Afan & Glencorrwg - 26-27th May
Drove up on the friday morning with not much drama apart from one sat nav trying to send Tom to Bristol and then mine failing to belive there are two severn bridge crossings - it refuses to go to wales, but will quite happily leave. I have some kind of zenophobic sat nav :-)
After getting lost in Port Talbot (shudder) trying to find a supermarket we found our way to Bryn Bettws Holiday Cabins , which are plush and ace and surrounded by the loudest sheep in the world. Was nice to go somewhere that didn't rip your hand off for money too. Only downside was finding that some dirty gits before us had left their rubbish in the bike store, which smelt so bad you couldn't go near it, and had to be hoiked out with a seatpost (not mine!), leaving a trail of maggots. Ideas of getting a quick run down the wall (the main descent passes straight past the cabins) were postponed due to laziness, a broken rear brake (knackered pad spring caught on disc spokes) and the pressing need to find a shop to get food and most importantly...beer. One quick trip, after much deliberation with the cabin owners, led us to Tescos and the friendly, and unbelieveably welsh checkout women, who wouldnt believe we were 18. Much curry and beer later we were so rock and roll we fell asleep, only to get up as i realised there was no-chance -in-hell that my handbrake was going to hold on the 1in2 gravel slope it was parked on :-)
On a side-note there seems to be no 'standard' totty in Wales. They are either stunning or 'not-even-with-yours'.
Saturday:
Rose bright and early, felt sick from excess curry and alcohol, took a shower in the weakest power shower ever and after meeting up with Rob and Weller (Swansea Uni) buggered off to Afan Forest Park.
Penhydd:
A horrible first 6km climb took us seemingly forever, but inbetween burping chicken tikka and listening to tom wondering whether his Coiler was overkill we made it to the top of Desolation. 2 lovely fast dry singletrack sections later, and a few climbs and we were at Hidden Valley, which is possibly the best section of trail ever. Wound our way along the trail and popped out into the car park in seemingly no-time. Wellers bike was becoming a nightmare (dropping the chain every two mins) so him and Tom set off to Skyline Cycles to find a cheap chain device and the rest of us decided the best thing to do was eat a massive amount of chips and get half-ripped on coffee.
The Wall:
After the crushing dissapointment (for Tom) that the uplift wasn't running, and for Weller that there were no cheap chain devices seemingly in Wales the climb commenced. Bit of a slog, but punctuated by some nice singletrack, and some short descents. The downhill is well worth it though. Lovely rocky singletrack with jumps and bumps all over. Very hard on the body though, and by half way down i could hardly brake and was struggling to keep up with the guys in front. Georgie was flying along, sticking to Tom's back wheel. Wellers chain had fallen off again, and Rob seemed unfazed by any of it :-) Downside was riding up the last 100m slate climb into the visitor centre, and legs locking the cramp and collapsing off the bike at the top onto the grass, legs shooting out involuntary, to the amusement off everyone else there :-)
Spaghetti, more beer and some Dragonforce and Kasabian finished the night off, plus more bike fettling.
Sunday:
Woke to horizontal rain and horrible creaking sounds from the cabin (may have been from Georgie though in hindsight).
Got ready slowly, ate breakfast slowly, put bikes in car slowly, drove slowly to Glencorryg slowly, all the time wishing the rain away. It got heavier instead. Ended up kitted up and sat in the Drop-Off cafe, drinking coffee, eating bacon sarnies and watcing the weather (oh and listening to Tom, who didn't have a jacket, whinge about the rain) :-)
After some positive reinforcement from the cafe staff ("you soft southern jessies"), and slightly concerned about the amounts of body armour and travel appearing from Whites Level, we got out onto the Trail.
Weather turned out to be a bonus as we disappeared into the treeline, making the brilliant technical singletrack climb of Whites Level nice and atmospheric as we cut through the mist, and stopping us from boiling in the still air amongst the trees. I was timing us up there, but i smacked the button on my computer, and with all the grit, it stuck down, erasing all our max speeds and mileage in the process. Arse
At top we met Ian from the cafe, who had chased us up the hill, and set off down the black section, round the lovely berms, over the twin doubles and down the rocky drop to a fireroad. Part of Whites was shut for forestry work, but it was a weekend their was no-one about (except for someone asleep in a car next to a caravan) and we road up the fireroad to the top of the trail again, only missing a small section. Carried on down the singletrack, over the slippery shore section (fall into nettles and brambles if you get it wrong - nice!) and worked our way down the trail. Awesome bit of trail.
