FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast - Cardiff to Swansea 20th May 2011
- Thread starter dellzeqq
- Start date
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Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
so.........the marvellous Claudine, the intrepid Susie and yr. ob'd'nt s'v'nt rode from Cardiff to Swansea yesterday under lowering cloud, and over sodden roads, avoiding the showers, as Claudine had said we must.
And this is what we saw....
The start is fantastic. A rides leader in search of a personality cult could do worse than give a safety talk in front of the stainless steel monolith that stands before Cardiff's Millenium Hall. The way out of Cardiff is simple and efficient. The back roads to Llantwit Major are up and down, and have tarmac that might be called 'rustic', but the countryside is pretty, and the traffic minimal. We go through small villages that testify to the gardeners of South Wales. Llantwit Major is beatiful (and has a pukka bike shop) and the roads beyond give some marvellous views over the sea. Our host at Ewenny is charming. The roads through Port Talbot are dull, although we're planning a bit of a diversion down to the docks, so bring your sea-legs. Port Talbot is a shockingly run down - there were so many closed roller shutters I simply forgot that we were riding on a Saturday afternoon. Swansea is pretty. The Mumbles is a delight, reminding me of French seaside resorts like Treport or Trouville.
The last four miles are on a path around the bay, with our final destination always in sight and that, my friends, will stand long in the memory.
The most you can ask from an excursion is that it is of the area we ride through. If all the roadsigns and telephone numbers were concealed for the night, this ride, with the abrupt coastline, the stone and marl cottages and the steelworks could be nowhere else than South Wales. I'm really looking forward to it.
And this is what we saw....
The start is fantastic. A rides leader in search of a personality cult could do worse than give a safety talk in front of the stainless steel monolith that stands before Cardiff's Millenium Hall. The way out of Cardiff is simple and efficient. The back roads to Llantwit Major are up and down, and have tarmac that might be called 'rustic', but the countryside is pretty, and the traffic minimal. We go through small villages that testify to the gardeners of South Wales. Llantwit Major is beatiful (and has a pukka bike shop) and the roads beyond give some marvellous views over the sea. Our host at Ewenny is charming. The roads through Port Talbot are dull, although we're planning a bit of a diversion down to the docks, so bring your sea-legs. Port Talbot is a shockingly run down - there were so many closed roller shutters I simply forgot that we were riding on a Saturday afternoon. Swansea is pretty. The Mumbles is a delight, reminding me of French seaside resorts like Treport or Trouville.
The last four miles are on a path around the bay, with our final destination always in sight and that, my friends, will stand long in the memory.
The most you can ask from an excursion is that it is of the area we ride through. If all the roadsigns and telephone numbers were concealed for the night, this ride, with the abrupt coastline, the stone and marl cottages and the steelworks could be nowhere else than South Wales. I'm really looking forward to it.
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
no we didn't. But our attention was drawn to your favourite pension. And very panama hat it looked too! One imagines the resident arising, having a shot of absinthe with his coffee and croissant, and then striding determinedly down to the plage, easel, collapsible chair, brushes, paints and quart of turpentine under his arm, there to dash off a masterpiece shot through with the atmospheric conditions of the day.
It is the Cyclepath from heaven. (Or maybe Evan, or Evans or...) Did you voyeurgers happen see the train that shuttles the folk back and forth?
'M'sieu Le 'Teef, what is it you paint?'
'Life, Marie-Helene with les deux accents, life. It is all here. Fire up the barbie, that doggie looks delicious!'
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
That's funny!
Actually, Mary is the hostess with the mostest fine needlework on display in the dining room and Lin, her husband was a classical guitar teacher in Japan and has a massive guitar collection. Totally charming, and cooks a mean breakfast too!
I sent him an album of 'guitar music' on my return - such a nice person - and they wanted to use the byline. Sure!
The bay was an ever changing spectacle - I could easily spend the day just looking...
Actually, Mary is the hostess with the mostest fine needlework on display in the dining room and Lin, her husband was a classical guitar teacher in Japan and has a massive guitar collection. Totally charming, and cooks a mean breakfast too!
I sent him an album of 'guitar music' on my return - such a nice person - and they wanted to use the byline. Sure!
The bay was an ever changing spectacle - I could easily spend the day just looking...
Teef- what a lovely photo. I might pester you about using it for the cycling festival.
Well- I had a delightful, delicious day with the delovely Dellzeqqs, and things are falling into place nicely for the ride. We left Cardiff station ten minutes after a deluge of biblical proportions, and I didn't believe for a second that my cloud-dodging plan was anything other than one of those higher truths of the FNRttC that are ill-served by narrow, probability-based meteorological approaches. But the Gods were on our side- a few miles out of Cardiff the waterproofs were off, and would stay off thereafter.
To ride a route with friends for the first time is to see it anew, for in a sense it is only in those fleeting moments as you roll along connecting it together that it exists at all. Susie is delighted with the birdsong, and rhapsodic about the romance of it all, and I am reminded of how lucky I am to see the sea every day.
