldn't take any pictures (but you can always google it).

I said goodbye to him, set off on my bike, and with the wind behind me I started my third day on the road around midday. Even though I was a bit later than my planned start, I was sure that with the help of the wind I would succeed...

The wind blew me to the foot of the next hill. After around half an hour pushing my bike up, I got up to the top of it, in the middle of the farmland. As I had already uploaded loads of photos of sheep, I was starting to feel quite overdosed with their monotone BAAAA echoing in my ears everyday. (As a footnote, I just want to say I have nothing against sheep or any farm animal, but as they completely replaced the human company after I left Brecon, I just wanted some change.)

I decided to continue on the main road. Surprisingly, that was empty as well. There were just a few cars passing by every few minutes. Even though I was happy with the speed I could keep constantly, I thought, 'it's boring here, let's go back to the woods for a while,' as I knew that I would go back to the main road for the last chunk of the daily distance.

There was a nice walk/cycle path around a lake. According to the map I needed to follow that half way through and then turn left... I was looking for the left turn, and looking, and looking, until I'd gone around the whole lake, and got back to the same point even before I'd left the route. I wasn't happy.
Enough of dirt roads, and super-remote uncyclable cycle lanes. Ignoring the the lovely little Route 8 and 82 signs I stayed on the roads all the way to Caernarfon. Managing my extra 10 miles again, I was on the road for about 7 hours, which is a lot less than the second day's 10 hrs. From the next day I will definitely combine A and B roads with the woodland labyrinths.

Caernarfon is a beautiful city with a beautiful main square - pictures to come in the next post. As my knee hasn't got better today (I'm writing this on the fourth morning) I'm looking for a support for it to prevent future uphill "screaming like a horse" effects. Another change, thanks to Jon's (my first host's) advice is that I will skip Holyhead, and head to Snowdon instead. I am staying at the same place for two days, so hopefully will manage the highest hills in Wales with less pushing as I'm not carrying all my luggage today.

Wish me luck, and here is a little illustration of my third day for you:

The last picture is of Caernarfon's main square, which I've just taken while having a rain break & cafe blogging stop.