Enter the dragon
You’ve done the NC500 – now it’s time to soak up Wales’ glorious Snowdonia 360
‘I’m learning to like slow. I eat more cake and see more’
In an earlier incarnation as a mile muncher I’d take my morning constitutionals in Machynlleth, enjoy the air at the Great Orme in Llandudno and after a bacon butty in the Ponderosa Café still get home for tea. Officially on an adventure bike, I’m learning to like slow. I eat more cake, drink more tea and see so much more. The latest new route, Wales’ ‘Snowdonia 360’ has just been announced – and as a first sniff in the air, I feel he’s quite cocky.
Newly formalised as a potential classic touring adventure, radically needed in these times of ‘staycations’, the 364-mile ‘Snowdonia 360’ is going head-to-head with Scotland’s already well-established North Coast 500 that loops around some top Scotch roads and scenery. I’ve ridden both, not just to see if they offer adventure – they do – but to ascertain how good a madeup route like this can be.
Welsh rare bit
Snowdonia was established as a national park in 1951, the third such designation following the establishment of the Peak District in Derbyshire and the Lake District further north. Battalions of bikers know these areas well, but as grand touring routes go, nothing was really advanced until in March 2015 when the North Highlands Initiative project launched its extraordinary 516-mile scenic ride, known locally as Scotland’s ‘Route 66’. It instantly shot up to fifth in the ‘Top 5 Coastal Routes of the World’. Does the new Snowdonia 360 deserve to become a similarly defining route in Wales? The starting point is my hometown with the unpronounceable name. West of Aberystwyth, nestled as it is on the coast of Britain beside the banks of the River Dyfi, Machynlleth is the ancient capital of Wales. Full of
‘The starting point is a town with an unpronouncable name’
friendly folk the 16th century parliament is now a teashop. Every summer weekend bikers lounge on pavement seating, tucking into a ‘Full Welsh’, cappuccino in hand, ready and prepped for their weekly run. E p the High Street, the Roastery Café serves the finest coffee in west Wales. Coffee supped, map out, sat-nav plugged in, you can start what is a circular route that can be completed in two days.
Getting on with it
The road to Aberdyfi Epron. AberdoveyEskims effortlessly along the broadening Dyfi estuary, past the place where ships used to dock alongside the Cambrian train line, a majestic rail route, as it hangs on a ledge of Celtic Britain just a stone’s throw from sliding into the sea. The Sweet Shop across from the harbour with its on-the-spot home made ice cream is The Guardian’s top 10 pick for best alfresco eating in the E E . From here you follow the route to the ‘kiss-me-quick’ seaside town of Barmouth where, hard-pressed against this western shore, there are uninterrupted views of the Llyn Peninsula. From Pembrokeshire in the south, shimmering in the shadows of a late summer warmth, the sea spreads out to form the northern edge of Cardigan Bay.
Fancy a detour?
For those feeling adventurous and who don’t mind opening and closing rusty gates, there’s a run on the map that not everyone will find. At Llanenddwyn branch off along a stream, look for Nantcol waterfalls, and signs for Cwm Bychan, then head for Talsernau and if you descend to the sea, you’ll drop down to the A496. E p there in the back roads you’ll reach the backside of Cader Idris. A thin tarmac track traverses lush fields of mountain grass, and riding briskly through areas of boulders bigger than garden sheds, it made me think that every time you stop to look around, you see an explosion of magnificence. A canvas of mute autumnal colours washed clean with plumes of spray, red kites, perhaps an eagle, and runny leaks from summit faces. It’s where the view is pinned together with trees the siEe of rushes.
Or you ride into Harlech, tea rooms on the short High Street, and park by the castle. It’s all worth looking at, because around the corner you pass by Portmeirion. This village, bang on the route, was the location for a single season of seventeen episodes of Patrick McGoohan’s ‘The Prisoner’.
‘This village was the location for The Prisoner’
Remember when ‘Rover’ chased ‘No 6’ to the edge of the sea? Architect Clough William-Ellis bought what was then the Aber IE estate because it had everything he’d hoped as a site for his architectural experiment. Steep cliffs overlook the wide sandy estuary, woods, streams and a nucleus of old buildings. The place has an architectural feel of Italianate bricolage, all made up with whatever happened to be at hand. A must-see. Parking and sustenance are where they need to be, highlighting an essential difference with Scotland’s big yin ride up there, and here. From narrow gauge railways in Festiniog, Lake Bala, Tallylin, Snowdon and Llanberis to Eip wires, rib rides, Eoos and the prosaic thrill of visiting a slate mine, Snowdonia 360 is a chalkboard of cultural heritage, with roads like drovers’ tracks guiding you to mystery lands.
‘Betws-y-Coed is the honeypot of Snowdonia’
‘It’s biking heaven, you’ll want to do another lap’
Peninsula extension
Stuffed with places to visit, there are no shortage of tea shops on high streets that are familiar to the way we like to sit near our bikes. In fact, there is nothing not to like. Blatting past steep-sided mountain walls, slate quarries, ironstone, lead and silver mines the route promotes geological time travel. Equally down the road you can park and fly. Try crossing a quarry in a bag 200ft above the ground doing a ton. Flying as fast as you do sometimes all kitted out on an R1, the eponymously named ‘world’s fastest Eip wire’ is worth a look. I always thought sitting pillion on a sportsbike was the hallmark of heroesEallegedly Eipping at breakneck speed is like that. Blaenau Ffestiniog for the wire trip, Siop Coffi on Portmadoch High Street for Meg’s famous custard pies and here we go again.
The Llyn Peninsula is already a favourite for bikers and whilst Criccieth and Pwllheli are interesting places to stop, the rest is a flat coastal plain and just not my cup of tea. So, awkward as I am in the way I travel, I sought out an exceptionally steep ride down a very long descent to the stony edge of a moonlit shore. British Pathé cinema characterised driving up this road as EClimbing the E nclimbableE and in the 1940s filmed the first car successfully ascending it. For me, the moon was obscured by rain by the time I arrived at the bottom, at the disused mining village of Nant Gwrtheyrn. Historically famous for making cobblestones for roads to accommodate the very first motor vehicle, Nant’s cobbles covered most of the city roads of E ictorian England. Shipped by steamer from Liverpool, the prosperity of this mining village bought Sunday best hats from the finest milliners in the city. Cobblestones were clearly an item of the moment as Nant Gwrtheyn, a tiny hamlet of orthodox Welsh working quarrymen and their families, soon became the most fashionable village in the country. The old terraced houses have since been converted into accommodation where groups of bikers are made exceptionally welcome.
Straying in the rain
Working on optimism is like being a force multiplier, so I rode around Anglesey in heavy rain. It didn’t workEI was miserable and wet. So on to Llandudno, a beautiful E ictorian seaside town. More cake, sit down, tram trip up the Great Orme, but what about the bike? There’s plenty of riding to be had. South of Conway the B5103 tracks parallel to the A4E0 and is altogether a better route. Deep in the valley, Betws-y-Coed is the honeypot of Snowdonia. Founded around a monastery in the 6th century it became a coaching route for the Irish Mail from London to Holyhead. Like Llandudno, there are historic colonnaded iron walkways housing bijoux cafes by the station.
Whether you stick rigidly to the route or explore the myriad mindbending meanderings that snake off it like the rivulets that run from the hills, it’s biking heaven, and the only problem with doing one lap is that you’ll want to do another.