The journey to the land of bike trails, Wales -Betsy-y-coed to Afan Forest.

The journey going was excellent nice blue sky's music blasting through the car. Oh yes venassa mae (red hot) that's the music guys lol so i arrived in Betsy-y-coed to my bed & breakfast , envelope on the door with my name on it , with a litle note , that's sweet saying sorry wayne had to nip out .. that's what i call trust . so in i go nice bedroom got my kit in , then had a nice cupa tea ummm .. well got my gear on looking the part for an epic ride , Marin Route i decided to ride from the B&B , so as to get a good warm up for when i arrive at the carpark , yep it's all up hill from here on.

1pm i started the ride from the carpark . good weather all day looking forward to this , the climb at the start is quite steep and long so it was wise to go to granny ring its a long slog for a good 2 miles , i get to the start of the first single track , its twisting single track makes you work and think loose  concentration and your over the bars or in a ditch . 

The Marin route is well known in Betsy and is a very fast course all the single tracks are rocky but with some with gravel and grit , there's lakes all round the area off the route and the views are amazing , its well sheltered to from the rain and there is some fire road the Marin Route is an all round route for anyone its only hard bits are the climbs as they are long mostley fire roads , As i got my second wind after about 30 mins or so i was feeling good so i decided to pickup the pace i eventaully caught a few riders said hello and away i went , by now i was storming through the single tracks taking anything that come my way , looked behind me to see if any of the lads i passed would still be there nope not one so i blasted up the climbs , passing through the deep forest now past lakes , awsome views ,oh yes this is so me , i was in my prime . i'm going for gold here check my time wow i've only done hour and half and i'm 3/4 away round cool i thought , so now i'm buzzing more single tracks oh yes i'm flying more views . i'm nearly done 2hrs 20 mins last section i'm flying mini table tops faster i go nearly loosing it pushing on time , so close to the end whoops to fast i've lost my line can i hold on or do i dive , no i camber the last mini table top and scrape through , what a ride oh yes i was chuffed good ride .. 

Afan Forest To meet Tom

The journey to Afan from Betsy-y-Coed was like driving the Lomard Rally , yes i went cross country bad idea 3hrs it had taken me sure there's a shorter way lol . Well i finaly got there Tom sitting on the back of his car looking a bit cold , the weather there was a bit blustery but ok , we introduced each other and tom would lead the way , ok i never been here before so yes i was a newbie , Tom was excellent he showed me around the place pointing out the routes what's good to do now and what not to do when the weather is bad , we got talking about places where we've been and what we would like to do in the near future , Tom was well impressed with my carbon bike and i was very impressed about his orange bike its  a solid machine that could kill a few good down hills , so of we went we were heading for the WALL and he was'nt kiding i know wales is hilly but how long are these's .. trust me if your not a hill climber your stuffed .

Well i am thank god , so away i go up hill fantastic single tracks here death defying drops that make your legs turn to jelly , awsome veiws here to , i noticed here the rides are far longer that the Marin Route and the down hill section here are long to , i was a bit caution as it was my first time here, but what a place Tom was deamon down the hills i managed to stay with him once but the rest of the time it was ,i'l see you at the bottom Tom can fly down these's tracks ..the ride was really good and i enjoyed it so much, that i was looking forward for the next day , Tom excelled him self with B&B just up the road onsuit and the railway pub excellent food plenty to drink , well we finally had enough and walked back to the B&B , it did'nt take long to fall asleep man can he snore or what thought the cieling was going to fall in , next morning i wake up 6.30 am nice blue sky's yep its going to be a nice day , me and tom go for breakfast which you really need for the trails around here , we get to the centre clouds looming not looking good , but we get kitted out for the rain and yes its raining , so we head of to the white trail , i was quite surpised that the climb started so early i would of preferred a good warm up even tom said yes it's to early , i struggled at first trying to find my legs , but once i warmed up i was away going nice and steady , anyone who has done this will know when you reach the top you have the option off the red or black route i decided to do the red as the weather was'nt so good , i was very impressed with the board walks never done that type before done straight but not all that twisted stuff very cool , the afan forest offers more tracks than i could imagine its a worthy place to go , my only down side to this place was where the centre was , it was like being in an industrial estate , i've seen pictures of this place on the web and it's very deceiving and i think if some one was to go there camping i think they would be shocked , that's my only opinion  , but i would come again looking forward to Cwn Carn ...another Epic

Comments (3)

stumpy_dan said:

Great Blog Wayne. Last time I rode the Marin it was a November and it rained so much I was drenched from the start. Two punctures in the route and I nearly froze. It beautiful though and fast. Afan is like a Mecca really but I love the campsite site as it is friendly, you meet other bikers and the cafe next to it serves decent ride grub. Well written brought back some nice memories. It's been too long.

April 01, 2008

goblinshimmer said:

good man...sounds like you had fun... i love the bit of shore there...has taken me off a few times, but all good with time. I can't wait to do again, but hey Cwncarn..see ya there. remember to take your flask, you mite have a wait at the top for me to catch up Corr this blog soooo good it ALMOST deserves a free tee-shirt

April 01, 2008

tomtomks said:

hey mr ! this was a top weekend, was cool to meet you, and lets hope we can do again soon... top blog, dont think i need to say anything more ..

April 03, 2008