ARCHIVE Looking for Manmoel

The weather has been simply horrible this spring... relentless rain and temperatures seemingly glued to 5 degrees Celsius (41 F.).

So when I arose to a morning of sunshine in mid-March, despite being cold and windy, I set off for a well deserved ride. My goal was to head up the mountain behind our house to Manmoel, then over the barren hilltop to Tredegar and back down NCN Route 467.

After an hour, I reached the upper moors where the wind was blowing like mad!

AIt's such a wonder to me that these massive vistas are less that 10 miles from my back door. It's not an easy climb and the road gets VERY rough at the top... but good lord.

So after a few quick photos... I headed down the mountain to the cycle path.

AND....... they say in Wales you can get three seasons in a day... well...

I found that to be very true, indeed.

By the time I had reached Markham, the snow was sticking. 

Aside from being simply breathtaking, this short 22 mile route is a special one for me because it is the very first route I rode my Dawes bike back in January of 2012.

So... I've been remiss with keeping my posts up to date of my rides over the past couple of months. There's no excuse for that, but I'll be working to get caught up. Hopefully, I'll have several more posts to add over the next few days. Thanks again for stopping by.

Cheers! - cm