Four days cycling around the South Wales Valleys

Day 1- Port Talbot to Port Tennant (via the Afan valley, 33 miles)

When we left the railway station, the weather was leaden and overcast, we gradually headed uphill northbound through the gorgeous Afan valley (we did this route southbound in 2014 ‘Ogmore Vale’). The area is a haven for all sorts of wonderful wildlife and has world-class mountain bike trails. At Pontrhydyfen the trail splits; to the left is the ‘Richard Burton trail’ (I don’t think he had anything to do with cycling, but he was born here) which crosses the Pontrhydyfen viaduct, however we go right through the village of Pontrhydyfen, then up and over the old Pontrhydyfen aqueduct (built in 1825 to supply the water to power the waterwheels of the nearby Cwmavon blast furnaces), now part of the NCN887 towering above the valley floor. It began to rain heavily and we sheltered in a nearby log shed, just until it subsided. At Rhyslyn there’s another split, we go left, leaving the NCN887 to parallel the River Afan on a small gravel forest road on the north side of the river. The river meanders right and we follow it high above the water, joining up with the Afan valley cycleway (on the old South Wales Mineral Junction Branch), a route less crowded than the south side path.

We pass the fantastic disused Cymmer viaduct on our right side, which used to join the north and south railway lines together, now we turn north passed the Cymmer (Corrwg) station following the Afan Corrwg river. When we pass Glyncorrwg ponds, it's time to drop down to the Glyncorrwg Visitor Centre for a cuppa. After a wonderful brew we rejoin the Afan valley cycleway. The railway trail now finishes here and terminates at the old station of Glyncorrwg (now just a car park). From here, we have 2 miles of climbing over the Mynydd Resolfen (mountain) on forestry tracks, to reach our highest point of the day at 1500 feet above sea level. It began to rain heavily again as we were climbing (and walking) through the massive pine forest, with each tree one hundred feet high, until we heard a loud whooshing- when closer, we can see gigantic wind turbines slicing the air. At last we stop climbing and make our descent into Resolven on a teeth rattling service road. Cold and soaked through we had a coffee in a small supermarket and moved on, crossing the River Neath. We had intended to jump onto the Neath canal, but it was unridable until we reached Abergarwed.

Riding across the B4434 road bridge we notice a great sight to our right; a railway viaduct and the Tennant canal aqueduct behind within spitting distance of each other, making a great photo. The ‘Garmin’ alerted us to the Aberdulais Tin Works, worth a little diversion. Now there's a series of left and right turns to get onto the canal basin at Aberdrdulis, where we eventually ride between the river Neath and the Tennant canal on a small path. Just after the Tennant canal crosses the river Clydach we cross over the canal on to Monastery road to see Neath Abbey. These ruins were once part of the biggest Cistercian Abbey in Wales. Walking around the remnants, there’s a lot of work going on, but one can still appreciate the sheer scale of how the Abbey was in its prime. We stay off the Tennant canal for a mile and make a small detour on the road, rejoining it when it goes under the M4. We pass through Jersey marine famous for its four storey octagonal tower, built in the Victorian era. The Tennant canal terminates at Port Tennant and so does our ride for today. The canal used to end in a basin now occupied by Ashlands playing fields, from here the goods would have been craned off the barges and taken straight to the King’s dock (which is still in use today) for distribution around the World. We booked in at the hotel Ibis and had the well deserved pint.

Day 2- Port Tennant to Crosshands (33 miles)

We knew it was going to be a tough day today, uphill for most of the route following the river Tawe and then the river Glan-Yr-Avon on former railway routes. We start around ten and leave the hotel on a glorious day, traveling on the old route of the Swansea Vale Railway (which eventually transfered to the Midland Railway in 1876), keeping the river Tawe on our left. We shortly arrived at the ‘Copper quarter’; the Hafod Morfa copperworks was once the crucible of the global copper industry and vital to Swansea’s development. By 1850 eleven major copperworks had been established on the banks of the River Tawe, and for a time they produced over half of the World’s total output of smelted copper. Such was the importance of this industry that Swansea became known as ‘Copperopolis’.