Can't wait to go back, although i am now eyeing up some Pikes and bigger discs!
Pics coming when I manage to get them from Georgie
After getting lost in Port Talbot (shudder) trying to find a supermarket we found our way to Bryn Bettws Holiday Cabins , which are plush and ace and surrounded by the loudest sheep in the world. Was nice to go somewhere that didn't rip your hand off for money too. Only downside was finding that some dirty gits before us had left their rubbish in the bike store, which smelt so bad you couldn't go near it, and had to be hoiked out with a seatpost (not mine!), leaving a trail of maggots. Ideas of getting a quick run down the wall (the main descent passes straight past the cabins) were postponed due to laziness, a broken rear brake (knackered pad spring caught on disc spokes) and the pressing need to find a shop to get food and most importantly...beer. One quick trip, after much deliberation with the cabin owners, led us to Tescos and the friendly, and unbelieveably welsh checkout women, who wouldnt believe we were 18. Much curry and beer later we were so rock and roll we fell asleep, only to get up as i realised there was no-chance -in-hell that my handbrake was going to hold on the 1in2 gravel slope it was parked on :-)
On a side-note there seems to be no 'standard' totty in Wales. They are either stunning or 'not-even-with-yours'.
Saturday:
Rose bright and early, felt sick from excess curry and alcohol, took a shower in the weakest power shower ever and after meeting up with Rob and Weller (Swansea Uni) buggered off to Afan Forest Park.
Penhydd:
A horrible first 6km climb took us seemingly forever, but inbetween burping chicken tikka and listening to tom wondering whether his Coiler was overkill we made it to the top of Desolation. 2 lovely fast dry singletrack sections later, and a few climbs and we were at Hidden Valley, which is possibly the best section of trail ever. Wound our way along the trail and popped out into the car park in seemingly no-time. Wellers bike was becoming a nightmare (dropping the chain every two mins) so him and Tom set off to Skyline Cycles to find a cheap chain device and the rest of us decided the best thing to do was eat a massive amount of chips and get half-ripped on coffee.
The Wall:
After the crushing dissapointment (for Tom) that the uplift wasn't running, and for Weller that there were no cheap chain devices seemingly in Wales the climb commenced. Bit of a slog, but punctuated by some nice singletrack, and some short descents. The downhill is well worth it though. Lovely rocky singletrack with jumps and bumps all over. Very hard on the body though, and by half way down i could hardly brake and was struggling to keep up with the guys in front. Georgie was flying along, sticking to Tom's back wheel. Wellers chain had fallen off again, and Rob seemed unfazed by any of it :-) Downside was riding up the last 100m slate climb into the visitor centre, and legs locking the cramp and collapsing off the bike at the top onto the grass, legs shooting out involuntary, to the amusement off everyone else there :-)
Spaghetti, more beer and some Dragonforce and Kasabian finished the night off, plus more bike fettling.
Sunday:
Woke to horizontal rain and horrible creaking sounds from the cabin (may have been from Georgie though in hindsight).
Got ready slowly, ate breakfast slowly, put bikes in car slowly, drove slowly to Glencorryg slowly, all the time wishing the rain away. It got heavier instead. Ended up kitted up and sat in the Drop-Off cafe, drinking coffee, eating bacon sarnies and watcing the weather (oh and listening to Tom, who didn't have a jacket, whinge about the rain) :-)
After some positive reinforcement from the cafe staff ("you soft southern jessies"), and slightly concerned about the amounts of body armour and travel appearing from Whites Level, we got out onto the Trail.
Weather turned out to be a bonus as we disappeared into the treeline, making the brilliant technical singletrack climb of Whites Level nice and atmospheric as we cut through the mist, and stopping us from boiling in the still air amongst the trees. I was timing us up there, but i smacked the button on my computer, and with all the grit, it stuck down, erasing all our max speeds and mileage in the process. Arse
At top we met Ian from the cafe, who had chased us up the hill, and set off down the black section, round the lovely berms, over the twin doubles and down the rocky drop to a fireroad. Part of Whites was shut for forestry work, but it was a weekend their was no-one about (except for someone asleep in a car next to a caravan) and we road up the fireroad to the top of the trail again, only missing a small section. Carried on down the singletrack, over the slippery shore section (fall into nettles and brambles if you get it wrong - nice!) and worked our way down the trail. Awesome bit of trail.
Can't wait to go back, although i am now eyeing up some Pikes and bigger discs!
Pics coming when I manage to get them from Georgie
posted by Tim at 8:37 AM
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