Wales - Brecons. 14th Dec 2018

Winter Wonderland.

We'll set off at 5:30am suggested Tony, that way we can get a good days riding in wales. I gulped at the thought, but gave no outward sign (I think). Bright and early and with the three bikes secured behind Tony's VW transporter we piled in and set off.

Below, view from the farm we'd be staying at.

Chris 'likes to wheelie' Copper, Tony 'likes to enduro' Radford and I were heading to Llanerchindda Farm at Llandovery, an establishment that caters to outdoor pursuits in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Our hosts for the weekend were Andrew and Mark , who are identical twins, and are fantastically hospitable if not a little confusing.  They've got a secure bike garage, jet wash, kit drying room, a help yourself bar and they catered half board for us.  (Great food btw)

Arriving at about 11am with the sun out and the temperature barely above freezing, we kitted up and set off towards the Stata Florida.  'The strata water will be lower, but one road is closed for logging' Andrew reliably informed us and helpfully emailed me an alternative route for the GPS.  (thank you!)

The strata was as I remembered; rocky, challenging and mostly wet with approximately seven river crossings and puddles that are more like stagnant ponds.  Doing this route in the winter added an extra element to deal with; ice.    I haven't had to deal with ice on this scale before.   It was so thick on the 'small ponds'  that the bikes had trouble breaking through it.  If you lost momentum the front wheel would stop, jammed against the ice sheet whilst the back span up with no traction.  With little other options it was time to put your foot in the freezing water to break the ice, nice.    Sometimes the ice would break, but the sheet was so thick it formed an ice ramp that the bike attempted climb and skidded sideways.  At other sections sheets of ice completely covered the track, and much to amusement of the my cohorts one particular part  had me flaying around like bambi, bike scooting off in one direction and my legs in the other. I could hear Chris laughing.  I think I dropped my bike three times, perhaps I should be Dan 'likes to crash' Burton.

The cold feet and continuous water challenges led Tony and Chris to attempt alternative routes, through bogs, over rocks down the river banks. Great fun and technically challenging, also good to watch as their bikes sank in the bogs and their boots filled with brown water.   Seriously though, watching people with higher skill than you on an enduro bike is humbling and good for your skill level. Chris and Tony are still doing stuff I didn’t know was possible and each time we ride I get a tiny bit better as a result.

With a least one frozen wet foot each we reached the end of the stata and head north towards the reservoir lanes.  Views were fantasitic and we passed one or two people all day.  At about 3pm with the sun and temperature dropping we had over 50KM of ice cold road miles to cover to reach the B&B. 

When we finally got back Tony started doing star jumps as he got of his bike to get his blood flowing.  He said it was the coldest he'd ever been on a bike.   All in all a great day and compared to my last visit slightly less scary, I guess those thousands of miles over the mountains ranges of Europe helped.