…. our world cycle tour ….. resumes …. rydym yn beicio Cymru 17th – 26th Marwth 2022

…..Finally, we have an opportunity to resume our cycle tour. So excited for this. Our plan is to pick up from where we left of in Eire. we are firstly visiting our friends Carol and Steve in Bristol two fabulous musicians, a little more about them later. We have also decided to cycle the South coast of Wales from Abertawe to Abergwuan, we then catch the ferry to Calafort Ros Láir …..

One thing was certain we wanted to by pass the industrial area of Port Talb0t …. we thought about heading inland which would have been fun, one thing that concerned us was our level of fitness. We had been on the Isles of Scilly throughout the pandemic and if you know anything about the Isles of Scilly then you can imagine that cycling is really limited. For the most part we were based on Tresco where I was involved with an artist in residence and later on St. Mary’s and working officially part time (though it wasn’t) on the Garrison campsite.

When we first started this world cycle tour we had been training for 2 years while my son Aaron completed his A-Levels. So cycling every day Monday to Friday from St. Just to Penzance a round trip of 15 miles. I would cycle with Aaron, then back to St. Just to work on my paintings, then back to pick him him. so 30 miles a day Monday to Friday and usually some cycling at the weekend.

So we were fit and ready to start back in 2016 and 2017.

This time we knew that our fitness was no where near the same level …. so we decided to take it easy with ourselves and start at Abertawe cycling along the coast through the Mumbles, to Llanelli and along the millenium cycle way, then cross country to Abergwuan …. even so we encountered several tough climbs around the mumbles before begining the millenium cycle route ….. and we felt it pulling 30 kilos of gear, as we were starting early in the year we brought some warm equipment as it was still fairly chilly through the night, evening and early morning. Though our Tyin Mamut 5 season sleeping bags kept us toasty warm….

By the time we got to Aberllydan it was warm enough to consider posting some of our winter weather gear back to Cornwall….. and that made quite a difference ….

Back tracking a little to the start …..

First camp Boleigh Farm. Cornwall. I was here for about a week finishing of some work and posting some large artworks

Rainbow – Boleigh farm camp. Cornwall

This was formally my cycling start point for resuming our world cycle tour (paused due to the pandemic) Land’s End. Cornwall. Because of delay’s due to work my son Aaron had already begun cycling and was heading North solo touring – his first solo cycle tour….Great stuff ….

…. and then to have a few hours contemplation at Sennen Cove. Cornwall. This is where I scattered my partner’s ashes …. It was Julia’s most favorite place in the whole world. Shortly after we met on our degree course in Fine Art at Wolverhampton Polytechnic Julia took me here …. we had virtually no money and just along the coast from here we wild camped for about a week. It was my first ever wild camp back in 1985, and we had a fab time waking every morning with the opening of our tent pointing straight out to sea, we even snook into a campsite to use the showers which were coin operated.

We talked from time to time about doing a really long tour either walking or cycling, so it seemed an apropriate thing to do to visit this place and spend a few hours having some good memories …

Although the cycling start point was Land’s End …. this also is the start point ….. in other circumstances …. ah well …. C’est la vie …..

… and then on the way back to camp a quick stop to visit the merry maidens

…..Aaron was really looking forward to resuming our world cycle tour…. so we had a chat about how long the work delay was going to take and he had the idea to set off while I finished up organising a few last minute sales and delivery of paintings. This was a fab thing to do and Aaron’s first solo cycle tour…… Solo cycle touring is such a liberating experience….the freedom to choose your own path, you don’t have the worry to have to take into account your companion’s thought’s or ideas, or suggestions …. and the time alone is interesting, well everything about it is great stuff …..

Aaron setting off for a two week solo cycle tour

We met up a couple of weeks later in Bristol and had a few days with our great friends Carol and Steve, back in 2009 Carol and Steve with their friend Heather Gibbard all three with a passion for Early, Renaissance, Spanish, Moorish and Elizabethan Music formed Rosafresca. The music is utterly sublime and I will never forget the time Carol and Steve treated Aaron and I to a private recital in their home in Bristol ….. here is a link to their website where you can listern to some of this extraordinarily beautiful music.

