A Simple Life of Luxury

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.

I’ve been wanting to ride at Llandegla for a while now so on our way back from Wrexham we stopped off at Llandegla and I finally had my chance.

As we pulled into the car park it looked really busy, people and bikes everywhere but I guess that was to be expected on a bank holiday weekend.

After a quick look around the shop and visitor centre we walked back up to the car in the overflow car park and got ready. I had planned to do the full red route and black route whilst Anna and Morgan were going around the 3 mile long Green route. Anna was going to walk with Morgan on his little balance bike.

We set off together and once on the trail it wasn’t nearly as busy as it looked I did pass quite a few people and there were often people stood around at the beginnings of certain sections or the tops of climbs but considering how full the car ark was it was nice out on the trail.

Overall it was a really good trail, nothing too technical and not too much climbing really so it didn’t take me as long as I expected. No knowing what was coming next meant that I took it easy all the way around. There are big signs as you approach the black sections warning you about the ‘extreme nature’ of the trail but for those worried about it then don’t, all of the trail is easily rideable as you can simply roll over any of the obstacles. obviously if you attack the course and go for big air off the jumps etc. then it could be a little more challenging but it is also possible to simply ride over them keeping both wheels firmly on the ground. (Which is pretty much what I did!).

Back at the car and Anna and Morgan had just returned too. They had fun, Anna enjoyed her walk and Morgan had got on really well on his bike. he doesn;t get chance to use it much so an hour on it is probably as much practice as he’s ever had so he improved all the way around and apparently came to an impressive skidding stop at the car!

Can’t wait until he’s a little older and all three of use can go for rides on the easier trails together.. I’ll have to convince Anna to go out on my bike, but that does at least mean I’ll be forced to treat myself to a brand new, shiny full-suspension bike!

On the way home we stopped off at the top of the highest road in Wales for a succesful geocache find.

Oh, and we finally got the video camera out of hibernation so here is a little clip of Morgan at Llandegla.

I noticed a new geocache hidden by Tortoiseshell appear about 5 miles from here yesterday morning. I was due to virtually drive past it later in the day so I left home a little earlier than needed and went out on an FTF (First to Find) mission.

It was a gorgeous day, the best so far this year with blue skies, blazing sunshine, temperatures in the low 20s and a decent Easterly breeze to keep me cool. From Bow Street I enjoyed a short walk up the hill and found the cache easily and surprise surprise I was the First to Find. Despite being a decent sized container there was nothing in it except for the logbook and pen and a geocoin. I took the geocoin and will hopefully move it on this weekend.

And, just for a change, not only did I remember to take my camera with me but I actually took some photos of typical Welsh summer scenery too.

The path to the cache

Oak leaves in summer

OK, OK, don’t get too excited you won’t be seeing us on the TV!

After our recent trip to the Isle of Man I was contacted by someone at the BBC on the island to write a little article about our experiences geocaching on the Isle of Man.

I did, and it is now live on the BBC Isle of Man website. You can see the article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/isleofman/content/articles/2008/05/23/geo_caching_feature.shtml

I couldn’t resist another day out on my bike in the sunny weather, so after tidying up some loose ends as far as work was concerned I headed off on my bike and I hid a new geocache while I was out there. I won’t give too much away about its location but it provides lovely views over the Dyfi Estuary and hopefully the cache itself will prove just a little tricky for some people

It was inspired by the Assume Nothing series of Geocaches that we had fun with on our recent trip to the Isle of Man. It isn’t too tricky but may fix a few people if they don’t pay attention to the description. Lets just say the container is well camouflaged! Click here for the Assume Nothing Wales #1 (Bark) geoacache description.

We have a few more planned to make this into a little series of caches so this new one is just a starter. We’ve now hidden 17 geocaches in total, so hopefully this series will take us up to 20 hides before too long.

Happy Humphrey, a prolific geocache hider on the Isle of Man certainly kept us busy on our recent trip to the Island, especially with a few attempts on his ‘Assume Nothing IOM’ series.

