Well what a cracking ride day two of our Wales adventure was; Hay-on-Wye - Bullith Wells - Rhayader - Llanidloes - Machynlleth - Bala and finally camped up at Penrhyndeudraeth. 180 miles in total.
The day started early (for me) at 5:30 when I woke and couldn't get back to sleep so I fired up the jetboil and got a stiff coffee on to help wake me up properly. After packing up the slightly dewy tents and loading the bikes we were off ....... errr, well, no we weren't cos Russ's bike battery was too weak to start it cos he left the light's on for too long when we arrived at the campsite. No bother, jumper pack to the rescue and we were off, by 8am.
A nice A-Road ride to Bulith Wells where we found a burger van that did a decent brekkie bap and a nice coffee. From there it was onwards to Rhayader and a quick stop by the clock tower in the centre for a piccy (we've visited Rhayader many times on the Enduro bikes but this was a first on the Adventure bikes). Exiting Rhayader we headed for the reservoirs in the Elan Valley and the lovely mountain passes and the scenery did not disappoint, absolutely stunning. The reservoirs were very low but the upper most reservoir was cascading over the dam wall. As it flowed into the next reservoir through a narrow gorge it created a turbulent water cascade which was worth a closer look so we parked the bikes and walked down under the bridge. From here we continued along the glorious undulating roads along the Elan Valley with a few stops for pictures, but honestly the camera doesn't do the scenery justice.
Exiting the Elan valley we passed through Devils Bridge then along the lovely A44 which was a twisty, windy 60mph road along the Wye valley, superb which took up to Llanidloes where we stopped for a coffee and a choccy bar.
From here it was the mountain road to Machynlleth. Along this road we saw a lookout point over Llyn Clywedog Reservoir then another vantage point looking down the Dylife Gorge.
After a short lunch stop at Machynlleth we tracked along the Dovey River and valley which was a lovely undulating road again which eventually rose up and up and up to Bwlch y Groes which is in Snowdonia. Amazing panoramic views from here. From here the road out of this mountain pass was twisty, and winding and undulating and brought us to Bala where we had intended to stop for the night but as it was only 4pm we had a quick coffee and cake pit stop then continued on towards Llan Ffestiniog via another winding road across the open moorland with the mountains in the distance. The temperature had dropped by this point and the vents on the jacket were zipped up as we stopped to determine where best to camp for the night and - more importantly - where to get fuel as I was running low. Asking the advice of a local lady she directed us towards Penrhyndeudraeth as this was the only fuel station for miles around (in the direction we were headed). We found the fuel station, brimmed the tanks then made our way to the recommended campsite which was £10/person/night and had a decent hot shower and only a short walk into the town for beer and food which is where we're heading now (as I finish typing this).
Another great day and looking forward to tomorrow.