Though Rosafresco no longer perform. Their last performance was at All Saints Church in Clifton on 5 March this year…..

Rosafresca …. http://www.rosafresca.co.uk/

You can also find their music here …. http://www.musicnumber11.com/

Rosafresca …. Great stuff

Always a pleasure to see Carol and Steve and it remains so, I have known them since I first visited Julia in Bristol, many years ago….probably 1985/1986…. During our visit we were again treated to some extraordinary music. Carol and a couple of musicians who had come over from Dublin to reherse with Carol with Crumhorn a most extraordinary instrument …. not to everyone’s tast …. we all thought it was wonderful. Great music, great fun fab food wonderful conversation….. Just great stuff … the next step was a train to Abertawe and begin another brief tour of Wales before continuing into Eire.

CYMRU ….. Dwi’n Caru Cymru

Croeso i Gymru. Dwi’n Caru Cymru, dwi’n mwymhau dysgu Cymraeg, though I am still learning when I am fluent I will translate this into Welsh. Rydym yn ymweld Abertawe a’r Mwmbwls heddiw

Gwersyll gwyllt cyntaf ….

Bristol to Abertawe by train, then a relatively short ride to our wild camp

I am doing this whole tour as an artist in residence ….. self organised and self funded …. each ride is in itself an artwork, what I consider to be akin to land art and so each dayI will be working as an artist as I travel. documenting the journey as I go

Although learning Cymraeg is going well I am still a long ways from writing everything I want to say so…..Aaron spotted this place just in time as we were really tired and though we were dry it look as though rain was on the way and we had had some rain throughout the day even though we had sunshine from Bristol to Abertawe. It does nit look like much, we had not wild camped in three years so we were a little out of practice, but it was sheltered it was flat and it was away from houses and it felt good to be doing this again.

Wild camp via Llanelli to wild camp at Porth Tywyn

Next few images are from cycling along the millenium cycle way ….

Absolutely wonderful to have found this …. This is a fab part of cycle touring … looking into local history …. the geology …. the culture …..

Amelia Earhart …. Y fenyw gyntaf i hedfan dros For yr Iwerydd Glaniodd yma yn y foryd ar bwys pentref Pwll Mehefin 1928 …… Great stuff

Gwersyll gwyllt cyntaf y Porth Tywyn…. Great stuff

Machlud …. gwersyll gwyllt cyntaf ger Porth Tywyn

And after sunset a full Moon rise ….. I love cycle touring

Porth Tywyn Gwersyll gwyllt i ger Castell Moel. Sir Gaerfyrddin

First maintenance issue – Aaron has a partially broken chain, so a detour was in our minds but happily the nearest bike shop which ended up not beinga detour after all was half a days ride away, and fortunately for us the chain survived until we replaced it…..

Llwybr arfordirol

Gwersyll gwyllt ger Castell Moel. Sir Gaerfyrddin

This was one of the best wild camps ever. Some ways from any roads … we had spotted this wood on the map and just new it woud be a perfect place. There was a path that led from the road which had not been used for some time … perfect …. and up a fairly steep though manageable hill towards this wood …. We quickly found a fab place between trees and enjoyed a lovely evening cooked some food relaxed replaced Aaron’s chain and waited for the stars to come out….. Great stuff ….

packing up

… ready to ride …

…. Always when wild camping our philosophy is very simple and it works…..whatever we bring with us to a wild camp … we take with us when we leave, we never ever leave rubbish or waste or broken equipement, we leave as if we were never there …. travelling the Earth lightly because the Earth is our home …

….. some terrific carvings are this woodland ….

Castell Moel. Sir Gaerfyrddin i Sancler

The next days ride was beautiful, through forests by streams and the air filled with bird song … I did not catch the bird of prey in this image, I think it was a buzzard but it took off just to the left of where Aaron is cycling along the road…. We decided at this point that a campsite might be fun ….. and Aaron found a farm cat ….

