First weekend in June, Friday 18:00hrs, me and Jon Summerson left Southwold in Suffolk, with our bikes, back packs, grey chilling weather and headed West.
We already knew the back packs would hamper us, but we needed to carry enough food and equipment so we could avoid civilisation as much as possible. The first 150km would bring us into St Ives at Midnight. It was was nice being on familiar roads when it was dark, we stopped at Jon’s for a fry up for an hour and half, then set off into the dark again. We were carrying portable power packs to recharge lights and Garmin’s, our only gripe continued to be the backpacks, we had to stop every hour or so, so we didn’t get any problems further along.
Not long after leaving St Ives the hills get a bit bigger as we approach Northants, we skirted around the top of Northampton, heading for the M1 crossing, one more hill then a long downhill and flat into and through Leamington Spa and Warwick, not long now until we start to encounter the Shropshire Hills (ouch). Passing North of Worcester, we headed on into Shropshire, it was constant up and down, oh and steep, think La Doyenne! We eventually found ourselves parked up in my Aunty and Uncles garage atop Clee Hill, just outside of Ludlow, for coffee and Sarnies, picked up overnight gear from Phoebe and restocked the carbs.
40mph off Clee Hill, then not fun going round in circles in Ludlow, just wanted to show Jon really but wasted our time instead. Think we left Clee Hill at 15:00hrs and we needed to be in Porthmadog by 10pm. First hour or so wasn’t too bad, but then it got relentless. Our next main stop was a pub for Fish and chips in Clun at 17:30hrs, mainly because we didn’t want to go food hunting at the end. Definitely starting to feel it now, but still riding strong, into Wales we go, behind our target time and with some actual proper hills to climb, the descents were fun though!
After Newtown, Jon tried to get some advice on getting to Dolgellau, there are two passes, one long and one steep. Thing is, the Welsh think steep is easier and Long is harder, not when your’re riding 53/39 chainrings! So we turned right as planned and advised, for the short! steep climb through the Machloop, (club weekend trip, I have two routes planned?). We then found ourselves with lights on again, going up another hill and it was straight, Roman straight and relentless, then finally winding our way down and into Porthmadag Just before Midnight.
full trip time 30hrs (3-4 hrs behind target), riding time 20hrs over 545kms, oh we then rode back 170kms to Clee Hill the next day!
James and Jon
