This weekend was probably one of the best weekends I have had in this country. Or in the UK I mean. The reason for that- I went on a bicycle trip with G. We went to Brecon Beacons National park which is located north from Cardiff.
The trip started on Thursday evening for me, when I finished work and packed my bag to go to Cardiff. Firstly, the bag I wanted to take with me to the trip, broke
because of the weight it had to carry. So I had to take a lot more uncomfortable bag. Then, when I started cycling, the chain of my bicycle came off. Repaired it quickly. And then, with some rain, I cycled to Weston. I catched the train to Cardiff, tried to go to a pub G told me to meet him (got lost several times due to misunderstanding the instructions). When I finally managed to get to the pub, I met one of G's friends there and we just stayed there for a little while. And then headed to G's place where we stayed up quite late.
In the morning just before heading off to the trip, we discovered I had a flat tire. So the beginning of the trip was a bit delayed. But nevermind. We cycled out of Cardiff, through the castle grounds and then made a break after cycling for about an hour. G had hurt one of his rib muscles somehow so he wasn't feeling the best and we decided to take a train to Merthyr. After half an hour in the train we got off and started heading towards Brecon. The ride was nice, although we had some rain, it wasn't a downpour. During our trip we saw in one place a tiny boy, about 4 years old, who was driving
with a bicycle, swearing hard and telling that he's a professional :) Great laugh.
We cycled through some towns, past some beautiful mountains. The Taff trail is really nice. But then... We had a bit of a problem because some of the signs on the trail disappeared (probably someone had stolen them) and we got lost. We managed to end up somewhere in the middle of a wild and very thick forest and decided to make a camp over there. G had a gas heater for hiking, which we used during our breaks to make tea and now
as we set up the camp, we had some more tea and then made campfire as it got darker. We had to be very careful with the camping because we weren't in official campsites. But being in the middle of the forest in nowhere was really cool. We collected some firewood, had a spring right next to us to start cooking so we made some rice with vegetables, Estonian black bread and some Estonian chocolate. It was a very lovely evening, sitting next to a campfire. Proper camping that I hadn't done in a while. In beautiful nature with no-one to disturb us. As we were pretty tired, we went to sleep as soon as we ran out of firewood. It rained during the evening and the whole night. Luckily the tent was good enough and we didn't get wet. It was a bit cold though, because we had no mattresses and were sleeping just on the
ground. And it was a bit tough ground, too, because the ground was all made out of tiny stones. But it was a really nice night. I couldn't sleep too much though, because I was shivering sometimes and also the raindrops falling on the tent made a loud noise. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot- G lost all his gears during the day so he had to do some repairing, also.
The following day we started our trip again around midday. After packing up and removing all the signs of us staying in the place, we continued our way on the path that we thought was the
Taff trail. It wasn't. But eventually we managed to get back to the trail for a little while and then lost it again. We cycled past beautiful reservoirs. We had some rain, some sunshine. When we were a bit lost, we pushed our bikes very steep uphill and ended up in an ancient forest. The trees had fallen everywhere and were left there the way they had fallen. They were all covered with lots of moss. It felt somewhat magical in this forest. I managed to break the screen of my camera when I had it in my pocket (I also had some coins in the same pocket) so taking pictures turned out a bit complicated. After
getting through this magical forest, we managed to get even more lost and ended up somewhere in the middle of some valleys on the side of the mountain from where the trees were cut down. So we decided to have a tea-break there because it was such a lovely place. you could see miles from that place. The view was just stunning- all the ways only nature, some sheep, pine forests, mountains, clouds and rain. You could see the rain coming from the distance by looking at the mountains. There was also an abandoned shelter we saw in the distance. It felt like Into the Wild
movie. I really really loved it. I tried to climb on top of one of the mountains next to what we were but it just seemed to keep going on and on so I just went uphill a little bit. But the view was just perfect. I feel goosebumps even when I think about this place. Just soooooooooo pretty. You see places like this in the perfect wildlife movies, but experiencing it by yourself- just amazing. After enjoying this place for about two hours we decided we have to find a place to camp. While I was climbing the mountain, one cyclist had gone past G and told him that Merthyr is
not far, so we started heading towards the place. We ended up in a tiny village next to Pontsticill reservoir and decided to make a camp next to the reservoir. It was a really beautiful lake and camping there seemed like a movie again. As we hadn't found any shops during our trip, we just ate some more vegetables with pasta in the evening. G made us a very nice fireplace and our tent was facing the water. Like a dream. We boiled some water from the reservoir, made a campfire and just sat and enjoyed the place. This kind of places just don't seem real! It was so so cool! And we had no cell phone signal in this place
for 2 days, we just had our stuff, our food and had to manage with the water. Proper hiking :) And on the second night we didnt have almost any rain at all.
Sleeping was a bit harder on that night, though. Our tent a bit on the hillside so we kept slipping to one corner of the tent all the time and there were big rocks under the tent which hurt a little bit. But it was warmer.
On Sunday morning we packed our stuff together once again and collected some wild mint that was growing on the side of the reservoir and then started heading back towards Cardiff. We wanted to stop in a pub somewhere to have a proper meal but we didn't see any pubs on our way for almost the whole trip. So we just cycled for almost 4 hrs. During the trip my brakes gave up so we had to repair them, too. In Merthyr we cycled past some children (around the age of 5)
who were just standing on the side of the cycling path and telling everybody to fuck off. Small child showing you the finger and yelling "Fuck you, fuck you......." was just so surprising. But I found out it was a rough area in Merthyr and we just had to drive through it as fast as we could.
During our trip we talked to other cyclists and some of them offered even help when we had the brakes' problem. So nice of them. I also heard some Welsh-English and couldn't understand almost a thing that people were telling. And Scottish accent is supposed to be even worse? Crazy..... But yeah, people were so friendly and talking to us all the time we saw someone.
Before getting to Cardiff we made a stop in one pub to eat something and have a pint of Guinness. It felt so good. And after the break we cycled the last 6 miles to G's home, had a
shower and then went to a pub again to see G's friend. After the pub closed, we went to an Indian restaurant that does also takeaways and took a proper curry to home and ate a meal. And straight after finishing the meal, we ended up sleeping so tight.
And well, today morning G had to go to work by 8 o'clock, so I decided that it would only be fair to him if I got up as well and not sleep later. So I got up and we went to the town center and then G went to work, I headed back to Weston. Cycling home from Weston was hard and tiring. The hardest 11 miles I have done, probably.
I lost my bicycle lock during the trip so I went to work and asked if I could get another one from
there and then I was told that my bicycle's tyres need to be replaced and I told about the brakes and then the manager of the house just told that they might as well get me a new bicycle. So I got the money, went to the shop with one of our drivers and on Wednesday I will get my new bike. Nice end to a nice trip :)
But now I'm too tired to write anything else and will go to sleep. This sleep will be good, I already feel it :)
I can say that I absolutely loved this cycle trip and cycled altogether
around 100 miles which is 160 km approximately.
The best trip in the UK.
In the magical wilderness :)
