Glyncorwg to Rhondda vale

It was time to retrace our route of two days before across the Pen-y-Cymoedd wind farm.

We took the steep regional route 887 up the valley until it intercepts the main track through the windfarm some some 240 meters above our starting point in Glyncorwg. The track is huge, having been used to deliver the massive turbines to the site; we took it north east until it intercepts with national route 47. This was also the pinacle of our day's ride, just shy of 540 meters above sea level (320 above the day's start point).

On our ride we had encountered a pair of windfarm maintainance vehicles, a couple of mountain bikers and one runner with a dog - not a lot of humans for a 16Km stretch. This gave the ride a flavour of wilderness, despite the constructed tracks winding through the hills and forests or the file of turbines along the horizon.

After some brief undulation, route 47 brought us down to the Lluest-wen resevoir, at the top of the valley of the Rhondda fach. A little below the resevior, route 47 meets another regional route: number 881. We stopped here to heat up our lunch; we left it to steep in hot water, within a Thermos bag for us to eat further on down the valley.Read more