A Simple Life of Luxury

Grrrrrr…. that’s all I can say.

Usually living here on the beach in West Wales and working as a freelance website designer is perfect for me as it means I can pretty much go windsurfing whenever the wind blows. Unfortunately there has been very little wind for the last month or so, but all that has changed this week so I’ve been looking forward to some proper autumnal windsurfing conditions.

Sure enough the forecasts and charts were right and the wind filled in beautifully yesterday. I didn’t have much work on so by midday I was ready to go out and play on the sea. On went my wetsuit (not a simple task as it was the first time I’d worn my full winter suit for a while). I loaded up the wheelbarrow with my windsurf kit and walked across to the beach. I rigged my sail then went to fit the fin into the bottom of my board only to find that the thread on the nut had worn away and wouldn’t hold the fin in. So, I walked back home leaving my kit on the beach to find a spare. I vaguely remember giving a spare one to someone a while back after the same had happened to them and sure enough I couldn’t find a spare anywhere. I even had a sneaky look in the next door neighbours garage but they use different types of fins so they had nothing that would fit.

All of this meant I’d been wandering around in my wetsuit for about an hour with the wind blowing perfectly, but I had no choice but to walk back across to the beach, pack everything up and head back home without getting out on the water. Worse still, the wind was due to increase over the next few days and there was nowhere that I could buy a replacement.

So, I’m sat here again today with the wind howling, the weather station here is recording 40 knots at the moment, unable to get out on the sea. Thankfully a friend is hopefully bringing a spare with him this afternoon so I might be able to get out tomorrow but at the moment I’m sat here being tortured by the wind. Conditions are wild, the sea is only a hundred yards or so away, I have time on my hands but I can’t get out because of one silly little nut! Grrrrrrrr….

Readers of this blog will know that I’ve been doing quite a bit of mountain-biking recently and armed with my trusty Forerunner GPSr have of course been recording where I’ve been. Many of the routes have been along properly way-marked trails at trail centres, other have been in more remote areas so I thought I would share some of my favourites routes with you here.

First up is ‘Anglers and Artists’, a nice remote route around various lakes in Mid Wales. It also passes close to some of the geocaches I’ve hidden in the area. The total route is 20km long and starts off relatively high, has a steady, undulating start followed by a nice descent into Artists Valley and then a long climb back to the car.

The best place to park is just over the top of the hill on the fire road that leaves the Nant-y-Moch road at SN 702 909 and park at SN 731 911. (See Google Earth File below). If you head up here from Talybont on the A487 then the drive up is pretty interesting in itself.

From here head up towards the forest and turn right at the crossroads onto a nice little descent through a recently clear-felled area of forestry. There is a tricky little rocky step part way down this and then a nice descent down to the mines and back onto forest fire road.

You come out at the bottom of this and turn left and then look out for a turning left onto double track about half a mile along the forest road. This track can be quite wet at times but flows nicely through the woods down over a little rocky bend and then through a river crossing so you’re going to get wet anyway so don’t worry about the puddles!

From here you follow some trails used by moto-cross bikes which again can have some pretty deep and very muddy puddles. It is best to find a way around some of the deeper ones. The trail then heads up through a little gate and then into a shallow, steep sided gully full of loose rocks. Time to select a low gear and grind your way up through this gulley. There are one or two tricky sections but nothing too technical.

The path opens out for a bit and then undulates across the hills. The views from here are worth the effort. The lake of first New Pool and then Llyn Penrhaeadr  are off to your left and there are great views across the hills to Cadair Idris. There are a couple of nice little narrow raised sections to negotiate and the odd little stream crossing, plus some more rock garden gulley to negotiate before you come to another gate and then a steep climb up a junction where you want to turn left.  (It is possible to go right here and join up with the Mach 3 route). Going left take you up past some farm buildings to a gate which is normally locked. Over this and then up to the forest where you turn left and over another (usually locked) gate before plunging through the forest on overgrown double track towards Llyn Penrhaeadr.

Here you come to yet another locked gate before cycling along rocky double track above the lake and on towards Anglers Retreat. The fire roads open out here. If you are tired at this point then you can simply carry on along the fire which will take you up to your starting point. The route however continues off into Artists Valley. You go through a gate and then just before the fire road starts to head up into the forest turn right onto another fire road up towards Llyn Conach.

This takes you past one of my favourite lakes in the area and is a perfect place for a little rest and some flapjacks if you’ve brought them with you! Once recuperated continue on along the track and then down into the forest on rocky double track. the descent is quite a long one but easy going. It takes you across a fire road and then down through a clear-felled area before taking you across another fire-road and then onto a bridleway along the edge of the forest. There are no major obstacles, but it can be quite a nice descent. At the bottom the track continues along through the forest for a little way before emerging at the bottom of afire road.

