A bikepacking trip to Wales and back

It has only been a few weeks since our Lands End to John O Groats cycle venture, (1040 miles;14 days total) but we were already beginning to get itchy feet for our next escapade. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the team of three on this adventure as Catherine was doing a slightly more iconic ride opposed to mine and Sam’s, as she set out at the weekend to cycle from London to Paris in Under 24 hours!

Derbyshire to Llanberis (Wales)

Distance: 154.0 miles 
Elevation: 10,400Ft

I set off at 4:45 am towards Samuels house and was greeted by him still in his pyjamas, half asleep (Typical Sam with his poor timekeeping). It was that early in the morning, all I could do was laugh it off and wait until he quickly gobbled up his cereals and packed his bikepacking gear (I never understood why he didn’t have this ready the day before). I was hoping the rest of the trip would be much smoother and time efficient as this was the first trip that I left Samuel in charge as the chief navigator and organiser until I purchased a new satnav device (My satnav device gave up due to old age towards the end of Lands End To John O Groats).

After the short delay we set off at 5:30 am, the plan was to cycle to Wales in one stint which we successfully did in a leisurely 15 hours (12 hours moving time). I planned the route for Samuel; I was reassured that we didn’t go on any dodgy roads or trails (I thought this was a foolproof way of having a simple road ride to and from Wales, but as I found out on day 3, this was not the case).

Samuel faffing with his new bikepacking bag

Samuel had some fancy new bike upgrades and bikepacking gear which definitely looked the part for our adventure. The first 40 miles were hilly as we traversed alongside the west side of the Peak District going by Ashbourne, Tittesworth Reservoir, Wincle and Sutton Lands’ End (Near Macclesfield).

Once we reached the flat county of Cheshire, it became significantly striking with the increase in affluence. We were passing supercars and mansions for miles upon end. The rain began to hammer it down (we had rain for the rest of the day), so we hastily put our waterproof coat and trousers on as we had to keep everything dry as we didn’t have a spare set of cycling clothes for the trip! While we were layering up, a kind gentleman parked beside us and asked if he could have been of any assistance as he was in his estate car (He was suggesting he owned many vehicles, but it wasn’t surprising when we just scanned throughout and saw supercar following supercar). This moment placed my trust back in humanity as we didn’t know the gentleman but because he was also a fellow cyclist he was prepared to help in any way if we needed as he thought we had a mechanical. After our conversation with the man we continued our adventure, Cheshire was significantly flat compared to the Peak District but it allowed us to cover distance quickly. 

We then arrived at Mickle Trafford and had a flat, smooth trail (Chester Railway Path, part of the National Cycle Way; route 5) that took us all the way to the outskirts of Chester which was approximately 8 miles long.

Once we got off the track we continued to twiddle our legs to the town of Denbigh in Wales. This was our first perch for the day, we tucked into a quick pasta pot and packet of crisps for our lunch and then continued on our journey.

The last leg of the journey became hilly once again (Approx 40 miles to Llanberis) But this section was a continual uphill battle for 40 miles as we barely noticed the downhill sections. However, once we passed Betws Y Coed, we didn’t mind the hills as the mountainous landscapes of Snowdonia were spectacular. All we were thinking now was if we increase our pace slightly we would make it in time for a meal at Peats Eat Café (The best outdoor enthusiasts café which serves portions that make your eyes pop out for an astonishingly cheap price- a rather unsubstantiated claim, but it is an awesome café none the less with a brilliant atmosphere of every kind of outdoor sport being talked about.) 

The Snowdonian mountains in the backdrop that we soon road our bikes up

We definitely kept the view of eating at the café at the forefront of our motivation as we approached the rather long hill towards Pen Y Pass but once we conquered this we had the awesome mountain descent down towards Llanberis. Regrettably, I didn’t take any photos of this area as we were engrossed in the twisty roads and more importantly we required a hearty meal.

We made it to Llanberis, quickly arrived at the café before they stopped serving and had a big portion of sausages, chips, eggs bacon and beans plus a milkshake (A traditional beverage for myself). As much as I really wanted to consume the portion, my stomach began to play up. This is my main predicament of endurance events as I have still not mastered my nutrition for when being in the outdoors all day long (15hours on the saddle to be precise) Nevertheless, I didn’t have any saddle sores so the circumstances could have been worse.


