Peaking outside the tent to watch the rain in Rhayder.

Sunday morning I woke up at 6am having desperately to go pee but it was pissing down rain; too wet for the   200 yard sprint to the loo. As one does, I laid there waiting for the rain to let up so I could make my mad dash across the camping field and not get soaked.  As soon as I returned to the tent- the rain again started pouring down making the two of us pack up the tent from within resembling a game of tangled twister. Packing the tent away wet is always disconcerting, especially since I am carrying the tent. I think I had 10 extra pounds of water on the back of my bike! All part of the adventure.

Topping out on the road Machyllenth…just before the rain.

I don’t mind riding in the rain…it is actually kind of refreshing.  Our morning ride to Machynlleth had an overall 16 mile climb in a light mist- just enough to keep you cool as you hammered up the beautifully green washed hills to the highest point on the trail. After which the sky opened up and began dumping rain- almost like the sky knew that we were done with our climb. Knowing that our late lunch with hot chocolate was waiting for us at the end of a wicked six mile descent we decided to push on despite the rain.  We found that rain drops become painful like little BB’s stinging your face at a threshold of approximately 28.5 MPH.  That didn’t stop us from descending without abandon directly into Machynlleth and to our yummy hot chocolate and bread pudding with warm custard.  Another fantastically beautiful day in Wales.

Putting on rain gear at the top – ready for the wet descent

The sweet descent.

Yummy hot chocolate.

Hot chocolate and homemade bread pudding with custard… well worth the ride in the rain