I have just returned from a few days away riding in Afan Forest Park in South Wales. We all had an awesome time, it was the first time we had ridden anywhere like that and we think we did quite well considering.
On day 1 we did The Wall, then followed by an easy 10 mile loop around the valley mostly on an old railway line – very scenic. Total distance: 24 miles
On day 2 we rode Skyline. This is quite a long route with a 2km climb. The route is 29.5 miles and it started raining after 2 minutes. Visibility dropped to <100m and the rain continued for 90% of the day. But we rode on and didn't see any other cyclists or sign of human life for the whole time. 6.5 hours later we made it back to the car. 4h 11 minutes moving time. Day 3: day off to dry out and give the legs a chance. Day 4: we rode Whites Level. Fantastic. Awesome. It starts with the same climb for a couple of miles as Skyline, but we were much quicker this time partly thanks to the dry weather. Accomodation was a nice B&B called Mountain View Plus in Port Talbot. Owned by 2 friendly ladies who were very easy going with bike storage (garage) and a hose for cleaning down. This was ideally placed as only a 5 minute walk to the town centre, or 20 minute drive to Swansea. It took about 20 minutes to drive to Afan with the bikes on the roof. We will be going back we had such a great time!