Dyma fy mlog ar gyfer paratoi a chwblhau'r her o feicio oddi ar y ffordd o un arfordir Cymru i'r llall yn 2013.
Here's my blog for preparing and completing the challenge of cycling off road of Wales' Coast to Coast in 2013.
Wel.. mae'r amser bron iawn yma!!!! Dim ond 7 diwrnod ar ôl cyn i'r siwrne ddechrau !!! Dyma lun o'r siwrne o Gonwy i Gaerdydd i chi cael gweld. Mae'r cyfraniadau i'r dudalen JustGiving yn dod i mewn hefyd.. cymerwch gyfle i edrych ar y tudalen os gewch chi gyfle ! http://www.justgiving.com/WelshCoast2CoastCymru
Well the time is almost upon us.. Only 7 days to go before the journey starts!! Heres a photo of the route from Conwy and Cardiff for you to see. Donations
from the JustGiving page have been coming in.. take some time to visit the page
if you have the opportunity! http://www.justgiving.com/WelshCoast2CoastCymru
Wedi siarad gyda
Carwyn, Joe a Peter, mi gytunwyd y byddem yn cychwyn codi arian ar gyfer achos
da wrth reidio ar draws Cymru. Felly, rydym wedi cychwyn tudalen ar Just Giving
er mwyn casglu ar gyfer y Gymdeithas Alzheimers.
Felly os ydych yn darllen hwn,
byddwn yn hynod o ddiolchgar os byddech yn dilyn y ddolen isod a rhoi'n yn hael
er mwyn cefnogi achos da!
After speaking to Carwyn, Joe
and Peter, we agreed that we'd begin raising some money for a good cause while
cycling off road across Wales.
As a result, we've started a new Just Giving page to begin raising funds for
the Alzheimer's Society.
So, if your kind enough to be
reading this, I'd be very grateful if
you'd follow the link below and kindly donate as much as you can to this worthy
cause.
Diwrnod hir allan ag ogwmpas Llanrwst.. fel y rhedwyr oedd allan in force ogwmpas y dref y bore hwnnw! Long day in and around Llanrwst today. There were runners out in force around the town for a race like us.. they were in for a wet day!
Roedd Carwyn wedi creu llwybr o tua 30-35 milltir ar gyfer y
diwrnod, ac roedd o’n awyddus i drio allan ei deiars newydd.. Nobby Nics gan
Schwalbe.. rhaid i mi ddeud.. ar ôl cael sbin ar ei feic.. ma’ nhw'n deiars
'grippy', swnllyd a cyflym. Yn anffodus,
wrth reidio ei feic, ac fel roeddwn ni'n newid y ger... mi dorrodd y chaen! Wel
o’n ni'n teimlo bach yn euog i ddeud y lleiaf.. Yn ffodus.. roedd gan Carwyn
powerlink sbâr, nath galluogi fo rhoi'r chaen yn ôl at ei gilydd. PHEW!! Mi fysa rhaid i ni'n dau cerdded yn ol
hebddo. Carwyn had made a route of around 30-35 mile and he was keen to
try out his new tyres... Schwalbe'r Nobby Nics and I have to admit that they're
both grippy, fast and noisy. As I was looking as I was having a go on Carwyns
bike and while changing gear.. the chain snapped!.. luckily, Carwyn had a spare
powerlink which he used to put the chain back together. PHEW!! it would have
been a long walk home without it!
Ar ôl trin y chaen.. mi aethom dros fynydd ac i lawr tuag at Capel
Curig, ar ôl dilyn yr A5 am chydig.. aethom fynydd dros fynydd arall.. Lot o ddringo yma.. ac i lawr am Ddolwyddelan. O Ddolwyddelan, mi gytunom ni i fynd ymlaen
gyda dolen hirach y siwrne ymlaen am Benmachno.After fixing the chain, we followed
a path that took us over a mountain and up to Capel
Curig. Following the A5 for a little while, we headed right and over
another mountain.. Lots of climbing here followed by a varied decent
down to Dolwyddelan. We agreed to ride the longer length of the route,so ahead
we went to Penmachno.
Yn anffodus, roedd y ddolen yma yn galetach nag roeddwn ni'n
disgwyl. Wrth ddringo dros y mynydd o Ddolwyddelan i Benmachno.. mi ddiflannodd
y llwybr mewn cors wlyb.. felly lot o wthio'r beics a traed gwlyb! This
stage of the route was much harder than we expected. By riding up the mountain
from Dolwyddelan to Penmachno, the path quickly evaporates into a wet bog... so
instead of riding, there was a lot of bike-hiking!
