USK RESERVOIR

The forecast for today, Thursday, was looking reasonable with any rain later in the day. I decided on a trip around the Usk reservoir and perhaps an extension in the near vicinity.

Here is the route (click) and a picture below

The journey by car, when I turned off the main road from Llangadog to Ammanford, leads into some beautiful country with mountains and moors soon coming into sight.

This area introduced me to hill walking when two friends (one of whom I refer to now as "The Navigator" in my other blog http://randomdailywalks.blogspot.co.uk/ (click) decided to show me what it is all about. It was a wet, turning to snow day and my dear wife suggesting they surely wouldn't go in this weather? So innocent.  A long story told short is that I finished wet, cold and in awe of Cyril, my other friend who had about 30 years on me who just strolled up the snout of one of the Carmarthen Fans as if it was flat.  He apparently said to the "Navigator" that's the last we will see of him.  WRONG.

I still get cold and wet but enjoy every hill and valley and now I also have the bike.

Back to the present. From the car park I took the road which leads down to the dam of the reservoir and where a number of people were fishing, some from the bank and some from boats. 

  I stopped for a while but no fish were seen. I carried on and the tarmac turned into a track which was  reasonably firm with some puddles - the bike's first mud.

I stopped on a few occasions to look at the views which took in the Carmarthen Fans and further away Corn Ddu and Pen - y - Fan of the central Beacons.

Before long I was back near the car and decided to extend the ride on the lanes which led away and then back to the reservoir and eventually my car.  Downhills are great but inevitably there is the equivalent up to contend with and although theses ups meant a stop for a breather , no dismounting was had.

I came across two farms who reared lambs, but not just any lambs.

One assumes that in by-gone days there were plenty of locals to warrant building a chapel in the middle of farming country.

A good few hours cycling in splendid countryside and the sighting of a number of red kites on the way home.

Tomorrow's main task will be to clean my bike.