ROUGH-STUFF RIDE TO DRYGARN FAWR - Day 1
22.04.11
The warm weather had continued into the Easter holidays as the Brothers left the car park at Llanwrtyd Wells to ride out toward the Cambrian mountains. The lanes of mid Wales quickly took us in to a different state of mind, the Song Thrushes were singing and a Cuckoo called in the hillside. A few years ago we had an icy-cold trek to Drygarn Fawr via a nearby peak called Carnau. Our route that year seemed slow and I reckoned I could do it more easy by cutting on to the path on the ridge, so this year we were both to take different routes to the sacred Drygarn Fawr to see who would reach the summit first! From the tiny village of Abergwesyn the tranquil lanes brought us to Coed Trallwm, a mountain bike centre in the forest, with timber hut accommodation. The forest track rises steeply here, through a few miles of working forestry, to break out onto the open mountainside to reach Carnau at 537m. From here our paths took different directions, Nick made his way straight over the tussocks for the summit of Drygarn whilst I went slightly north to find the sheep track through the treacherous Bryn Rhudd bog. I was completely out of site of the peak of Drygarn making it a bit disconcerting, however, I followed my GPS, and eventually joined up with the main walker's path. The sun blazed down straight into my face and as the twin cairns of the summit came into view, I saw the silhouette of Nick, he had arrived at the lower cairn, I was beaten! I arrived 25 minutes later, I was not disappointed as I had had a good and enjoyable ascent, which seemed a lot easier than the last time! It was a bit windy at the top but the 4000 year old cairn gave us shelter for a fantastic BBQ of sausages, burgers, steak and onions! There is no restaurant in the world with a view like this! Darkness came around 21:00 and it was not long before we retired to our tents for a good nights rest.
Day 1 ~ Day 2
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Day 1 ~ Day 2