The Two Fat cyclists and friends (Rhys `The Hero Like` Lloyd Hughes, Ian `The Champignon` Stone, Meryvn `The Articlulate One` Cooper, Gethin `Chi Chi` Jones and Mikalis Rowlandakis of Crete, gathered outside of the Seaview restaurant, Laugharne for the 7am off.
Four cyclists set off a little later than planned and with freezing and icy
conditions we took the first few miles easily to build our confidence. While Andy, Ian and I were in full winter cycling regalia including tights, jackets etc, The Hero opted for the late summer look with two vintage tops, SHORTS and gloves complete with holes.As we reached Carmarthen after the first 10 miles the light had improved as well as the traffic volume.
The first leg was Laugharne to Alltwalis (22 miles) but Ian Stone hits the wall early, complaining of tight elastic in his socks and is exhausted after exerting massive effort to do jail hill. He gallantly carries on as far as Glangwili but the climb to Peniel and on to our first stop at the base of Alltwalis is to much and an emergency distress call to Chi Chi Jones is required. Ian gets a lift and we are later met by the support vehicle along with Dai `the milk` Griffiths bearing still warm, sticky honey buns from Laugharne bakery...lovely.
Mikalis Rowlandakis, who has had a tough first 20 in the van with the heaters on is first in the queue for a cuppa and a cake. After a quick 10min stop were off up the hill and on to our next stop Llanybydder another 10 miles on. The temperature seems to be dropping and there are several small pulls enroute to Llanybydder and a second quick stop is welocome. Surprisingly Mikalis is first in the queue again and is pestering Mervyn for a cup of coffee while getting a ststaining beef and onion pie into his gob followed immeadeatly by a hunk of fruit cake mmm.
Rhys, Andy and I then crack on to the next stop at Felin Fach. I start to feel the effects of the cold temps during this leg. Rhys' drinks bottle has frozen to slush puppy consistency and mine is so cold I find it hard to drink.By the time we get to Felin Fach, Mike has drunken so much Coffee we've nearly run out of Sugar and he's so hungry having only had breakfast, pie, pasty and cake so far, nips into the garage for another warm pasty.
I join back in at the next stop just outside Aberystwyth and we crack on to Talybont. The first few miles go well but at Bow Street I start to suffer again with my heart rate way above my normal zone on even the slightest climb and more cramps, the others go on without me.
I struggle on in agony to within half a mile of the Talybont stop and have to call it a day with only 70 miles in the bag out of the planned 120 or so.
Ian joins Andy for the fantastic climb up through Corris past Cader Idris, its around 3pm or so and the temperatures are now plumeting.
Andy carries on for a further leg and Rhys has gone on way ahead on his own.
We get near to Beddgellert at 5pm and have to call Rhys into the van as its now dark and we have to catch the outdoor shop in the village to purchase Crampons for the walk up Snowdon tomorrow as there is more snow forecast.The shop had promised that they were open till 6pm and had suitable non ice crampons. We get there at 5.30pm and they are pulling the shutters down, and say that they cannot serve us as they've closed up the tills for the day and the chain type crampons they advised us about are for pavement walking only...useless.
6.15pm and we get to he bunkhouse and The Hero Lloyd Hughes baggsies the best mattress position and firsts in the shower. We all wait while he sings and bathes himself and we all manage to get to the Cwellyn Arms in time to order food.
We split into small groups of 2 and 3 for a couple of rounds and the pub has some great real ales.
Merv goes for a beer which is almost Guinness like. `is it like Dark` he asks the chef serving us..
Merv later goes to order his food (burger and chips) and as its his turn to get a round for Andy and I in asks for 3 pints of HoEgarden as well. With £20 note in hand ready to pay for his fare and hoping for some change, The Commodore is floored buy the request for £23.45..."beg your pardon shippers" says the commodore. "£23.45" says the Barman.."the Hogarden is £4.50 a pint". With much muttering Merv digs out a little more cash and sits down to enjoy his pint of lemonade.
After supping a 1/3 of his pint Merv complains that it doesn't taste nice and is a diffrent colour from Andy's. He calls over the Barman who investigates and says the Barrels OK. Merv says it tastes like crap and eventually a new barrel is connected and we get fresh beer. Then its back to camp and alarms set for 5.30am
No comments:
Post a Comment