Before we cross the river Tawe to the Liberty stadium (home of both the Swans football team and the Ospreys rugby team), we stopped for a photo of the Bascule railway bridge which cantilevered up for tall ships. The old railway now follows the current Nantong Way, but we follow the cycle path besides the river, crossing it to the west side, before crossing back again in a short distance to circumnavigate Fendrod Lake. The whole area is riddled with old railway paths and it’s difficult to choose which one to travel on. We arrive at Morriston, constructed as ‘Wales' earliest planned industrial village’, laid out on a grid pattern, and named after its founder- Sir John Morris. There were two stations here, the Midland railway ran the station east of the river and GWR ran the west side. The path goes underneath the M4 and we cross the river Tawe on park road, then going through Ynystawe Park. At Clydach we jump onto the Swansea canal and come across the Clydach Heritage Centre; a pocket sized museum, depicting a fascinating insight into the historical life of the Clydach people. It was closed today, so we continued on the Swansea canal, through Pontardawe where we rejoin the route along the river Tawe again. The path gradually drifted uphill on a good surface, then we reached a strange distraction; a memorial to Gleision mine where four men died as recent as 2011. A very poignant tribute to these men, with many personal possessions and hand written messages from friends as part of the shrine. At Ystalyfera we cross a bridge, then take a short diversion to see the Ynyscedwyn Iron Works. The remains of the building on the Ynyscedwyn site are not part of the original ironworks, but were built in 1872 as part of a planned steel mill, which was not completed. The site then housed the Ynyscedwyn Tinplate Works. We have to backtrack to Gurnos and it’s a must to cross the aqueduct over the Afon Twrch, but the image looking ahead doesn’t prepare you for the view over the side. There’s colossal weir roaring even in the summer.

The Swansea vale railway path now follows the river Afon Twrch and we stay on its route for a short distance. From here, unfortunately we now have to ride on a main road for about 3 miles to Ystradowen, but at least it's quiet crossing the Lower Brynmorgan Bridge and then the Upper Brynmorgan Bridge. Now we turn right on to the NCN437 cycle path at Cwmllynfell. Between Cwmllynfell and Brynamman is East Pit (named after the old colliery here), a massive blot on the landscape, an opencast coal mine producing anthracite from twelve individual coal seams lying up to one hundred and fifty metres below the surface. At Brynamman there’s an example of just how ludicrous the many railway companies were at the time; when the Midland railway crossed the A4069 road, the ownership of the line changed to the Great Western Railway (originally part of the original Llanelly Railway and Dock Company route), not that usual you say, but the Midland Company had a station on the east side of the road and GWR had their station on the west side of the road, 100 metres apart from each other. Crazy. The GWR route now follows the river Amman skirting the Parc Golwg Yr Amman (on the former Amman Tinplate works site). We criss cross the river Amman a few times before arriving at Glanaman, where the railway used to be a spiders web supporting various local collieries and galvanising works, from Ammanford to Cross Hands the railway was purely commercial transporting coal from all the collieries back to Swansea. We now have only 6 miles to go to tonight’s stop at Cross Hands, but this last bit is uphill again and it was a mother of a climb. We arrived at the © Travelodge around 1630, there isn’t much here so we just chilled in the room.

Day 3- Cross Hands to Port Eynon (37 miles)

Who would expect two nice days on the trot in the British summertime, but here it is; proof we do sometimes have nice weather. Anyway I digress, we left the Cross Hands © Travelodge in the morning, a short distance from here is one end of route 47; The Swiss Valley Cycle Route, to Llanelli. The route is on the former Llanelly & Mynydd Mawr Railway (which later transfered to GWR)- it was the main artery for coal distribution from the Gwendraeth Valley, but never had a passenger sevice (except for worker trains). After a mile the route starts proper after we cross Carmarthen road, from here its largely car free. We pass through Tumble, a village developed in the 19th century to house the anthracite miners who were employed at the nearby Dynant Fach and Great Mountain collieries. To honor the workers there's a giant miner's lamp sculpture at the entrance to Mynydd Mawr Woodland Park just up the road.

It’s a pleasant downhill ride, but the views are a bit too restricted by trees for me, until we reach Cynheidre. Here there’s a new heritage railway site set up in 1999 on the old Cynheidre colliery site. Their initial phase has a half a mile running line, and for a relatively new heritage railway, they have a respectable amount of rolling stock including; a little saddle tank steam engine, two DMU’s and some coaches and a few goods wagons. Also, at Cynheidre was one of the few stations on the line. There isn’t a café here yet, and I reckon they make a mint when there is. The cycle path follows the course of the Afon Lleidi and now we can see the first reservoir with the same namesake as its feeder situated in the stunning Gwendraeth Valley. The route we're on today takes its name from the second reservoir down the valley; the Swiss Valley reservoir. At the bottom of the reservoir, the cycle path goes near to the dam, and with a little leap over a fence, and a path downhill one can get right onto the dam itself, where you can get up close and personal with the water inlet tower. At Felinfoel (an Irish sounding name, you think?) the houses and roads begin to build up signifying that we're near Llanelli. A short diversion from the cycle track is the Felinfoel Brewery, home of Double Dragon Ale, and is the oldest Brewery in Wales.