It was 9:30 and we still had to find a bivvy spot for the night, I found a hedge next to Llanberis lake and we forced our way through the branches. The locality was charming at first but we had to be quiet, discreet and effectively engage in a hide and seek game with a ranger who was doing patrols throughout the night to force out wild campers like ourselves (up until 2:30 am). Fortunately, we were not detected, but we didn’t have a great night sleep in our bivvy bag. We didn’t take our sleeping bag for the voyage as the previous few weeks were much warmer when we were sleeping on our Lands End To John O Groats adventure. This was  somewhat a large regret, we were uncontrollable shivering and didn’t have sufficient sleep to enable our bodies to recuperate ready for our next outlined day of cycling. 

The final light over Llanberis lake

Day 2 (Rest day

This was Sams first experience sleeping in a bivvy bag and I hoped it wasn’t his last one. I made the conscious decision that we would have a rest day by the lake so we weren’t too exhausted for our ride back home. This was the right decision as we both looked sleep-deprived and fatigued from the previous day so instead of our long bike ride the second best thing we like to do is look at gear shops and as Llanberis is jam-packed with fancy shops we spent the daydreaming over kit and topping up our fuel levels with the repeated journeys to the food shop. 

Rest day overlooking llanberis lake and the Snowdonian mountains

Due to the expected stormy weather for the night, we were determined to find a more sheltered spot for our second bivvy spot for the trip. We didn’t want to be shivering or to be sleeping in wet clothes for the whole night. We were unsuccessful at finding a local spot for the night so we made the decision to have a luxury night sleep in Bens Bunkhouse which looked over Dinorwigs hydroelectricity station. This was a brilliant decision as we could chill out in the warmly sheltered bunkhouse while we looked out of the window seeing the stormy weather brew. 

Day 3 

We had our cup of tea and a whole box of cereal and peddled back down towards Llanberis. We watched Samuels parents do the Big Brutal swim at Llanberis lake(his dad did a remarkable 10k and his mum did a respectable 5k swim) this definitely did look brutal and rather chilly. I don’t know which was worse, swimming in the lake or our bike ride that had continuous rain for the trip. 

The Big Brutal swim- Competitiors entering the Llanberis lake to warm up (or to shiver)

We then set off at 10:15 am and headed back home. We didn’t have any plans where we would sleep but due to the time we set off, we expected to split the ride into two days. The rain was hammering it down once again, we climbed up the Llanberis pass (A4086) towards Pen Y pass and carefully descended through the mountainous pass towards Capel Curig and then Betws Y Coed. I was certainly thankful we had wide tyres and disc brakes on our bike as the weather was just horrific. Once we reached Betws Y Coed, We reached a brutal 1.2 mile climb (The Capel Garmon road climb). I shot off from sam in the attempt to capture a picture while he ground his way up the hill but it was that physically draining I needed to top my energy fuels up with a few jelly babies before I would bonk on the bike which I really didn’t want to happen this early on. As we regrouped, the ride changed for the worst as the tarmac instantly began to run out and we soon met another monster of a climb but to make it even more challenging this one was offroad, it was incredibly slippery and none of us was prepared for any off-road sections for the day as I reassured us both that the rout would be a steady road ride home…how wrong I was…curetnly this was the second hill that has ever defeated me on a bike and both of the hills have been in wales…the terrain really is brutal but at least both hills were off the road at over 30%! I powered up the hill and waited for Sam as he hauled his fully loaded bike up the hill. 

Slippy conditions led to Hike A Bike

The tarmac path ended

Thankfully we then met a road, I presumed the path we were in was a derelict road that had just not been updated on the maps but I was wrong once again as after some lovely remote country roads we approached another bridleway. This was a superb muddy track with multiple gates that occurred every few minutes which we had to try and open (the farmer definitely made these gates sheep proof as we turned to just climbing over them as we hopelessly attmepted to open them) 

The numerous gates 

We soon realised why the gate was hard to open as we met some very inquisitive cows that began to shew us off out of their field. However dangerous this section may have been, the area was brilliant. We had the paths to our selves and even had a small stream crossing that we had to tackle our way through (this was a first for Samuel; he didn’t even fall in which was a shame!) The terrain was definitely leg/energy zapping and our speed certainly represented our fatigue from the previous day but we couldn’t make any diversions to improve our chances of getting home quicker as we situated in a peaceful area off the beaten track, so we decide to stick to our route wherever it decided to take us as we had food supplies on our bike ad our bivvy bag in case we just had to sleep in a hedge somewhere) as we still kept having off road sections, Samuel admitted that he tinkered with the route that I sent him which he accidentally made it go from a gentle road ride to a full-on mountain bike route.)

Camera set up at the ready incase he fell in...unfortunatley he didn'!

We came off the road and gently span towards Llangynhafal. We had a quick spell of dry weather and decided to fill our water bottle up at the white horse restaurant as a safety measure in case we powered on throughout the day and came across no water bottle filling supplies (I did have my water filter as a back up if we needed to drink out of streams) . 

