Brrr!!

This is what we woke up to in Glynneath today, a layer of hailstones a couple of centimetres thick. It was kind of slippy so my bike stayed in the shed, nowhere else had this layer, including the rest of the village, and as the blue sky promised it was to be a lovely day, plenty of sunshine, with only a couple of showers of sleet.

My worry is that it'll be icy and slippery tomorrow, when I have to return to work. I'm still a big coward of icy roads and paths. I've swapped so have to be in by 08.00, not my usual 05.30. I'm hoping things will be clear and dry by 06.00., when I have to start the trip.

Fingers crossed!

Yesterday I went for a ride on the Subway, around the local area. I took quite a few photographs, but that is when my lack of expertise came through, and big time. I went out as early as I could, just as the light was dawning in the valley. But it remained not light enough for the next hour or so, and my pictures came out too dark to show any of the detail, that I wanted to show. So I've only uploaded the best of a bad lot.

This one above shows the pedestrian/cyclist underpass, below the A465, from the bridge on Chain Walk ( must be a history to that name )

On the same bridge looking at the A465 as it rises, on its built up embankment, to cross above the underpass.

Just a nice shot of the river, well it would have been, if I'd known what I was doing photographically, as it heads towards one of the A465 flyovers.

This is some waste ground between the river and the A465, note the surface water, which illustrates how much rainfall we've had these past days and nights.

Same waste ground looking in the other direction.

I thought this could be a lovely shot, but the light let me down. It shows an old rail bridge, with footpath, which in its heyday, helped carry coal from Merthyr down to Swansea docks.

The same bridge looking straight across it, the rails and sleepers are still in place, I think the footpath must have been added later, which judging by the sign, hasn't lasted as well.

Enough said.

Haven't much time to write.....

So I'll be quick.

Got called in for an overtime shift last Saturday. The forecast was dreadful, but I went on my Subway 1 anyway. I expected to get drenched, however, the ride into work wasn't anywhere as bad, as that. Had to put up with a bit of a headwind, while travelling down the valley, but hardly got wet.

While at work, the weather worsened all through the day, just as the weathermen had forecast, so by the time came to make the trip home, there were gale force winds and deluges of heavy rain, blowing and falling. The lads at work all agreed I must be mad to travel home on the bike in such weather. Kerwin even offered to drive me and the Subway home. I thanked them all for their concern, insisting I'd cycled home before in even worse conditions.

The winds were fierce, but in fact were mainly at my back, and being well prepared gearwise, my beanie hat, goretex workcoat, waterproof trousers, and neoprene overshoes, all kept the rain at bay. The ride was fantastic, I don't believe I've ever experienced such a tailwind before. It made cycling back up the valley, and particularly the hill at Aberdulais, a breeze, if you'll excuse the pun. It was almost like surfing the wind.


Normally the return trip from work to home takes me an hour and a half, Saturday I did it in 75 minutes, with no extra effort on my part, it was all down to mother nature.

Fantastic, cheers.

This is me in the local paper, fame at last.

Sadly, you can't believe everything that you read, the reporter embellished the facts a little. To date I've only lost 1 and a half stone in weight, not 3 stone. However, I do try to commute to and from work, every day. Since starting to cycle I feel great, and would recommend it to everyone.

The picture and story appeared in the local "Neath Guardian" newspaper, the reporter, to my amazement, had discovered my blog, and sent me an email, asking if I'd mind him writing a piece about me. This happened just a few days after my fall on ice, my smile in the picture, is really a grimace of pain, as my shoulder was still very sore.

Anyway , I just thought I'd let you all see.

Despite very windy and wet conditions out today, I went for a ride on the Subway 1, for the fourth day on the trot. I'd promised a former neighbour of ours I'd call up to see him. Up is the right word, he now lives in Aberaman, a village the other side of Aberdare. Only about 8-10 miles away, but quite a climb up out of the Neath valley, over Rhigos, through Hirwaun, and then dropping down into the Cynon valley.

