Day 1, Sunday 16 June

Barmouth to Newtown

We assemble in Barmouth
Tom, Vladimir & Nigel

All days should start with a good breakfast. That done, Tom and I saddled up and headed down into Barmouth to meet Vladimir and Ceri who had driven all the way from Birmingham that morning. After a deal of discussion and re-positioning Ceri took our photo to prove that's where we'd actually started from and away we went following the Euro Velo Route EV2 over the Barmouth viaduct and along the old railway track by the side of the Mawddach estuary. EV2 is the European capital cities route going through Dublin, Cardiff, London, Berlin, Warsaw, Minsk and Moscow. Over 5,000 miles long, we followed it from Dolgellau to Machynlleth, a mere 25 miles.

Having been lulled into a false sense of security all the way to Dolgellau we then hit the hills. A steady climb through Tabor at 680ft (12 miles) brought us to the shoulder of Pen y Bwlch Goch at around 800ft a mile later. Then down narrow farm tracks and across the A487 only to struggle up to our fist peak at 1,330ft, 15 miles from the start.

With relief we headed downhill, eventually meeting up with the Afon Dulas that flows into Afon Defi and into the sea at Machynlleth. 25 miles from the start we rode along the new and as yet unopened bridge into Machynlleth and met up with Ceri for a pub lunch.

But worse was yet to come. Eight miles of brutal climbing brought us to the highest point of the day at 1,660ft, then down through Dylife and Staylittle where we left the Euro Velo route and headed across country towards Caersws where we joined Sustrans Route 81 for a short distance before abandoning it for the main road. We rode into the middle of Newtown alongside the River Severn.

Newtown is one of the biggest towns in Mid Wales, founded as a market town in the late 13th century. It prospered with the growth of the 19th century woollen industry but was eventually eclipsed by Lancashire and Yorkshire industrial expansion. Newtown was the site of the first Chartist meeting in Wales demanding protection from wage reduction. One of the first mail order businesses was established in Newtown selling woollen goods by the new postal service. After the first and second world wars industry virtually collapsed exacerbated by a catastrophic fire and disastrous floods until a development corporation started a programme of new house and factory building that by 1990 had doubled the size of the town.

Having cleaned up we walked to a large pub and ate a hearty evening meal.