Well it's been a while, but today we stood on top of a mountain for the first time in a very long time. Luckily, all this cycling seems to have keep a certain amount of hill fitness. Given the scale of yesterday's ride, I opted from some battery assistance for the first section, from The Cottage, while Clare took on the full peddle power challenge. Smooth tarmac and an empty service road made for a very pleasant ride.
Once we got as high as we could, we left the bikes and set out on foot for the summit. Almost all of the mountains are closed to walkers by law, but this one remains just outside the restricted zone and within reach from the house.
The little pond halfway up, was teeming with frogspawn last time I was here. Totaly dried up now though. Where do they all go?...
The vantage point from the top is superb and this time, I had the binoculars in my pack, so after making ourselves comfy, we settled in to enjoy the solitary views.
And much our way through the last giant birthday cookie.
Once we were back at the bikes, we investigated some of the dam access areas. It's all rather spooky to find something like this on a mountain side...
It's straight out of a James Bond film.
Where do they go?.... What's hidden away under the mountains of Snowdonia?....
Just like ski touring, a bike tour like this means that once the climb is done, the fun can really begin as it's downhill all the way home!
As the water levels are very low at the moment, the temptation to try and use the dam wall as a velodrome was almost overwhelming.
Instead, we pointed the bikes downhill. From the dam to The Cottage, there is a vertical drop of over 500m - it took a mere 21 minutes of downhill racing! We could have gone even faster, but I'm not sure our nerves or the bikes could have done!
No comments:
Post a Comment