Day 3. I woke as the dawn light gently stole in through the window. Porridge, packing and pics were sorted, and I was on my way just after 9am. The track to Elan village was by turns smooth and rough, up and down, headwind and tailwind. After the previous day's climbs, my legs were leaden and recalcitrant.
I passed a couple of lonely farmsteads, but the overwhelming feeling was still isolation. There was one unavoidable river crossing, but having stripped off my socks and removed my shoe insoles to minimise waterlogging, I found the rilling water less Baltic than I first feared, and the "minimal absorbent material" approach seemed to work pretty well.
At Garreg Ddu dam, I passed by Nantgwyllt church, a replacement for the original building that lies in the flooded valley below. Across the dam, a rock bears the message, "COFIWCH CWM ELAN" - remember the Elan Valley. When riding in the more remote parts of the UK, it's all too easy to think that you're in an unspoilt wilderness. In reality, those bleak Scottish Highlands are just a massive game farm, bare Welsh hills have been systematically denuded by sheep grazing, and this deep and dark body of water was created by the displacement of whole villages to provide drinking water for Birmingham (or Liverpool, or another big English city…).
Day 3. I woke as the dawn light gently stole in through the window. Porridge, packing and pics were sorted, and I was on my way just after 9am. The track to Elan village was by turns smooth and rough, up and down, headwind and tailwind. After the previous day's climbs, my legs were leaden and recalcitrant.
I passed a couple of lonely farmsteads, but the overwhelming feeling was still isolation. There was one unavoidable river crossing, but having stripped off my socks and removed my shoe insoles to minimise waterlogging, I found the rilling water less Baltic than I first feared, and the "minimal absorbent material" approach seemed to work pretty well.
At Garreg Ddu dam, I passed by Nantgwyllt church, a replacement for the original building that lies in the flooded valley below. Across the dam, a rock bears the message, "COFIWCH CWM ELAN" - remember the Elan Valley. When riding in the more remote parts of the UK, it's all too easy to think that you're in an unspoilt wilderness. In reality, those bleak Scottish Highlands are just a massive game farm, bare Welsh hills have been systematically denuded by sheep grazing, and this deep and dark body of water was created by the displacement of whole villages to provide drinking water for Birmingham (or Liverpool, or another big English city…).