It's only recently, back in November, that I'd first climbed all the way up the Rhigos bank, as it's called locally, and then after a good couple of hours riding. This morning I thought about and decided against doing a warm-up, like a swift ride through the village. Big mistake, I had to stop three times on the climb, making my excuse, to myself, that I wanted to take a photograph or two. I managed OK for the rest of the trip, and spent an hour with Peter McNemin, chatting about old times etc.. It was good to see him again.

This is where I made my first breathless stop, probably a third of the way up the aforementioned Rhigos bank, looking back down the hill. Below is a pretty waterfall, that I "had" to take a picture of, for my second.

While this one below, is taken from close to the top of the Rhigos bank, looking back down and across the Neath valley, please excuse the raindrops on the photo.

This one isn't a very good shot, but the best I could do from the roadside. The houses that are peaking through the trees, are Pontneathvaughan, or Pontneddfechan in Welsh, a small village about 2 miles up the valley from Glynneath, Cwm Nedd in Welsh.

Another shot from the top, looking north towards the Black mountains, if my geography is correct.

All in all it was a good morning's ride, I left at about 09.30, got to Pete's at roughly 10.45, spent an hour over a couple of cups of tea chatting, he also told me a few things about this digital camera of mine, that I know next to nothing about. Consequently, I now can store vast quantities of photos on it, instead of being limited to only 12. The trip back home was uneventful, but I did get very wet, and I discovered a new bicycle path, the Cynon trail, which I will need to explore in the future.

So a nice morning and I learnt something as well, to take the time to warm-up, before going straight into a climb, as well as better knowledge of my camers, cheers.

Just another local ride...

The following are various views of my trip today, showing the type of cycle path I was on, and the restored lock gates, at different locations between Cwmgwrach and Resolven. Also a solitary swan that has taken up residence on this part of the canal, waiting hopefully for a mate to chance by.

This shot on the left shows the canal on the left side of the bicycle/towpath, with the river Neath down on the right, beneath the trees. The engineers who built this canal were very skilled, I find it fascinating travelling alongside it, seeing the various water feeds flowing into, and excess water channels flowing from it, all in order to keep the canal at its optimum depth/draught, to facilitate the barge traffic, now sadly gone.

Waited till 09.00 to go out on the Subway 1, took my digital camera with me, intending to take some photos. The decision to leave so late was simply that I wanted daylight, not only for the photo taking, but also, so that I was plainly visible to traffic. I was unsure which way I'd be heading, and just decided to follow my nose, at an easy pace.

Here's the Suway 1 ready to roll.


First, I rode down through the village, past Cwmgwrach washery, where the mine seems to be expanding, increasing production now that the price of coal has increased so much. Same too, for Unity mine, on the other side of the valley, coal trains are starting, so we're told, some time this month, to transport it down to Swansea, two trains a day. That is good news for this part of the world, in these times of recession.

While I cycled I began again to think of the history of this valley, of which I know so little. When coal was king, as they say, these two mines were big producers, employing hundreds of miners, now at a guess they employ perhaps dozens. But it was coal that built the villages of the Neath valley.


I'd very much like to study the history of the valley, time is the key though.
Getting back to my ride, just below the washery I took the cycle path down towards the canal, below is a view of it.


Before joining the canal I took a short detour, across the old iron railbridge over the Neath river. I took a picture of the bridge, built to transport the coal from the washery, to the railhead on the other side of the valley, or to the coalbarges on the canal.




You can see the old rails still in place. And here's a shot of the Neath river as it flows under the old bridge towards the motorway bridge just to the south, old and new together, along with a bicycle path to view it all, I have to admit I'm very fortunate in where I live.

While on the bridge I met Terry an old acquaintance of mine, who was out walking his dog. He told me that he'd seen my photo in the local paper, something I've yet to mention in this blog, I think, but my memory is likely to play tricks with me, it's really bad these days. I'll have to check back, before risking repeating myself. We both agreed how lucky we are to live in this part of the world. Terry's retired now, these past 5 years, and likes to keep active walking his dog for miles, up to the hills either side or along the valley floor and canal.

I explained that I wanted to take my bike up into the forestry roads, on the valley sides, all the way up to the top, where there is a rough road that is used by stone lorries, carrying loads from a quarry. I asked him if he knew how to get there, he told me he often walked his dog up there, and gave me directions. We said our goodbyes, and I cycled on to the canal path, while Terry continued his walk with his dog. It was nice to meet and chat awhile with Terry, we live perhaps a mile from eachother, but I hadn't seen him for years. That surely says something about how we're all isolated, in many ways right within our own communities. Few of us get out there and do things within our communities, we're all too busy, earning a living, watching TV, playing computer games, or TYPING ON THE INTERNET, so I'm just as guilty I suppose. A little bit more on that subject, later, if I've time, and of course remember.

Yet again, I digress, my ride continued through a very muddy section of the canal towpath, when I noticed a gate, normally padlocked, was open, leading away to the farmland to the left of the canal. It's tarmaced, and I have been down it a couple of times before, but had never taken any pictures. So I followed the road, as it led under the motorway, shown above, then became a rough track running parallel to the motorway, travelling to a couple of large ponds. These two ponds were created along with the motorway, manmade, when the earth was dug up from the valley floor to produce the embankments that the motorway is built on. Thinking of it now, what a waste, that soil so rich and fertile, from a mature river valley floor, thousands of years old. What would so many gardeners pay for such fertility now? But alas it's gone never to be replaced.

Very often Elizabeth and I stop to look at these ponds from a layby, next to the motorway, otherwise known as the A465, or Heads of the Valleys road, crossing as the name suggests, the heads of the Rhondda, Cynon, Taff, Rhymney and Usk valleys of South Wales. We look at the ducks, and a pair of resident swans, which we are very fond of. They've been in residence for a couple of years now. The ponds are used quite a bit now for adventure sports, waterski-ing, jetski-ing, canoeing etc.. It seems to be a developing business.

There's a gate, usually locked, that opens into the field that contains these ponds. Today it was open, with a security guard on duty. As I approached he stepped into the gateway, to ask me what my business was. I asked him if I could cycle on down the track to view the ducks on the ponds, and maybe take some photos. He replied that it was OK to do so, and in future if the gates were locked it would be OK to leave the bike at the gate, climb over and walk around the ponds. I thanked him, and pedalled on the couple of hundre yards or so to the pond shores.

This is a view of the largest pond, but at the end of the gravel track. I wanted to go further, but the ground was very wet, from two days of heavy rain, and my cycle shoes simply aren't up to walking in squelchy mud. Of course the ducks and swans reside at the far end, so no chance of taking some pictures of them, oh well.

There is a small isthmus that seperates the two ponds, today there were a team of divers, three in all, preparing to "check things out," as the security guard put it? When I took this photo they were perhaps 50 feet to my left, on the above mentioned isthmus, they totally ignored my friendly "Good morning" greeting, consequently I chose to pretend they weren't there, also.


This is a shot, looking back up the valley at the smaller pond, you can see the tailend of one of the 4x4's, three in all, used by the divers.

I asked the security guard how deep these ponds were, he reckoned the smaller was 11 metres, and the larger 17 metres deep. That's pretty deep, and must convert to hundreds of thousands of tons of earth dug up to support the A465. I said earlier what a waste, but the resulting scenes aren't too bad, are they? Considering also that the A465 was only about 50 yards to my left, when I took this shot.


This last picture shows the scene from the top end of the smaller pond, looking down the valley. You can see the thin isthmus that seperates the ponds, and that black dot on the right of the isthmus, is one of the divers' 4x4's. If any of you have the facility to magnify these shots, as I seem to have when I look at your blog shots, you will see alot more detail.

By this time it had started to rain lightly, so I cycled to the left of this shot, along a very soft dirt track.


This is what I found, I'd never noticed this old building before, hidden as it is amongst some trees. It appears to be very old, the stonework is very thick, and obviously has been abandoned for a very long time. The security guard, told me, when I asked if he knew anything about it, he'd been told it was the remains of an old pub.

