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: