pwa wrote:Cyril Haearn wrote:pwa wrote:
Have you been mountain biking in the Afan Forest in South Wales? There is a Mountain Bike Centre with extensive graded routes around the surrounding steep slopes. Local businesses provide accommodation for visitors. For former coal mining villages like Glyncorrwg it provides a small but welcome source of local jobs that people don't have to travel for. Yet the visitors come by car. There is no railway. It went decades ago. The rail beds are now cycle tracks, part of the attraction. Would you take that away from the Afan valley?
No I have not been there
Treherbert Station is not far away, it must be possible to get to Glyncorrwg quite easily without a motor vehicle
You certainly have not been there! Yes Treherbert is not far away, by helicopter. Should you cycle the A road from Treherbert to Cymmer (Afan Valley) you pass over the highest stretch of A road in Wales. presumably carrying your clobber. It could be done, and many would enjoy it, but you would not describe it as "not far away" in terms of effort and time. You'd not want to get off a train and embark on that epic climb late in the evening with rain falling and the light fading.
I think I would
I do love cycling uphill, are the mountain bikers different, do they prefer downhill?
Seems to me in this case one could quite easily get there without a motor vehicle if one is willing to use some time and energy
The great thing then is, one could go another way home, Maesteg station is not far, looks like an easy ride, trains run through from there to the north
I find the Valleys interesting but do not know them well unfortunately, George Thomas asserted that although little Welsh is spoken there, the area is very Welsh, is that right?
Cymru' gogledd am byth!