We should have started at the beginning really as we DNF’d (Did not Find) our first attempts on number 2 and number 6 in the series. However, on the last day of our trip we headed for the first in the series and found it without too many problems. So we then went back to Number 2 with the right frame of mind and also found it within seconds. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go to any of the others but next time we are on the island we shall be in search of them again.

Inspired by the series we will hopefully be hiding some similar ‘Assume Nothing’ caches in Wales in the near future.

The first stage of the aber-cachers travel bug race ended yesterday. The idea was to see how far the travel bugs could travel by moving from geocache to geocache over the course of a year. Here are the final results:

The Little Welsh Cache 11907.9 Miles

Skateboarding Sarah Miles11744.2

Jennie.m’s AberCachers race TB 11158.5 Miles

Forces-of-Nature Al - Travel Bug Race 6174.6 Miles

~*Tinkerbell*~ 2792.8 Miles

Snowboarding Dave 2340.6 Miles

Samurai Vanya - Travel Bug Race 1759.1 Miles

Samurai Dan - Travel Bug Race 1046.8 Miles

Forces-of-Nature Morgan - Travel Bug Race 570.9 Miles

Tortoiseshell’s Aberystwyth race travelbug 550.1 Miles

Red Kites Abercachers Racer Bug 111.9 Miles

The second stage of the race now begins… A race back to a geocache in Aberystwyth.. May the best bug win!

I had a meeting with some potential web design clients today, so drove all the way to Llandysul. Unfortunately when I got there I discovered they had been trying to phone me as the person I was supposed to have the meeting with was off sick so the meeting was canceled.

Frustrating as traveling to such meetings eats into any profit I make from such a project, but if I want to get the project then I shall have to make the trip again sometime soon.

All was not lost though as I had my GPSr with me and there were geocaches nearby that I had yet to find so I decided to do some geocaching in the time I had spare.. The first was a short walk from the canceled meeting so I set off on a pleasant walk along the banks of the river Teifi. This part of the river is used by canoeists and there were lots of slalom gates hanging over the river. The cache ‘Canoe Find it‘ was found easily before I headed back to my car.

Geocache number two was Tristan’s Cache, a cache overlooking a village in the middle of nowhere! It seemed like a nice place to live though, ‘proper rural Wales’. Geocache 3 was one that has been on my to do list for ages ‘Of Gorse you can see the sea’, located on the coast path just south of Aberaeron. Again the cache was found easily and a travel bug I collected from Tristans cache was dropped off.

The wind was blowing and the sun was shining so after walking along the coast ath for a bit watching the waves and whitecaps, I couldn’t resist a windsurf session so I rushed home and went out for a quick sail from Borth.

Not a very productive day workwise, but at least it wasn’t a complete waste of a journey.

We’ve just got back from a ‘proper’ family holiday in Slovenia. We stayed in Kranjska Gora in the NW of the country. It is a small resort town, aimed at snowsports in the winter and wlaking and biking in the summer. We were there at the end of the winter season so the snow wasn’t great whilst we were there, but we did manage to snowboard every day, and then on the last day it snowed properly so at least we got to see it in ‘Winter Wonderland’ guise.

Overall we had a great time. Morgan enjoyed the kids club and the swimming as well as playing in the snow. Anna and I had fun snowboarding, although Anna ended up with a few more injuries than I did! The hotel was nice, the locals friendly and we made friends with some other holiday makers there. I managed to do some geocaching whilst there as well.

Getting there
We flew from Manchester and the drive up went without hitch. We parked at a budget parking place which only cost £13.99 for the whole week and were mini-bused into the airport. We were extra early so had a bit of a wait in the airport but that was our own fault. We then got on the plane and found out that one of our fellow passengers had decided they were too ill to travel, so all the luggage had to be taken off so that they could find their luggage. This meant we missed our take-off slot and were sat in the plane on the runway for an hour and a half.

On arrival in Salzburg we had a small issue getting our luggage as the baggage handlers didn’t seem to know which carousel it was one. After being told it was on a different carousel 3 times by the airport staff and waiting at each carousel for a while it eventually turned up in a pile in the corner of the airport. Once reunited with our luggage we got on the coaches ready for a 3 hour transfer to Kranjska Gora.

