Last Monday morning, 30th September, I cycled home from work, after my night shift, and because of my very strange, but at the same time, very nice roster, I have not been back since. In fact I’m not due for another shift until next Wednesday, and Thursday, for two day shifts. I think I’ve mentioned before on this, very rarely visited blog of mine, that I haven’t done alot of cycling, except for my commuting, to and from work. Sadly that has been the case since last Monday, no commute, so no cycling, until yesterday.

I was itching to get out, hadn’t been getting up till after 08.00 a.m., which is extremely late for me, anyway I was up at 06.30., and waiting for my eldest son, Keiron jnr to join me for a ride. The weather forecast was poor, wet and windy, that didn’t matter at all to me, but it wasn’t until 07.30 that we finally set off. We had to take it sedately, because junior doesn’t bike much, and the ride had to be quite short.

We ended up doing 16 miles or so, cycling first up to Pontneathvaughan, back through the village, up to Cwmgwrach, back into Glynneath, down along the canal, then on the old road to Resolven and back home. We got thoroughly soaked, but enjoyed, especially me. The Subway 8 was much lighter, without the 15-20 lbs of gear in pannier bags, that I carry on my commute, so getting up the hills, ( not that there are any of real significance, on the rides I chose to make ), was alot easier, and my legs felt good, particularly with the slower pace. It took us an hour and a half, from start to finish, so the pace wasn’t that slow, when you take into consideration the stops we made, to shelter from the rain a couple of times, to show Keiron where I saw the otters, and to look at the river and waterfalls etc..

All in all a good ride.

This is the river Neath at Abergarwood.