The mother of all hills!
I’d been told that to get to Pontyberem there was a hill to get over and then once into the town to get out there was another hill. Well after 5 days of hills you’d think that we’d be used to them by now.
We’ve left Rogers house in good time this morning knowing that we’ve got 10 miles to do today and that apparently there is a hill in the way. We cross over the River Towy with views of what used to be the old wharf side, and make our way along quiet roads until we need to cross over the A48; not an easy task at rush hour, but we take our lives in our hands and make a dash for it! Excellent another hill!
I love it when you see a ‘<‘ sign on an OS map even better when you see a ‘<<‘ sign. These signify a steep incline on a road with the point facing down hill. We get a ‘<‘ which is a 14-20% gradient.
Again i’d plotted the route to take the shortest route, which on this challenge has sometimes not proved to be the best thing to do. We are at a point on todays walk where we need to make a decision, go off road and over a hill, or take the longer road route. We are met by some horse riders who assure us that the path we want is a bridleway and is good underfoot and perfectly accessible as they use it all the time. Best take care of all the horse poo then!
The info is correct, a bit uneven under foot, those ankle twister rocks that can take you by surprise, but Zara does great going down the hill and we get into a little village called Llangyndeyrn, yup your guess is a good as mine how to pronounce where we hit our 6 mile mark so a little rest is in order.
Where i’m pointing I hoped was the top of the hill, which i guessed was about 2 miles away. Oh how wrong can you be? The village of Crwbin, again you choose, was only just over a mile away but thats over a 400 ft (120m) up the road, it was another mile until we reached the top, a total of 570ft (175m). That may not seem a lot but it was relentless and took us nearly an hour. You can’t stop walking cause theres a big hill to climb!! At least it was downhill into Pontyberem where Alun from Carmarthen Lions picked us up.
Todays miles 11.2
Ians beer of the day
Had to go bottled today, but this is a very nice brew by the Conway Brewery. Unpasteurised, and unfiltered so it does have a bit of sediment which isn’t a problem if you poor it carefully. Very drinkable and I thought I could smell bananas but that could just be me.