You now follow the fire-road up on the start of quite a long climb back up to your starting-point. At the first junction go left and then when you come to a large junction on a right hand bend just follow the fire road around to the right. There is one steep section of bridleway not long after this that you need to turn left off the fire-road onto. This cuts off the corner of a fire-road bend and will get your lungs going for a short time! At the top of this turn left again and simply follow the fire-road to the top. At the top you come to the first set of crossroads in the fire-track where you started the ride. Turn right here and head back down to the waiting cars.

The route is fairly easy with no major obstacles but care should of course be taken. It is quite remote and there will be no mobile reception for much of the route so go well-prepared with spares, tools, extra clothing food and water…. And a plan should it all go wrong!

If you have a GPS unit with you whilst on this trail then it passes several geocaches that I have hidden which may provide you with an excuse for a rest:
The first you get close to is Watery Wales 2 - Pistyll y Llyn. This is a little way off the trail as you plunge through the forest towards LLyn Penrhaeadr. As the trail bears down steeply to the left go straight on through the tress and ride / carry your bikes out through the other side of the forest. It takes a bit of effort to get to but is well worth it for some amazing scenery. I especially like the way that the valley suddenly opens out before you as you approach from this direction.

Next up is Watery Wales 2 - Llyn Penrhaeadr which you cycle pretty close to on your way past this lake.

Followed a little while later by Watery Wales 2 - Angler’s Retreat which is just a short distance off the trail near Angler’s Retreat.

There is another up above Llyn Conach too, but it is a a little bit of a trek across difficult ground, especially with a bike.

A Google Earth file of the trail is available here: Anglers and Artists - Google Earth File (Just download it and open with Google Earth). A topographic plot of the route is below.

It has taken a while but it seems that summer has finally arrived and we made the most of it this weekend.

Blackberry picking and mountain-biking in Artists Valley on Saturday, followed by a quick wash in the river.

Then an early morning mountain-bike ride at Nant-yr-Arian on Sunday. Early enough to watch the sunrise from the top of the hill, followed by a rare chance for a little adventure in our inflatable canoe. We didn’t go anywhere too exctiting and Morgan fell asleep on the journey. We did see quite a few dolphins before we set off but they had gone by the time we were on the water

Looking at the forecast it looks set to stay fairly summery for a while too… An Indian summer at last maybe? Could be, but there are some fairly distinct rules for what constitutes an Indian Summer.

An Indian Summer is characterised by a period of unusually warm summery weather in autumn. It can persist for a few days or extend to a week or more during September, October or November (in the Northern hemisphere).

The official definition is a period of seven days or more occurring after the autumnal equinox where the temperature reaches 21°C (70°F) or more. In some places it can only be considered an ‘Indian Summer’ if a ground frost has occurred before the period of warmer weather… Not quite an official Indian summer here yet then but now that the autumnal equinox has passed it is a possibility. The weather station has only recorded a Maximum Temperature of 18.3ºC so far today so we only need a few more degrees to get us off to the beginnings of an Indian Summer. No doubt that has been achieved inland already.

As we’ve already mentioned elsewhere in this series our garden here on the coast of West Wales experiences the extremes of most parameters that determine what will and what won’t grow. The soil is no exception. Most gardens have soil that range from a nice middle-of the road loam through towards either the heavy clayey end of the spectrum or the lighter sandy end of the spectrum. Here we simply have sand, pure, clean beach sand. It isn’t just sandy soil it is quite literally sand.

The Issues caused by sandy soils

The fact that we have a very sandy soil means it doesn’t really hold any moisture and certainly dries out quickly to the extent that it blows away. Not great as this can mean lots of watering in dry spells and also sand gets everywhere! It also means there are very few nutrients present in the soil and the fungus species that make nutrients available to roots don’t grow either. In addition and it doesn’t provide much support for taller trees to anchor themselves into.

On the plus side though it does make digging very easy indeed.

What can be done to improve sandy soil?

Surprisingly though some things will grow so I’m sure there must be a small amount of organic matter in there somewhere and with a little bit of time and effort the soil can be enriched allowing a wider variety of plants to grow. It isn’t going to be possible to change the soil, it will always be very sandy, but over time it is possible to improve it.

If money were no object then shipping in a truck load of topsoil would be the best option, but we’re living a ‘simple life of luxury‘ here so spending lots of money isn’t an option.

One of the first things I ever did in the garden was to build some compost bins and we’ve been composting all of our garden rubbish, kitchen waste and paper shredding ever since. The resulting compost is added to the ground either as a mulch at various times of the year or by simply digging it into the soil when creating new borders or adding new plants. Its taking a while, but the soil is gradually improving if only in the top few inches.

Another solution is to make use of containers. Containers allow you to control the medium and fill them with compost or soil of your choosing. You may not want a ‘container garden’ but clever use of containers will allow you to grow some plants that simply wouldn’t survive in the soil your garden has been blessed with. Container gardening obviously comes with its own set of challenges, but they are a useful way of increasing the variety of plants you can grow.