Samuel beggining to regret the route as we became isolated

We then carried on up another steep hill beyond St Cynhaal’s church. This was steep and halfway up the route turned us off the road onto a bridleway…typical…the rain began to pour again which made the ride even more difficult as we struggled to get traction on the grass and mud. Initially, I was looking forward to this section as it looked relatively smooth with a gradual gradient but it soon stepped up in difficulty. I tried to stay on my bike for as long as possible but you knew it was impossible to ride when you get off your bike and you are pushing the bike above your shoulder (approx. 45% gradients). 

We were astonishingly remote and proceeded to hike our bike for over an hour uphill. We were getting exhausted pushing our bikes up the mountainous terrain but then we made it to the top of Moel Famau. We were both looking forward to getting back on the roads but this wouldn’t be for another few hours but once we reached the top of Moel Fmaoa the views were stunning. All we had now was to ride down the other side of the hill…well, that’s what we thought but it was as steep as what we had been up so it required us to manoeuvre our bike down the other side while walking with it as it was too steep and rock for a mountain bike never mind a gravel bike! 

The top of Moel Famau 

This was beginning to get quite demoralising as we had been out in the countryside for over eight hours and we had only travelled a mere 50 miles. The terrain was absolutely bonkers and the persistent bad weather didn’t help the situation either. We made the decision after reaching the road that we would just go off Google Maps and find the quickest route home via the roads. We knew this could lead us onto some very sketchy fast A roads and dual carriageways but we really didn’t fancy any more off-roading. This option at first didn’t even work as it directed us onto some more un-cyclable paths due to the polished rocks that would immediately send us over out handlebars as we attempt to pedal. Therefore we had another 30 min of pushing our bikes to the next road…this really was an adventure and a memory that we would look back on as it was not going in our favour. Eventually, I think google maps took pity on us though as it thankfully kept us on the roads for a substantial period of time. We were running low on energy at this point as we hadn’t eaten any substantial food all day and we had spent many hours walking our bike up gigantic hills. Therefore, we were on the lookout for a shop before they all closed and then we could reach a decision whether we would call it a day and sleep in a bush or power on throughout the evening to get a few more miles under our belt. 

We stocked up on snacks, water plus a sandwich at Queensferry near Shotton and decided to power on for a few more hours as we still had 90  miles until we approached our hometown. Currently, we had covered 60 miles and been on the bike for 9 hours it was currently 7 pm and we continued our trip into the darkness. This was a hard slog as we soon had to out our lights on and cycle in the dark. But we did reach Garden city where we had a long trail for 8 miles that we cycle on day 1 of our trip. This was brilliant as we were begging to get pretty tired on the bike so it meant we could put our head down and cycle without worrying about traffic as we uncontrollable snaked our way along the path.

Two further hours later,  we were shattered, it was 11 pm and we just made it out of Hartford. We began to search for a reasonable bivvy spot for the night that was out the way of public sight. Once we found a sufficient field and hedge to shelter behind, we quickly slid into our bivvy bag to get some well-needed kip.

Day 4

At least he's smiling when he woke up this time!

This bivvy spot was a much more comfortable experience than day 1 of our trip, I think our fatigue bodies helped us overcome the cold night as we were just shattered. But because we powered on throughout last night we were running out of food supplies and needed a substantial breakfast to fuel us for the remainder 60miles to get us back to our home. 

All that was on our mind was FOOD, we were hanging on for 17 miles until we came across a superb community ran a shop in Gawsworth. We had a toastie, a cup of tea and a homemade pie for breakfast. We were famished and I think the voluntary shopkeepers saw that as we kept running back in the shop for extra food in the endeavour to waken and give us an energy boost that we were struggling to find. 

After half an hour we had a kick of energy, this was vital as we were beginning to re-enter the hilly Peak District. We weren’t hanging on but we weren’t finding the hills comfortable compared to normal, I was well aware of the terrain we had ahead of us as we rode on the brilliant gravel path that ran beside Rudyard Lake. We had the steep hills of Leek and Hartington that we had to grind our way up. 

Our legs were definitely beginning to feel debilitated, but as we began to get close to home our brains overcame the pain and we powered our way through to the end. 

We had made it, the tour will definitely be a memory we won't forget. Hopefully, Samuel isn’t put off navigating and bivvying (his first experience for both). It was clearly a challenge but it was still great fun to be out in the countryside on our bikes again after our Lands End to John O Groats trip.

Overall trip stats

Distance: 304 miles
Elevation: 21775 ft ascent (many off-road sections made the elevation appear exceedingly difficult)