Which brings us back to history, particularly of this valley where I live. It is all around us, yet we fail to see , enquire about , just plain ignore, or are simply too busy to appreciate it.

I heard a fitting saying recently, it went:-

" ....to forget the past is to have no future..."

That about sums it up I think, I just wish I had the time to find out more. And another thing I must, have to improve my typing skills, it's taken me 2 hours to get all this down, and I've so much more to say. For now it will have to wait for another time.


This is the canal basin at Resolven, it's a dead end here, but the canal used to continue, unbroken straight to Port Tennant in Swansea. I presume that there used to be tunnel for the barges to pass under the road, at the far end of the basin you can see where the water now flows under the road via the two arches.

Christmas almost here, but....

I'm nights now up to and including Christmas eve, so not really getting into the Christmas spirit. The good news is, however, is that, for the last 3 days, I've commuted to and from work on the Subway 1, my shoulder has been a bit stiff, but otherwise the trips have gone well and were very enjoyable. No chance of any pictures though, it's pitch black when I leave in the mornings, and the same when I get home.

Last week, sorry 3 weeks ago, on the 1st December, I had to go to Bristol for a medical, part of the rules if you're a signaller, like me. I was given a clean bill of health thankfully, then the very next day, I had my fall on the way to work, and was off for a full week. Strange how things work out.

But now the cycling seems to be going very well again, as I've felt very strong on my commutes, though today I'll be taking the car, as I'm feeling rather stiff, all over in fact, everywhere else is coming out in sympathy with the old shoulder and knee. Anyway I need to be home early tomorrow, as Elizabeth needs me to take her shopping, for all the last odds and ends, needed for Christmas, in the Curtis household. I'm hoping a day's shopping with Elizabeth will get me in the mood for Christmas, because it doesn't feel at all Christmasy to me yet.

From bad to worse,.....nurse!

I had alot of sympathy for Doug, mnbicyclecommuter, in Minnesota, when I read about his unfortunate accident on some ice in Duluth, I have even more now. I don't know if reading that post has had some sort of effect, but I've now fallen because of ice, twice since. The first one I reported in this blog, in my last post, sadly I have to report another.

Yesterday, Monday my pre-commute to work began with an inspection of the outside street and path, a little frosty, but nothing to be concerned about. Then I packed all my gear, and went to the shed to get my Subway 1, by this time I could feel it had started to rain a little, so I went back inside and changed my long trousers for waterproof ones. By 05.30, I didn't need to be in work till 07.30, I was riding through the village on my way down the Neath valley, within 10 minutes the rain had stopped.

The ride was great, didn't see any cars on the old road at all, and I was enjoying myself, even got up that stretch of hill I hate, without too much bother. My ride continued as normal into Neath itself. I decided to cut through Morrison's car park, that's a large supermarket in this part of the world, I've done it loads of times before. I crossed the entire car park with no problem, and as I thought no hint of slipperyness or ice, then as I left the car park to go into the pedestrianised area of the town, the next thing I knew I was smacking into the ground.

I think it was shock that made me lie still for a few seconds, my leg was hurting, and my first thought was, ' have I broken my leg?' , then ' had anyone seen me fall?' Though my leg was hurting I decided it wasn't broken, and gingerly got to my feet to discover my left shoulder was really painful. I got my bike up, and despite the pain, again probably because of shock, I started to um and ah about continuing on to work. Like this I dithered for, I guess 5 minutes or so.

Finally, I rang my work, told them what had happened, and that I wouldn't be coming in. Then I rang home, because I knew Tierloch would be up, getting ready for work, it was now 06.20. Well then I spent 20 minutes shivering, and getting more and more uncomfortable with both a stiff and sore left knee, and a really painful left shoulder. It was a great relief to see Tierloch drive round the corner into the car park.

We loaded the Subway 1 onto the bikerack, while Tierloch told me of the numerous car accidents he'd seen on route, and also how he'd almost lost control driving because of ice, on the roads and especially when he came into Morrison's car park. I just couldn't understand it, I hadn't seen a sign or felt any kind of slipping or sliding.

