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Left Machynlleth at the start of day 3 later than planned with good weather.
Headed up to the mountains and the views were amazing. Here are some spectacular panoramas. It got crowded at the top of the mountains too.
Peter managed to find a tick on his leg. Here's the evidence and his success at pulling the bug out of his leg
From here we traversed the valley and started riding up the side of a prolonged climb up one side to reach the next plateau which was pretty amazing. It reminded us of Mongolia. Riding was tough going over fire roads, some bog and challenging grassy single track. It provided some spectacular panoramas
Coming down from the plains of Mongolia. We headed downhill towards the Nant yr Arian area. Coming down a single track we had the first casualty of the day when Carwyn had a puncture on his rear wheel. This time Joe and I helped !
From here we rode for what seemed like ages over grazing land, dotted by lakes and dominated by spectacular views
After a while, we reached Nant yr Arian visitor centre for lunch. It was very busy with bird watchers as the nearby lake had a few dozen red kites flying over it. Very cool !
This is where we had a spot of lunch 
From the Centre we had about 15 miles to go after completing 20. Skirting a windmill area we saw a typhoon & f16 fly by.
Riding the bridle ways the landscape had changed completely from desolate plans to rolling hills and lush farmland.
Approaching the valley for the Devils bridge we started a decent down a crazy and muddy single track it was a lot of fun. :)
The fun decent however lead towards a very tough ascent. What was meant to be a bridle way was actually a footpath mostly @ 45% or more. Here are a few photos that I hope made it justice :-
80% of the way up. We reached the devils bridge railway and were met by the train :) :-
From the top of the climb it was a quick decent down to joint the road that would begin leading us to Pont'.
Our path took us through a precarious field populated by a bull and some long haired horned cows who were rather protective of their young.
Having got out of the hairy situation we pressed on
The last stint as on the last few days took longer than expected to finish. We're all starting to feel the effects of this trip now, either through saddle sore, painfull knees or sunburned scalps.
We reached Pontrhydfendigaid finally and got settled in. 
After cleaning out bikes in the river :-
Food was good at the pub we were stating at. But there's no phone reception to speak of. Which is why this update is a little late I'm afraid.
Again thanks for reading. Please remember to donate as much as possible on http://bit.ly/12X8ZmH
Here's the track of the days riding :-
I have been caught out by the disappearing bridleway myself. I think it was changed a few years back and they never really sorted it out.
ReplyDeleteI used to love cycling in that valley though. Yet another beautiful area of Wales.