Did you know North Wales is hilly???

It has been a tough couple of days.  We have been crossing over the mountains of Mid and North Wales.  From Builth Wells we cycled on to Llanidloes and then over the main range of the Cambrian mountains into Machynlleth.  The main climb of the day took us well away from civlisation, nearly to the source of the river Severn and the up to about 400 metres before rewarded us with a 5 miles decent into town.  We were frozen from the wind blast of the decent by the time we arrived and opted for a warm B&B over a wind swept campsite for our accomodation.

Our decision to stop in Mac last night means that we had a long and tough climb up out of Machynlleth this morning as we main our way to the next main town of Dolgellau.  We followed National Cycle Network 8 as the main road was narrow and filled with heavy traffic.  It took us on winding lanes up and then onto an even narrower purpose built cycle track whose steepness eventually reduced us to pushing the tandem as we got close to the top.  At least in this blustery weather only the sheep were there to see us struggle.

We then followed the coast road out to Barmouth, where we enjoyed a hearty lunch courtesy of the Co-op, before heading North to Harlech, then on to Porthmadog and finally back on the cycle route into Caernarfon.  Where we met up with Rachel, her boyfriend and Den's Brother ahead of our climb up Snowdon tomorrow.