On the coach the First Choice rep went through our booking for snowboard hire and lesson and informed us that I hadn’t booked board hire. I definitely had, but they were certain I hadn’t so we decided to sort it out in the morning at the meeting with the reps. Not a great start as we were now worried that I wouldn’t have a snowboard and would have to pay again to hire one.

The Hotel Alpina
Once at the Hotel Alpine in KranjskaGora it was getting on for midnight, so we had had a long day which started at 5am in Ynyslas. Thankfully there was some cold meats, cheese and bread waiting for us along with some biscuits and a drink, so after eating that we fell into our beds. The hotel was really nice, fairly plush, but nothing too special which is just the way we like it as it allows us to relax without worrying about too much. Breakfast was good with a choice a cereals, sausages, bacon, eggs, cold meats and cheese, yoghurts, croissants and bread, along with juice and various coffees etc.

We were booked in for half board and the dinners were nice too, plenty of choice and plenty of it as it was a buffet dinner. Coffees and cakes from the bar were also really nice, and the hotel was well situated just a little way up the hill overlooking the town and right on the edge of the ski slopes. The kids club was also in the hotel and there was storage facilities for our snow-boarding kit.

First Choice - Second Quality
As already mentioned, the snow wasn’t great and things weren’t looking good on the way to the meeting with the First Choice Reps. At the meeting we argued our point that I had indeed ordered and paid for board hire, but they were having none of it and were trying to get an extra 70 Euros out of us. We didn’t give in and headed off to the hire shop anyway, already stressed and ready to argue our point there. As it happens the locals in the hire shop didn’t even look twice and simply gave us the board so we were glad we hadn’t given First Choice an extra 70 Euros! We’ve since double checked our booking and it clearly states Board and Boot hire as separate items, so we did definitely order and pay for it and First Choice were the ones in the wrong.

The meeting also confirmed that the snow wasn’t great and only a couple of lifts would be open. 3 out of the 19 available. One of those was on the world cup downhill black run so out of our league and the other two were on the same slope, so really only one run was open. Of course First Choice were willing to sell you excursions to higher slopes, but not with any discounts, so that would cost another couple of hundred Euros for each day and wouldn’t have worked for us anyway as Morgan was in the Kids Club at Kranjska Gora so we couldn’t head off elsewhere.

We had other issues with First Choice too, as I had booked separate snowboard lessons and kit hire rather than a ‘learn to board package’. This was supposed to give me separate lessons at a higher level to the learn to package, but as it was the end of the season there weren’t enough instructors so I was grouped with the learn to group and therefore didn’t really get any lessons at my level. I brought this up with the rep and he said he’d meet me at the ski-school the next morning. he didn’t turn up and was also never present in the hotel at his allocated times, so I was unable to sort this out. The instructor himself was fine and did towards the end of the holiday try getting me to do a little extra, but overall I didn’t get the instruction that I had paid for, and the First Choice reps did nothing to rectify the situation.

Kids Club
The Kids Club was in the hotel and although Morgan was a little tearful to start with he enjoyed it there and had fun. This was also run by First Choice, but was better than the rest of the service we had from them. The staff were friendly and nice to Morgan and they did plenty of activities depsite the lack of snow.

Snowboarding Lessons
Despite the lack of snow and me being in a learn to board group the group and instructors were good. The first day was a bit of a wash out with slushy snow, rain and an instructor who was a little difficult to understand, but things improved the next day and the group (Me, Anna, Tom, Isobel, Kate, Anna and Estelle) all got on well. I had already boarded a bit so could already do the basics, Estelle had to. Tom picked things up quickly as did Kate and Anna, and Isobel was a skier so caught on quite quickly too. Anna doesn’t normally do these sorts of sports so picked things up a little slower and ended up with more bruises than everyone else, but still enjoyed it and could turn in both directions by the end of the holiday. To start with Tom, Anna and Anna struggled with the button lift and Anna even said that her aim for the week was just to get to the top, but she managed that earlier in the week and from then on didn’t look back. until hurting her arm and having to sit out of the last day of lessons.

