Look, I'm blonde okay, right down to the roots!

What day is it, oh right, Wednesday. So Monday was spent in manual labour and posting the revised book 14, The Girl. Here's the direct link on Amazon.

So Tuesday, I've been looking at the maps covering 'my' little corner of Wales and I came up with a short little circuit, so I set off bright and early - well overcast and not quite as late as usual and headed for the Severn crossing. Once over the water I climbed away from Chepstow before dropping to Raglan, by now the sun was trying to break out and it was all quite pleasant. From there I took the old road across to Abergavenny and the Usk valley. My destination for a lunch stop was a bit further yet, along the A40 towards Brecon, at Crickhowell. (I'm sticking to English names to give you all a chance of pronouncing them!)

I spotted a tea wagon just short of the town so instead of sandwiches by the castle it was bacon sandwich and tea in a lay-by! Partly fed, I continued into town for a look at the castle remains before a little side trip to see the chambered tomb that sits almost on the A40 as you leave town. Then it was back into Crickhowell, down to the Usk and over the ancient bridge to start the next part of my route. Up the valley, climbing in low metres per kilometre, over the Brecon canal and then left and up! and up and up, its not a huge distance to the top but you go from @ 60m to 512m, about halfway crossing into open moorland.

I admit to stopping a couple of times - to take photographs you understand, the views north (behind you on the climb) out into the Brecon Beacons are pretty impressive. Once I reached the summit I stopped for my sandwiches and to enjoy the upland ambience, something I've been missing for @ 10 months. But time was getting on and my guesstimate was another 80km to ride so I set off anew for the south Wales valleys.

Down to the Heads of the Valleys road then it was back to climbing to reach Blaenavon from where it was pretty much all downhill to Cwmbran. I did a bit of valley hopping to get to Caerleon and the Usk once again then out of that valley to reach the eastbound A49. It was overcast by now so I didn't stop for eis but instead pushed on to the bridge and a return to England.

The kilometres had been adding up, I finished on just over 180 of them shorter than the last few rides for sure but with 1975m vertical metres, it was a pretty hard days riding.

And so to today. Well more hard labour for the landlady (lol) and a shortish walk of @ 8km which included time spent BlackBerrying, gaining a myriad of punctures and lacerations in the process. I collected about 2kg of the things so I ended up making an apple and blackberry crumble, from bush and tree to cooked and eaten in 3 hours - an hour of that was walking back! The apple was maybe a bit tart but the berrys were suweeeettt! I think Bev liked it, there was a pattern on the bowl but no longer!

This would've been posted sooner but I managed to put the wrong chapter of 21 up, though I remembered it, anyhow, its fixed now. So this evening its Sports Day from book 2 and Kabin Fever from book 21.

Tschussie

Madeline Anafrid