Beacons Way, Day 9

One last trig point.

Definitely overdid the booze last night - I have 20 miles to do today, and my train leaves Newport at 8pm, so I was rather hoping to set off before 9, particularly as for the first time in a week there is a chance of a pub lunch.  Instead I set off after 10, muscles protesting at being asked to work after being extensively poisoned...

Archaic signage by the canal.

My route down towards Newport turns out to be a pretty good addition to the Beacons Way, the National Park extends a fair distance towards the coast and I start by climbing up along another pleasant wooded gorge, and then tramp across Blorenge, then along a last outlying ridge of the beacons, with views back to Skirrid Fawr and Table Mountain behind, and Newport in front.  As the ridge peters out I descend down towards Pontypool, my planned lunch stop... still feeling rather rough I decide against the pub, also it is half past three and I still have some way to go.  In any case most of the pubs seem to shut, as indeed are most of the shops, Pontypool has seen better days it seems.  I manage to find some lunch in a rather odd supermarket whose stock consists almost entirely of frozen food and multipacks of soft drinks.

Newport!

After a little struggle finding the cycle route that is my way out of town - it turns out to run up on stilts above a main road - I find myself still some nine miles away from Newport at 4.30.  Time to get moving - fortunately from here the whole remaining distance is along the Brecon and Monmouth Canal, so nothing but flat or gentle downhill terrain.  It makes a nice change after the preceding days of mountains and gorges... also the rain is holding off, and in the event I make an excellent pace, reaching Newport by 7.15.  Time for a quick beer before getting the train back to London, where I then have to get the tube across town and bike home - riding at 30mph through the darkened streets seems terrifyingly fast.  And, appropriately enough, it is chucking it down with rain.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.