Apres Ski
The hotel we were in was part of a chain of about 6 hotels in the resort and we were allowed to use the facilities in the other hotels, so afternoons were generally spent in the swimming pool at Hotel Larix. Morgan loved the pool and the hot chocolates afterwards, and the hotel itslef was right at the bottom of the slopes so we could watch people on the slopes from the pool

Kranjska Gora itself is ideal for families, the whole resort is compact and the main slope that we were on meant that everything was happening in the same place all with easy access to the things we needed. This may have been a little different if all the slopes were open, but for the week we were there it was ideal for use and would be good if Morgan was in ski school too.

I went on a few early morning walks to find some local geocaches too.

We went sledging and built some snowmen too and Morgan enjoyed the snow even though there wasn’t much of it. Typically, just after we gave our hire kit back on the last day, it started snowing heavily and on the morning of our departure the new snow was knee deep, so Morgan and I donned our snow-clothes and got out and played in it a bit before setting off on the coach. It was a shame the new snowfall didn’t come earlier in the week, but I guess there is little we can do about the weather.

We can’t wait to have another winter sports holiday, we would go back to Kranjska Gora again, and may even o with First Choice as they were the cheapest, but we would make sure they get the booking right and wouldn’t rely too much on them for the hire and instruction etc. However, if going to Kranjska Gora again we might go a little earlier in the year to get better snow, or may look to go elsewhere where snow is more likely.

Overall it we made themost of the conditions and the location and had a great holiday, but it could have been spoiled by First Choice if we had let their inefficiencies get to us.

Full details of my snowboard and geocaches sessions can be found in my diary entries at Forces-of-Nature and here are a few photos

I haven’t long got back from an outdoor weekend in Wales.

First I drove to Liverpool and Anna, Morgan and I stayed in a Travel lodge for the night so that I could drop Anna and Morgan off at the airport early in the morning so that they couldget the plane to the Isle of Man. I then drove to Dinas Dinlle near Caernarfon where I met Steve so that we could go windsurfing. The wind was pretty strong and in the end we went out at Foryd Bay for some shelter, but even there the wind was too much so we headed off to the Snowdon Ranger Youth Hostel instead.

We then went for a nice walk around Llyn Cwellyn and found a few geocaches before signing into the Youth Hostel. here I realised I had lost y credit card so after a few frantci phone calls I had cancelled the card and made sure no unauthorised transaction had been made. I then had to borrow some money from Steve so that I could fill up with Diesel in order to get home.

After dinner in the pub at Rhyd Ddu we got some sleep ready for an early breakfast and an attempt on the summit of Snowdon. We had an easy walk up the Snowdon Ranger path and back down the Rhydd Ddu path before walking around Llyn Dwyarchen and then up the steep path to the summit of Foel Rudd. Dinner this evening was in the Snowdon Ranger Youth Hostel.

The next day we woke with rather sore legs and after breakfast we headed off to Dinas Dinlle for another windsurf. We started to rig but the wind dropped so we did a geocache whilst waiting around for a bit and then headed off to Betws y Coed where we had a look around the shops. We then went to Llanrwst and had a mountain bike ride around the Marin Trail. Our legs weren’t really up to too much, so we had a nice easy ride around taking in the scenery as we went.

Steve then headed off home and I went to the Betws y Coed Youth Hostel where I was staying for the night. After a chat with the others staying there, a little walk and dinner in the Swallow Falls hotel, along with a phonecall to Anna and as it was mothers day my Mum, I headed off to bed ready for another early start the next day.

Monday dawned with some snow flurries but generally cool and sunny so I had breakfast and then went to the Marin Trail again and despite the very tired legs forced myself around the trail again, before heading off to Liverpool to collect Anna and Morgan from the airport.

All in all a good weekend, the hostels were good, the windsurfing was a little frustrating but the walking and mountain-biking were top class (If I get time I shall write about these in more detail). North Wales is quite a playground really. I think Steve enjoyed himself too, and thanks for lending me some money Steve otherwise I would have been stranded!