Wedi i ni gyrraedd coedwig Penmachno, mi aethom ogwmpas y mynd er
mwyn ail ymuno a'r A470 ger Dolwyddelan. Erbyn i ni gyrraedd yr A470, roeddem
wedi colli gormod o amser wrth gerdded drwy'r gors.. ag achos hynny, mi
benderfynom ni mynd yn ôl am y car wrth feicio am Betws y Coed ac wedyn ymlaen
am Lanrwst a'r car. Once we eventually reached Penmachno forest, we rode
from the valley around the mountain so that we could reach the A470 by
Dolwyddelan. By the time we reached the A470 though, we'd lost too much time
with all the bike-hiking over to Penmachno, so we took to the road, and headed
back to Betws and then Llanrwst to the cars.
Dyma ychydig o luniau y cymerais ar y trip.Here's a few photos I took on the
ride :-
Another Sunday on the bike.. and after the Snow trauma of last weekend we were keen to avoid any suggestion, hint or light dusting of snow as well as looking not to require any bike-hiking.
After looking carefully over the maps that I've downloaded through Viewrangerfor the Coast to Coast trip I drew together a route for the day. Meeting Carwyn at the car park nearby the forest, we got started on our journey.. Before i go further.. I have to mention the fact that it was raining a lot on this ride.. and by a lot.. i mean on a biblical scale! But as the word training suggests.. we had to get on with it.
Despite the incessant rain, we had a fairly good ride.. we passed a bridge that had seen better days.. as well as a sign located nearby from the bridge owner i assume.. who by the sounds of it.. is a little unhappy that no one's taken an interest in hir bridge...
The ride continued well.. with long climbs and lots more depressing rain. Somewhere above 'Ty Hull' near Capel Curig, Carwyns chain broke.. as you can see on the picture opposite. Back in the day.. this would've meant a phone call to a parent to come and fetch you.. But not so in these modern times.
Luckily, Carwyn had while in the bike shop on Friday invested in some spare chain links... a wise investment indeed as they were put to good use, along with some elbow grease to put the chain back together again. Feeling supremely awesome at our trailside surgery skills and still soaked from the rain.. we soldiered on.
The rest of the ride passed relatively un remarkably.. I wont spend too much time talking about the unhappy farmer who wasn't to pleased to see us not walking down a nearby footpath through his farm.. but we managed to talk our way out of the situation.
By the end of the day..the rain stopped chucking it down, the clouds parted to reveal some nice views of the Conwy valley for us to admire. Here's a few pictures and details of the ride for you below :-
After discussing the Coast to Coast with Carwyn and some of his research, he suggested we should go on a ride similar to that we'll be facing on the trip itself. With this in mind, Carwyn made a gpx circular route starting from Coed y Brenin but avoiding the mormal tracks established in the centre and going up into the mountains and country allong fire roads, tracks and bridleways for 30 miles
Here's a few photos from early in the trip.
LLun gan Carwyn - Picture from Carwyn
The start of the trip went very well, we kept a good pace and we were getting used to navigating with our gps devices. Cawryn was using his Garmin and I was using my iphone with the Viewranger app. I'm planning on writing on the blog about the GPS app that I'm hoping to use for the Coast to Coast.
We came accross some snow early on and here's a video of me having a go at riding through it. I think ill need some better tyres in this instance I think!
After some more riding, we came across our first snow drift. You can see how deep the snow was after almost burying a nearby gate and swallowed my legs as you can see below :-
After some lunch.. we set off and quickly reached a path that was covered in snow. Believing that the snow wouldn't be too bad, we set off up the snow as the path would later join a forest which we believed would be clear. What a mistake this was! After slogging for over an hour to get to the head of the path, where it crossed a stream to the forest, with the snow up to our knees for most of the way.. there was as much snow in the forest as there was outside it! As you can see from the pictures below.. the snow was thick enough to stand the bikes in!
Snow standing bikes
By now, we'd lost feeling in our feet, low energy and even less patience so we agreed to turn around to find another way. Once back down from the snowy path, the route went well.. loosing about 10 miles from the original path, but it turned out to be a good day where we learned a lot about navigation and reading the environment. One things for certain.. we'll be back when the snow's left!