Sancler campsite

….Sometimes it’s the small things that grab our attention…

Noswaith dda ……

Sancler i Dinbach – y – Pisgod

Amroth

Fossil Brachiopods burried in Limestone ….. itself a fossil ….. Amroth

Becio Cymru

Gwersyll gwyllt ger …. Dinbach – y – Pisgod ….. which means little fortress of the Fish

Bore da

Aaron’s panniers were old school Karrimor panniers and they were old. and worn. We both have a tendency to use things to destruction …. repairing them along the way until we can’t… but all four of his main panniers were starting to fail. You can see in the image above that the bracket that attaches the pannier to the bike rack had completely come away from the pannier and his other three were in the process of doing the same. Fortunately this happened shortly before we found a good place to wild camp and we were able to redistribute most of Aaron’s kit so that the bike did not feel to unbalanced to ride. But it was clear once we made camp that this was going to be a problem. In the end we could not find a way to adequately repair the pannier and decided to head for a yha the next day which was a normal day’s ride but mostly flat and coastal. We had been aware that this was going to happen for a few days and had made plans. We had already booked ourselves into a yha a few days ago and Aaron had also ordered a brand new set of Ortleib panniers and checking withthe yha to make sure this was okay had arranged for them to be delivered to the yha…… So all we had to do was one days ride to get to the yha and wait for the panniers to arrive …….

Gwersyll gwyllt ger Dinbach – y – Pisgod i Aberllydan

The following day Aaron had his pannier strapped to the rear pannier rack

And off we went …..

Even though Aaron had his pannier problem it did not stop us from exploring….. that our route took us past Castell Penfro was a great chance to have a break …. it was stunning

We love these signs dotted throughout the castle …. they reminded me of the traffic warning signs in Krakow Poland ….. which have a similarly humerous touch to them ….

And Aaron and I had no idea at all that underneath Castell Penfro was this amazing cavern ……

Arriving at Aberllydan ….. somewhat early which was fab the weather was terrific.

When we arrived at the yha Aaron’s panniers had already arrived which was just fabtastic, we did not know how long they would take and in fact Aaron did have one problem witht he order in that one supplier had them advertised as in stock when in fact they were not !!!!! nevertheless I was hopeful they would be there. The moment we arrived and introduced ourselves my first question was about the panniers and the receptionist went and brought out the box …. once we were in our room Aaron quickly revealed the wondrous 100 percent waterproof panniers ….

Making a scale model of the solar system is always fun not the least of which is the curiosity of people walking past. As a rough scale we used a foot length to represent 10 million miles so then it was just a case of counting steps toe to heal to get an approximate distance. On this occassion we accessed our astronomy software to gain a plan view of the solar system so we were able to plot on the beach the approximate relative distance and direction/angles from the sun and the planets. In this scale model we included all the planets and the asteroid belt

Having left we were now on our way to the ferry port at Abergwuan …. We had liited time for this ride as we wanted to catch a ferry from Abergwuan to Ros Lair to give us enough time to find either a wild camp or possibly a campsite near Ros Lair

….And just for fun we kept the garmin going for the ferry …..

Hwyl Cymru ……. for now

….. P.S. ……

As I am doing this whole tour as an artist in residence ….. self organised and self funded I will be working as an artist as I travel. I usually take sketchbooks with basic drawing materials and my camera, and as I find places to pause I will always draw and if the weather is calm then I will create some natural sculptures in the landscape, or if the pause is long enough I may paint. As I am writing this which is after the first to months of the tour my son and I are back in Penzance visiting family and friends before we continue into Europe and on to Iceland so I have a little time to make some art. On this occasion painting and here are the first two paintings of this tour…..

The following are quick watercolours I do while on the road or when we make camp. They are quite small and are spontaneous responses to nature, and they are simple and fun to do….

and yes I do sell such small things….. contact me via e mail if interested. doms598@aol.com