Having arrived at Wormbridge, we couldn’t decide whether repeat just as much as we cycled the next day, or to try and make it a bit further towards Merthyr Tydfil. Unfortunately, the accommodation in Brynmawr we were thinking about booking was already gone, but we found the last room in Tredegar and promptly booked it. ‘It’s just 50 kilometres, we can totally make it!’
And just a half an hour later, just as we ordered our dinner at the Kilpeck Inn, came the realisation: it’s 50 kilometres, and it’s up the hill! The booking was non-refundable, so we decided to try it anyway, but preparing mentally to having to stay in Abergavenny if necessary. After all, if we leave early, we should have plenty of time to spend cycling.
Breakfast at 7:45, the owner of the place cooked full breakfast for us, and it was so much better than in Hereford. No hash browns, but proper tomatoes (not canned ones!), better mushrooms, better sausage.
We started on the main road through Wormbridge to avoid the rollercoaster near Kilpeck. However, as we soon learnt, the rollercoaster was only about to start! What we thought of as a relatively easy part of the route was actually the most exhausting one, with quite a few steep climbs.
While climbing one of the hills halfway between Grosmont and Llanvihangel Crucorney, I stopped on the side of the road waiting for Martina to follow, and a man asked though the window me if I'm alright or if I need water or anything. Turns out this Northerner living in the Welsh countryside has just returned from a cycling race somewhere in France, and he was very happy to give us a lot of advice on getting to Abergavenny and beyond. He also gave us two extra water bottles and some energy snacks and drinks.
Just before Llanvihangel Crucorney, the route 46 went up the hill, but we decided we've had enough of hills for the morning and instead went to the village directly and went on the main road.
Luckily, we didn't have to stay on the main road for very long as we were able to enter Abergavenny on some side road after a few kilometres. I must admit the lorry drivers did the right thing and waited until they could overtake us safely instead of squeezing us off the road.
We've spent about an hour or two in Abergavenny, eating some of our food reserves to make our way up easier. I enjoyed an exceptionally good double espresso at Beans & Bread at the corner of Market St and Lion St.
Leaving Abergavenny was a bit tricky. The path by the castle was unpaved and barely cyclable with panniers, so I walked it down instead, where a ‘kissing gate’ was waiting for us.
Then the path continued through the meadows, paved with unusually shaped grass pavers, ending as we reached an old bridge: another gate, and a rather narrow pavement shared with pedestrians.
The beginning of the separated part of the route 46 was very easy to miss, as it started at a car park, whereas a much better-looking path led back to the town.
The remainder of the route to Brynmawr was mostly on a converted railway embankment, so it was very easy to ride (just like cyclists, trains don't run very well up steep slopes). To our great surprise, what we expected to be one of the hardest parts of the whole journey wasn't hard at all. The only difficulties we experienced were a short Z-shaped uphill near Clydach, and a super steep climb on the approach to Brynmawr.
What remains of the Clydach station:
East portal of the tunnel:
The path had a few gates installed, some of them just gates with cattle grids, but a few were ‘kissing gates’ or wide gates with narrow cyclists-shaped passages — which obviously weren't wide enough to allow us to pass. Luckily, I was able to open the gates on quite a few occasions, but some of them were locked, requiring me to walk around through bushes.
In fact, some gates had passages so narrow, even my bicycle's handlebars wouldn't fit!
It was very easy to navigate the 46 in Brynmawr, it's quite well-signed except one stretch by the pond, where the route suddenly goes on the road.
Leaving Brynmawr, we've got off the 46 to make our way to Tredegar where we stayed at Tredegar Arms.
