Ok, not literally frozen but last Saturday the temperature dipped quite significantly. Where we were getting used to the temperatures creeping into a double digits it was positively Baltic on Saturday.
Just when Laura and I decided to meet and spend a day on our bikes. We are no fair weather riders, having in the past ridden in pouring rain so we knew a little bit of cold won’t stop us.
We started by meeting for breakfast at Ponderosa on top of the famous Horeshoe Pass near Llangollen. No proper ride out should start without a full fry up. Except for Laura, she’s a vegetarian so her plate lacked bacon. And sausages. And black pudding. Eugh.
Enough of the food. Our next stop was Crossgates at the petrol station and a cafe that welcomes bikers for a warm cup of coffee to warm our hands up and a refill of fuel, just in case. The route to there is a bit boring until you get to Newtown but the road after that starts to twist and turn and makes up for the dullsville to get you there.
Once we’ve warmed up we picked up the road to Elan Valley and stopped at the visitor centre for a read about the Valley and the reservoirs. Interestingly, this is the area with the most rainfall in the UK and my third time visiting it and it’s been sunny on each occasion. I consider myself very lucky to have seen it in such glorious weather.
We’ve stopped several times to admire the views and take some photos before we headed towards Devil’s Bridge. This is normally quite a busy place especially with bikers but there were only a handful of us. We’ve stopped for a sandwich and a walk to see the bridge then proceeded our ride to Aberystwyth.
We’ve stopped for some fish, chips and mushy peas (or chips and mushy peas for Laura) on the Aberystwyth promenade before heading over to Bala via Machynlleth and Dolgellau. Fantastic roads on that route especially the A487 Mach Loop boasts some fantastic views. We’ve stopped for another warm up brew at Bala before picking up the A4212 road to the turn off for Cerrigydrudion on B4501 which I think is my new favourite road.
Passing the Llyn Brenig from last week’s ride out we parted ways in Groes where Laura headed to a village near Denbigh and I proceeded to ride home through Ruthin and over the Nant Y Garth back to Wrexham.
