The wee trip of much wetness and sore balls bivi 9 of 12.
I find a lot of outdoor people in South Wales become obsessed with the Pen Y Fan region of the Brecon Beacons and never venture further that the Storey Arms or the traditional Gap route which while a cracking ride gets a bit boring after the 150th time.
So this trip I was determined to take my mate across to the more scenic upper reaches of the Swansea Valley and the Magnificent Fans.
We ditched our 4 wheeled monster in Banwen and headed out along quiet B roads to get to the start of the old Roman Road of Sarn Helen, we had both ridden this before and were ready for the odd puddle, but as we had a few days of heavy rain the old road had become waterlogged and the puddles were over BB deep… but dam good fun to plough across as long as you don’t hit a big hidden rock.
As you get down the road aways towards the location of the old fire tower, you get some more deep puddles/ponds with streams running into them and a stunning section of bed rock pocking out of the ground to play on, we were riding up it buts its also fun to drop down them and get soaked with the torrent of water.
After a play around for glory pictures we headed to the point where we would normally turn left on our normal Sarn Helen loop, but instead we headed NW and out towards the moors with the aim of getting across and down towards the caving centre at Penwyllt
I’d told Wayne that I loved this first bit as I’d bivi’d here loads by the old ruins and limestone that the weather had turned into pillars over the years.
I turned off the track and headed out to one of my fav spots, a small patch of limestone with a solitary tree growing out of it. We stopped for a bit to enjoy the quiet and more pics.
From here we then headed up and across the moor, it was here Mr Morgan Freeman came back into my head and stated “ It was about now Tim realised he had made the correct bike choice”
The wet weather had turned the moor into a sticky bog of doom for the unwary in anything less than a 4” tyre… Id changed my bike choice half a hour before my mate turned up, I had planned to go on the Rammin + bike but id been playing with the Fatty and put her winter boots, on a set of Surly Bud and Lou’s probably the best tyres ive ridden on.
With the pressure down running around 10psi and the bike fully loaded for Bear she floated over the crap black goop where I’m confident my plus bike would have bogged down and got stuck.
The moor up here is bleak, there are a few ruins around from old farm settlements but you need to know where to look and there are also for the unwary off piste traveller lots of shake holes.
For me I find these moors beutifull the lack of nothing but the odd sheep actually enhances the experience for me.
We came to a particularly bad spot of rocks and goop just below the last climb and I bogged down couldn’t unclip fast enough jumped off and managed to pull a muscle in my unmentionables! After a few minutes of Wayne laughing at me I had to MTFU and soldier on.
We chatted as we rode and it was clear my mate was becoming a convert to the Western reaches of the Beacons, we stopped at the highpoint of the moor and had a bite to eat and drink before the promised descent to the caving centre.
The route down was wet and at the last minute I decided to go off piste and hit the old tram road further up as we would be passing the caving centre again tomorrow.
The good thing about riding on tramways or disused railways is they are graded so it is pretty easy going.
Getting back around to the woods beneath Fan Fraith was a nice steady plod and when we got to the top of Carn Yr Onnen we could look across at Fan Gyhirych, Fan Fraith and Fan Nedd in the distance.
WE headed down into the woods where the temp dropped and a light mist made the moss covered pines pretty spooky, we stopped at the ford in woods at Nant Y Moch to fill up and I noticed some tracks heading up onto a open grassed area.
After some exploration we decided as the wind had picked up and the temp had dropped that this would be our home for the night.
We were about to set up camp when I decided to jump across the stream and explore the other side where a massive lone pine tree sat just outside of the edge of the woods.
As I approached the tree I could see that there was a hollow area underneath it and on inspection I could see that the branches had been cut and had obviously been used by someone before us.
I set up my snug pack bivi bag directly under the tree branch’s and Wayne set his tarp and bivi up just at the mouth of the hollow.
We set up pretty quickly as it was a tad chilly and then set about the important act of getting scran inside us.
We chatted, and I recall saying to Wayne that I bet Deer come down to these small open grassed areas to graze and drink.
I then taught Wayne the ancient and venerable art of making baby bell candles, and I have to say he was impressed with the result and at around 2330 I had to get out of my bag and blow the dam things out as they were acting like a beacon and calling every hilly billy in miles to come and do a deliverance special on us .
It was probably one of the best nights kip ive had outside in years, the sound of the wind in the pines, Not from Wayne I must add, the noise from the stream was dam relaxing and I was woken by Wayne asking if I was alive, it was 7am, I’d slept right through not even getting up for a p! Normally I’m a 0530am person and ready for the off by 0630!!
We packed up at a steady pace and just as we were ready for the off we became aware of some noise lower down behind the pine tree, some of you may recall I mentioned Deer, well a few seconds later around 6 deer came charging past us, and then after they dissapperared into the brush a big Stag stopped and starred at us through the tree no more than 6ft away, its little things like this that make a trip special.
So simple plan this morning was to ride up and down to the caving center at Penwyllt and head back out on the old disused railway line to Banwen and T and medals at the van.
I’d checked on google earth and the route looked rideable all the way to the footpath at the mobile tower which sat on the B road back to Banwen.
So with a song in our hearts we headed out and hit the tramway and this is a great descent very bumpy as the old wooden beams are still in place bit a great laugh and amazing views across to the Fan Hir ridgeline and the vaguely exciting under rated Black Mountain range.
First problem came just as we rounded the corner from the caving centre near the old ruins of the train buildings, a FLAT!! First one on my fat bike in years.
Puncture sorted we carried on and found a route to get us on the railway path.
There was no sign of any of the old rails, a few of the old signs were peaking out of the undergrowth and the path was pretty wet with the water taking the course of least resistance and making us ride pedal deep … which I have to ad it I enjoyed.
After a mile or so we came to our first locked gate and a picture of a rambler with a no entry sign across…. Well they cant mean us I say to Wayne we are on fat bikes and we ploughed on
We then came to the next obstacle around ¼ mile of impenetrable bad bush and steep banks either side of us! Balls, it was a long ride back the way we came and a good climb, and it was only around 2-4 miles from where we were to the van… so in true spirit of adventure we hauled the bikes up the bank over the barbed wire fence and did a ninja stealth ride until we came to obstacle number 3!!
The field and fence now headed the wrong way and we were looking at old bridge on the map, I climbed the fence and had a recce and to my delight with one last bit of grunt power we would be back on good riding terrain and only 1 mile from the footpath.
Much grunting pushing and pulling ensued as we got the heavy weight bikes over what we hoped would be the last fence.
The area we came out onto was dam pretty and just before the cuttings, we had to get to number three to meet the footpath.
SO more mud and more water we trundled on and as we rounded cutting number two we saw obstacle number 4 … people with GUNS!!
My Military training immedialty kicked in I jumped off of the bike pulled out by stove and began to brew up immediately in true Tommy fashion.
We’d come out close to a clay pigeon range!
I rode up and gave a hearty hello and started my public relations exercise praying he wouldn’t turn us back or fill us full of buckshot… he turned out to be a real nice bloke and his wife. He told us that the land was private, I apologised profusely for my poor map reading skills and told him where we were headed and he pointed us to the footpath.
After a good chin wag with him and grabbing his business card, (£12.50 for 50 clays I’ll be back as a Christmas treat cus that is cheap as chips) he gave me a bag of used good condition shotgun shells ( I make stuff from them)
Him and his mrs waved us off and that pretty much ( bar a dirty bacon butty stop) was my September bivi done and dusted, a fast downhill spin to Banwen a chat with some gawking locals and it was all over… until October and a cunning plan is formulating