Day 9 - 27th September

A nice sunny day for a run through Wales. A bit busy until Oswestry, but after that I was able to Araf down. The scenery is not as majestic as Scotland, more rounded and green rather than angular and grey, but there are still some decent hills and bends, where Araf really means Araf.

Mid-Wales, but no pylon signs

Looking towards the Black Mountains

The inhabitants of mid Wales seem much exercised about wind farms and pylons - they are not in favour. Lots of "No Pylons" and "No Wind Farms" signs, but none saying "We are happy for someone else to generate the power we use". All the road signs are bilingual, but all the protest signs are in English - is English used for political argument and Welsh reserved for poetical argument? I noticed the Eisteddfod is/was in Wrexham/Wrecsam this year.

I felt like stopping for a cup of tea, but couldn't find an open cafe for about 20 miles until I saw a sign for the "Honey Cafe" at Bronllys. I turned in just after a new looking Morgan sports car, and parked up next to  two big BMW bikes. Turned out it was a new lady owner and the personal instructor you can hire from BMW for a bit of one to one tuition. The pot of tea and welsh cakes (like a thin scone) were very welcome. I've just looked it up to check the spelling (of Bronllys) and find it has been given 10/10 by a cyclist from Birmingham who "would cycle an extra 20 - 30 miles to visit this cafe".

Sunny day at the Honey Cafe

View from the Honey Cafe

Arrived a bit early in Caerleon, did a circuit of the one way system to try to find the Pendragon House B&B but failed, looked at the map again and realised I had to do another circuit - found it, but was still too early so went to look for fuel which ended up taking two more circuits. Unfortunately most of these circuits coincided with some kind of traffic problem which meant I was stationary for much of the time - I never did come across what caused it.

A nice welcome from Kathryn and Peter, the owners, who are letting me put the bike in their back garden because they have no off-street parking. Unfortunately the gate is very narrow, so I've had to loosen the mirrors and turn them inwards to get it through.