Similarly raised beds can be used. I haven’t gone this far yet but may soon create some raised beds in a hidden part of the garden specifically for growing veg. In fact I might first create a low wooden compost bin covering the area in question. I’ll then compost in it for a year or so before using it as a raised bed.

The other important thing to do is to work with what you have. It is surprising just what will grow even in soil as sandy as ours. A quick wander through the dunes will present you with a wide range of grasses, orchids and plenty of other plants, all of which are perfectly at home in sand. Other plants that do particularly well in very sandy soils are Broom (Cytisus sp.) and Lavatera (which is practically a weed here). Sun roses (Cistus sp.) should do well as should Hibiscus syriacus too although I’ve yet to try them.

To a certain extent you have to make do with the soil your garden is blessed with. You can improve sandy soil by adding organic matter allowing it to retain more moisture and nutrients. Choosing your plants carefully will also help ensure success. As with most things in our garden, it all takes time but gradual improvements over the years all add up and the more things we have growing here the better the situation becomes.

Related Articles

This article is part of a series on Extreme Coastal Gardening

Just came across a little web app that attempts to put a value on your website. Not particularly useful but nice all the same. It looks as though it simply bases the value it gives on various stats (that are probably gathered from alexa?) and then gives you a value based on your alexa ranking.

Apparently ‘A Simple Life of Luxury’ is currently worth just over $5000. If only it made me that much money!

The site also gives you a little ‘badge’ as seen here that you can place on your website to show its value. If you want to see how much your site is worth check it out here: Website Outlook.

I first experienced the joys of mountain-biking at Brechfa a few months ago when I tried out the red-graded Gorlech trail. I enjoyed that and wanted to go back for more so when the guys I usually cycle during the week with had a trip to Brechfa planned to try out the newly opened black-graded Raven Trail I couldn’t resist joining them.

We met at the car park and once again it was raining, but the six strong crew of me, Dave, Myles, John, Andy and malcolm were all keen to get out and try the new trail as it had been getting great reviews. After getting kitted up we headed off up the first little climb and then straight onto a little bit of singletrack. It was nice to get going so soon rather than the usual big climb to start with. However things soon got a little tougher. From here on it seemed like endless climbing through thick gloopy mud which made the going difficult in places. Malcolm on his singlespeed was soon off and pushing and I think everyone else had to push at least a little here and there. The trouble was the lack of traction due to the mud and if your rear wheel spun out and you stopped, getting going again on the climbs was difficult.

I can’t remember the exact order of things but there was one really good downhill section early on in the ride with some huge wall-of-death style berms plungung steeply down the valley. There was also a very muddy and not so good descent that led to much shouting, squealing of brakes, plenty of unintentional sideways riding and the odd mishap!

Some section were closed and diversions were in place so there was a big loop on Forest roads interspersed with some more technical rooty sections through the forest and of course more climbing through the mud. Although as the ride progressed the amount of mud did seem to diminish.

For some reason it was taking us ages to make any progress. obviously with 6 people we are always waiting for everyone to regroup after each section and some people are slower on the ascents and some slower on the descents. Thankfully I was somewhere in the middle most of time. Also there was lots to talk about after each section.

Just as we got to what looked likely to be the best parts of the trail by rear brake pads decided to self destruct and fall out. John stopped with me and a few other guys from Aber who were out riding the trail in a separate group to us also stopped to lend a hand. Trailside repairs were made (I’m sure I had a spare set of pads but they weren’t in my bag!) which meant we took even longer. In the end we managed to bodge the very worn pads and retaining spring using a few rocks as a hammer and anvil which allowed me to ride once again although it was with a dragging rear brake all the time and reduced stopping power when needed. Needless to say I took things easy from here on in and let the other go on ahead so as not to get in the way.

The trail did improve from here on though plunging steeply down yet more mad berms. John and I then lost the others. They took a wrong turn and went off the trail but we carried on along the correct trail. We guessed what had happened and went looking for them but with no success so decided it was best to continue along the intended trail and meet up with them later.

The trail continued to get better with yet more big berms and then a dirt-jump style section with massive tabletops. Fortunately all of it was rollable so I was able to negotiate it OK. There were then a few more little climbs and nice descents, the odd log to balance along and all of a sudden we were back at the car park.

The others found their way back to the Raven Trail and soon rooled back into the car park a few minutes after us.

All in all it is a very different trail to the usual way-marked routes at trail-centres. Parts of it feel quite natural albeit a little too muddy at the moment. Other parts are obviously manufactured but certainly provide some adrenalin. It certainly isn’t a trail for the feint-hearted but is recommended. I’d like to go back soon and try some of the sections again knowing now that it is all (just) within my capabilities.

Put it on your list of trails to ride.