Welshies

Distance- 96km

Hereford to Pontypridd


...And then we cycled into Wales amidst a blaze of glory, cheering fans, adoring spectators, idolizing teens and mad devil men!


But of course, as you must have already guessed this was all part of my dream, and sadly we hadn't really gotten anywhere at all by this stage, and so the truth was, or is, that I, we, are still laying in the tent, in our sleeping bags, really close to each other, because as you all know it's a small tent, and it only fits two small people, so even if we wanted to be further away we couldn't be, because it wouldn't be possible. 


And then I heard some dogs, sniffing, curious sniffles, coming closer... but not close enough, good they didn't notice us, or they made an educated guess that bums in the forest have no food on hand and so didn't bother. But now I think about it I don't know any dogs that you might call educated so I'll guess that the former was more likely than the latter.


Actually, as luck would have it we had found a spot that somehow made everyone else walking in the National park visible and conspicuous to us, but us not so visible, or inconspicuous to them. What a mouth full. 


We shook all the spiders off the tent, they seem particularly attracted to it here in England, packed up as quickly as we could, rubbed the sleep from our eyes... and discovered a fantastic toilet block as we were riding out.


To make matters even more exceedingly great and excellent we discovered, almost simultaneously, that next to the above mentioned toilets there was a cafe with very affordable food. Throwing my peanut butter sandwich that was so dry it was making me choke back into the bread bag I made a dash to the counter, and ordered a big breakfast.


Almost an hour later and full as dogs we rode off toward Wales.


Sore legs, tired heads, aching bums, we rode across the 'heavily policed' 'border check point' into Welshieland. And then all of a sudden things changed.


The hills went higher, the sun became warmer, and the beer became cooler. 


But that last part could be purely speculation, because we never stopped, well OK not never, we had a diminutive intermission to fix a puncture, then we jumped over a fence next to a waterfall for some water, and then we stopped at some bushes to get rid of the water that we drank from the waterfall, and then, and then we stopped in Pontypridd. Stinking of sweat, blood, and tears, exhausted, satisfied, happy to be...


Happy to have made it.