DZ and our halfway host hit it off immediately, reflecting on John Robertson, the pleasures of smoking and cycling, and the likeliest ETA. Within no time at all they have cooked up a suitably Stalinist approach to the halfway menu, and we have polished off three excellent jacket potatoes. Toilets approved, ditch located for the corpses of people who order sausage n chips, and, to coin a phrase, we're on our way.
A perfect consensus on topographical description eludes us, but soon we are over Tythegston hill and speeding down to the flatter half of the ride. It's a bad moment to be fumbling with clothing, and I can't pretend I wasn't disconcerted by the sad end of a honey bee in the tc decolletage, but I was pleased to finish the descent with no bigger catastrophe ensuing, and have commented before on the performance-enhancing qualities of wasp and bee stings. I felt invincibly strong for the rest of the ride, and resisted the temptation to shatter the image by challenging DZ to a race.
On the way in to Swansea, DZ spotted the Sail Bridge to our left, and instituted the Tawe Harbour Variation. Bring a camera for that one.
As we swung around the bay to Mumbles, it became clear just how lucky we'd been with the following wind. Fortunately the seafront bike path is suited almost equally to a Whitstable Whizz or a Southend Slouch, depending on conditions, and we rolled down to the pier in unhurried style. Our breakfast location could have been made with the FNRttC in mind.
Really looking forward to this one.
Well- I had a delightful, delicious day with the delovely Dellzeqqs, and things are falling into place nicely for the ride. We left Cardiff station ten minutes after a deluge of biblical proportions, and I didn't believe for a second that my cloud-dodging plan was anything other than one of those higher truths of the FNRttC that are ill-served by narrow, probability-based meteorological approaches. But the Gods were on our side- a few miles out of Cardiff the waterproofs were off, and would stay off thereafter.
To ride a route with friends for the first time is to see it anew, for in a sense it is only in those fleeting moments as you roll along connecting it together that it exists at all. Susie is delighted with the birdsong, and rhapsodic about the romance of it all, and I am reminded of how lucky I am to see the sea every day.
DZ and our halfway host hit it off immediately, reflecting on John Robertson, the pleasures of smoking and cycling, and the likeliest ETA. Within no time at all they have cooked up a suitably Stalinist approach to the halfway menu, and we have polished off three excellent jacket potatoes. Toilets approved, ditch located for the corpses of people who order sausage n chips, and, to coin a phrase, we're on our way.
A perfect consensus on topographical description eludes us, but soon we are over Tythegston hill and speeding down to the flatter half of the ride. It's a bad moment to be fumbling with clothing, and I can't pretend I wasn't disconcerted by the sad end of a honey bee in the tc decolletage, but I was pleased to finish the descent with no bigger catastrophe ensuing, and have commented before on the performance-enhancing qualities of wasp and bee stings. I felt invincibly strong for the rest of the ride, and resisted the temptation to shatter the image by challenging DZ to a race.
On the way in to Swansea, DZ spotted the Sail Bridge to our left, and instituted the Tawe Harbour Variation. Bring a camera for that one.
As we swung around the bay to Mumbles, it became clear just how lucky we'd been with the following wind. Fortunately the seafront bike path is suited almost equally to a Whitstable Whizz or a Southend Slouch, depending on conditions, and we rolled down to the pier in unhurried style. Our breakfast location could have been made with the FNRttC in mind.
Really looking forward to this one.
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
^ Sure.
It will be a quantum leap, friend. To find yourself 'at home' - and not have to battle fatigue in order to drink insipid beer, weave towards a groupsaver argument, then loll with burning cheeks and heavy eyelids, as the sun throbs through dusty, hair-gel and bird poo smeared train windows, en route to a non-destination, prior to returning Westwards, - will be great!
It's the least you deserve after immaculate support of the rides out from London.
It will be a quantum leap, friend. To find yourself 'at home' - and not have to battle fatigue in order to drink insipid beer, weave towards a groupsaver argument, then loll with burning cheeks and heavy eyelids, as the sun throbs through dusty, hair-gel and bird poo smeared train windows, en route to a non-destination, prior to returning Westwards, - will be great!
It's the least you deserve after immaculate support of the rides out from London.
actually what it does prove is that you can get a really good local turnout if the person setting the ride up is in the area and goes about the task with a will. Mike E did the deed in Hull, and Claudine has got an impressive roster of South Walians for this month's ride. I couldn't achieve the same for the Manchester to Blackpool ride.
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
Ah mike e... "Eyre rocks!"
Mayhap, maybe, but it was lovely anyway.
I was already jealous of you all going to Wales. Now I'm very very jealous.... Have a lovely time.
threebikesmcginty
Corn Fed Hick...
- Location
- ...on the slake
Not that I'm interested, of course, but what beer is available and what time do they start serving? Just asking on behalf of others, natch.
I'll probably just have a small glass of organic water and a fairtrade hessian en croute.
I'll probably just have a small glass of organic water and a fairtrade hessian en croute.
regrettably Mumblies is, with Frinton-on-Sea, one of the two 'dry towns' in the UK. There is no beer.
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
Swansea is but a pootle away though, that isn't dry....
threebikesmcginty
Corn Fed Hick...
- Location
- ...on the slake
It doesn't matter - Just remembered I’m washing my hair that weekend, or something.