We pass a lake on our left, known by local people as Old Castle Pond or in welsh Pont Tym meaning ‘Warm Pond’. There is a large island roughly in the middle of the lake, which has foundations of a castle, but there isn't much to see from the cycle path. We turn right and pass another lake called 'Sandy Water Park' (a rather idealistic and drippy name, in the true sense), but when I researched the area, I was absolutely gobsmacked by what I found, please read the side panel titled 'Duport works'. So the water of the very park we’re now riding around was filled with millions of tears from the devastated lives of the people that used to work here, still it was worth it wasn’t it? The path now follows the coast on the Millennium coastal path, and in fairness it is nice (if a little crowded). Time for a brew, we stopped at Flanagan's; a café housed in a strange building with great views of the estuary and a good selection of continental coffees. The path directs us on to a road for a while and then back onto the coastal path with goes around in a horseshoe around the peninsular. On our right is mudflats looking like veracious veins in the sludge, we now go back inland before crossing the river Loughor. Adjacent to the road bridge is Loughor railway viaduct. There is evidence of an older bridge which can still be seen from the right side of the new bridge, in the river bed at low tide the foundations of the old bridge popup from the mire. We turn into Parc William on the Swansea side of the bridge, here, are the remnants of Loughor castle; built around 1106 during the Norman invasion of Wales.

We turn right and onto Penclawdd Road for a short while before going back onto a dedicated cycle path into Penclawdd. The area is well known for its cockle industry going back to Roman times. It had the penultimate station on the Gowerton South to Llanmorlais branch line closing to passengers in the 1930’s, a little of the platform remains in someones garden. It’s right onto Beach road (there’s no beach, just mud) and onto Llanrhidian Marsh road, famous for its salt marsh lamb. We climb into Llanrhidian village and had a schooner of ‘Gower cider’ in the 'Welcome to Town pub'. There are many tales of ships carrying cargos of gold, which were wrecked on the marshes below. Some of the wrecks still remain in the mud below and there are stories of the ghosts of the drowned sailors still haunting the Welcome to Town pub. There's about 7 miles to go (uphill) to the end of todays ride and our stop for the night at Port Eynon. Port Eynon is the most southerly point on Gower and is thought to be named after an Eleventh Century Welsh Prince (the Eynon bit, not the port). We’re staying at the Youth Hostel, South Gower’s former lifeboat station, where tragedy struck in 1916. The crew responded to a distress signal from the S.S. Dunvegan and while making her way to the vessel the lifeboat capsized several times, two crewmembers were lost overboard. Due to this tragedy, the lifeboat station closed, now the hostel enjoys unparalleled sea views from the large lounge windows which was the boat house doors.

Day 4- Port Eynon to Swansea (18 miles)

It’s back to Swansea today, but we spotted a ruin which had to be inspected before setting off for the City, the ruin is the remains of a salt house. After a quick gander we headed for ‘Horton’, a local village a short distance from Port Eynon. Then it’s onto some B roads which thankfully aren’t too busy, the Gower Peninsular is the type of place ‘if you didn’t have business there, you wouldn’t be there’ as it’s out of the way. We turned down a bridle path towards Oxwich, which was very muddy and headed for Oxwich castle. Then back up onto the A4118 where we stumble across the Gower Heritage Centre, based around a working 12th century water-mill, but after 6 miles it’s too early to have another coffee, so we stuck our noses in (as there isn’t much to see from the outside) and sauntered off. It’s right now off the main road and through Kittle and Bishopston down to Caswell bay for an ice cream and coffee. Just before we join the Mumbles coastal path, we pass Oystermouth castle on our left and Mumbles pier in the distance. Riding along the coastal path there's miles and miles of golden sand, we come across ‘The Junction’ café which once served as a railway station and power station for the Swansea and Mumbles Railway. The land between Mumbles road and Blackpill beach now houses Blackpill Lido, today full of little kids playing in the water. We cross a little bridge and pass the inevitable golf club. We are one mile from the car now, decisions, decisions. We put the bikes in the car and walk across the car park to the leisure centre for a shower, then visit the National Waterfront Museum and then the Swansea Museum.

I don’t know why I didn’t do this route before; the area is packed with industrial remnants of a bygone age, and wow! What an emotional journey it was, not specifically with us, but with the people and communities we rode through. Without intensions the theme of this ride has to be based on the now extinct coal industry. We have seen firsthand how the destruction of coal and steel industries affected the whole region, leaving villages and neighbourhoods in a void of unemployment and conflict. I must stress this was never intended to be a political blog, but it’s difficult not to report on the stories we hear going through the settlements. As I said; the wounds run deep and contrarily to popular belief, the anger isn’t healed by time, it’s passed on to each generation in turn.