I soon saw for myself that there was a problem with ice, in the form of another very forlorn and sorry looking cyclist, pushing his bicycle along the pavement. Let's hope he didn't have far to go, anyway Tierloch safely transported my bike and I home, where I've stayed since, save for a trip up to the surgery yesterday afternoon. The doctor said nothing was broken, but both my left knee and shoulder had been badly bruised and traumatised, they would get more painful for a few days, and that I'd need a week's rest, stay off work, for them to get back to normal, and to go back if things didn't improve. She gave me some painkillers, which have helped immensely.

Today my knee has swollen even more, and is difficult to bend, but, my shoulder has eased a little, I have more movement in it, but if I try to do anything it really hurts, and makes me shout " ow".

Since Tierloch put it in the shed, I haven't looked at the Subway, when he took it off the bikerack I noticed that the chain was off the cog and derailleur, I just hope no real damage has been done. Having said that, I am very reticent about cycling in this weather again, and concerned about having to leave off commuting to work through the winter.

Which leads me to the big question, I need to put to all you winter commuters out there,

" How do you all stay upright, most of the time, because I assume the occasional fall is inevitable, during icy conditions?"

I'd be grateful for all your advice.

Where's my nurse, "Nurse!"

Saw it coming, but couldn't take evasive action.

The weather's turned much colder, these last couple of days -3, and -6 degrees yesterday and today respectively. I've been off work, this weekend, no commutes, and so decided to cycle my usual loop down and up the valley. Getting up at about 06.30, late for me, I was out and riding down the valley by 07.00, it was still dark but the sky was lightening from black to light blue, and the stars disappearing, as the sun rose behind me.

Normally I wear baggy shorts, with my knees bare, but discretion being the better part of valour, and to combat the cold, which has been getting into the old knees of late, I wore some work trousers over them. On top of that, my left knee has been giving me some irritation, this past week or so, a strain I suppose. I've always had trouble with my left knee, since my soccer and rugby playing days, I badly strained the capsular ligament when I was sweet 16, which left a permanent weakness. Whenever I've had an accident since, it always seems to be my left knee that takes a direct hit, ouch, in fact double ouch!

The ride was going great, and I was enjoying the icy air, and the solitude. I'd brought my camera along to get a few shots, the strange names of local farms, the remains of old building long disinhabited, and any wildlife I might happen upon. It was too dark on the way down, but light enough on the trip back up the valley. Making my first stop just outside Ynysarwed, I was going to take a photo of a farm gate, with its unusual name, Bwlchfaron. I clicked, but nothing, no flash, no red or green light, the camera seemed dead? I had no idea what was wrong, so gave up and resigned myself, both to putting in new batteries later on, and not being able to take any of the pictures, the occasional reader of this blog, might like to peruse. That's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes, I suppose.

So I continued my ride back up the valley to Glynneath, stopped at McDonalds, had a cappocino with plenty of sugar, my feet were freezing at this stage, foolishly I hadn't bothered to put on my new overshoes. Fortunately the coffee, and the warmth of the restaurant brought them back to life, ready for the last mile and a half home.

As normal I set off heading toward and then through the village, taking a side road that runs parallel with the main road, to avoid traffic, not that there's much early on a Saturday morning. Whilst turning into this side road, I could see ice, not just frost on the road a couple of yards ahead, not that I was travelling fast, but it was too late to take evasive action. First the front wheel went, then the back wheel, both in different directions, or so it felt.

Fortunately, because I had recognised it was ice ahead, I was prepared a little, and so with wheels striving in different directions, I was able to throw myself one way, while at the same time heaving the bike in the other. I still managed to hit the ground with a veritable thump, but because I was wearing long trousers, my Network Rail vi-vis coat and my gloves, I was able to get away with just a sore elbow. Plus the Subway 1 came off unscathed, so all in an experience with no cost, other than my damaged ego.

It might have been a different story had it still been dark, and I had no inkling that ice was in front of me.