Machynlleth to Porthmadog

Machynlleth to Porthmadog
Statistics: 46 miles, Maximum speed unrecorded, 8 beers

Breakfast served by a large scary looking lady provided us with all the nutrients, if not the ambiance, required. We headed out of town on a road with alternating steep and shallow ascents. We had a short day's ride ahead of us so we decided to take a look at the Centre for Alternative Technology. The weather was dull and the cloud closed in as we reached CAT. We entered the site up a water-balanced funicular railway. Being a rainy Monday in October the site wasn't exactly packed with people but Michael Palin's introductory video managed to give us a sense of being part of a growing movement for change. The slick production was obviously designed to divest visitors of their assumptions about hippy weirdoes and (passing a couple of hippy weirdoes and a slightly mad old lady) we marched on into this brave new world. Sneering aside for a moment (don't worry it will be back in a second) and taking into consideration the speed with which we dashed round the site it was clear that the CAT had a lot to offer. From really prosaic displays of composting and organic gardening to pretty high tech energy generation techniques this would be a seriously interesting outing for anyone who suspects that there is more to life than MacDonalds (hello you bastards!) and TV. The straw bale houses fascinated me and Dave particularly liked the urine soaked straw compost (I made one of those up, can you tell which?) We left the site down the water railway, which moves at 0.5mph, waving our hands and screaming in a roller-coaster stylee. Putting on our wet weather gear we headed off up another bloody long hill. On our left was Cadir Idris (the pigmy to Llareggub's giant). The cloud hung in ragged ribbons on its sheep-nibbled flanks as we toiled up the black rain-washed road. Rounding the mountain we descended into Dolgellau and scouted for pubs. We settled on the Royal Ship Hotel and decided on a reasonable feed. Having been quite ill for the two weeks before the trip I was sure that maximum input would be good for me. Perhaps I was right but I suspect that the leaden weight in our stomachs during the afternoon was not unrelated to the huge fish platter, pasta bake, coke, tea, spotted dick, chocolate sponge and two helpings of custard that we consumed between us over lunch.

A few circuits of the town finally threw us centrifugally out towards Porthmadog. The Lôn Las Cymru route was impassable with road bikes so we took the more direct A470. Dave added a further puncture to the two I'd had on day two before we had really got going. When we did, it became clear that it was going to be a long ride on a busy road. What we didn't expect was the almost uninterrupted nature of the climbing. Many of the 'B' road's ups and downs had been evened out and the gradient was monotonous. The cloud lifted a little and by the time we got near Trawsfynydd we had a great view out over the lake to a vast castle-like structure on the other side. Sadly, the seat of Arthurian majesty turned out to be a nuclear power station but it had a strange dour beauty from a distance. The final run into Porthmadog was a scary, scary thing. Huge trucks and a break-neck descent finished in a causeway over the bay called 'The Cobb'. We checked into a restaurant that had a couple of nice and clean and well-appointed rooms. Dinner at a pub called the Australia (not Bar Oz) was passable and then we retired to the Ship for a few beers. I had an excellent Burtons, and Dave (for six years a member of CAMRA) had Tetley Dark Mild that he knowledgeably described as "dark and mild".